I know I've been out of touch for the last few days so I wanted to take a few minutes to catch you up. But before I jump in I wanted to let you know that although I likely won't be posting any pictures today, I'll try to figure out how to do so over the next couple of days. Worst case scenario I'll post a bunch of pics and videos of some of the scenes I'll be describing to you today once I get home to the US later this week. I've felt a bit handicapped this last week since my computer died and even though I have a loaner it's capabilities are inhibited. I must say that my iPad (which I'm using to write this post) has been a life saver. Thank you, McGladrey, for giving these out to your employees earlier this year - what a difference it's made! It's also what I use to take all of the pics and videos that I post, yet somehow I can't figure out how to upload them directly from the iPad!
Before I forget: as I've glanced back over past blogs I've seen a ton of typos. Sorry about that! Please just mentally spell check as you read - I obviously type too fast sometimes without stopping to re-read.
Grocery shopping:
(note: the blog below cuts off, so I'll continue it on the next one)
One thing that I love to do when visiting another country is wander around the grocery store. It's so interesting to me to see the types of food available, the brands that are popular, and the flavors of things that are available. I'm sure that many of you have heard of the "Big Mac index", which includes comparing the price of a Big Mac in different countries to get a feel for the cost of living differentials. Well, I also believe there's a "Snack food Index" that tells you a whole lot about the flavor preferences of a population. As an example, I've noticed that Lay's potato chips are common here and the flavors that are most prevalent seem to be Masala (mixture of Indian spices), Tomato Ketchup (yup, that's what I said!) and now Sour Cream & Chives is growing in popularity. In other parts of Asia there are a lot of shrimp and/or seafood flavored chips. Wasabi peanuts seem popular across the board! Looking at this stuff has always been of interest to me, dating back to my teenage years when I first started traveling internationally. But now that I spend a lot of time working with a client that is a snack food manufacturer, it's even more interesting to me.
Anyway, on Thursday night the wife of one of my colleague's was going shopping, and they knew this was of interest to me, so I tagged along. As you can imagine, land/space are at a premium in India. So the grocery store we went to was in an outdoor shopping center that has all kinds of stores and restaurants - an outrageously priced fresh produce only shop, various shoe, clothing and home goods/appliance stores, a newly opened "the Body Shop", bakeries and traditional sweets shops and restaurants of various ethnicities. The grocery store itself was on two stories. There are no carts, only limited baskets. Everything is SO crammed in that there would be no way a cart would fit in there. I would say the width of the aisle was probably the length of my leg (and at 5'7" that's not very long/wide!) There is barely room to move as people are trying to maneuver to get the things they are looking for. I was surprised at all of the options available. Divya explained that there is demand for imports as well as Indian brands, so
Before I forget: as I've glanced back over past blogs I've seen a ton of typos. Sorry about that! Please just mentally spell check as you read - I obviously type too fast sometimes without stopping to re-read.
Grocery shopping:
(note: the blog below cuts off, so I'll continue it on the next one)
One thing that I love to do when visiting another country is wander around the grocery store. It's so interesting to me to see the types of food available, the brands that are popular, and the flavors of things that are available. I'm sure that many of you have heard of the "Big Mac index", which includes comparing the price of a Big Mac in different countries to get a feel for the cost of living differentials. Well, I also believe there's a "Snack food Index" that tells you a whole lot about the flavor preferences of a population. As an example, I've noticed that Lay's potato chips are common here and the flavors that are most prevalent seem to be Masala (mixture of Indian spices), Tomato Ketchup (yup, that's what I said!) and now Sour Cream & Chives is growing in popularity. In other parts of Asia there are a lot of shrimp and/or seafood flavored chips. Wasabi peanuts seem popular across the board! Looking at this stuff has always been of interest to me, dating back to my teenage years when I first started traveling internationally. But now that I spend a lot of time working with a client that is a snack food manufacturer, it's even more interesting to me.
Anyway, on Thursday night the wife of one of my colleague's was going shopping, and they knew this was of interest to me, so I tagged along. As you can imagine, land/space are at a premium in India. So the grocery store we went to was in an outdoor shopping center that has all kinds of stores and restaurants - an outrageously priced fresh produce only shop, various shoe, clothing and home goods/appliance stores, a newly opened "the Body Shop", bakeries and traditional sweets shops and restaurants of various ethnicities. The grocery store itself was on two stories. There are no carts, only limited baskets. Everything is SO crammed in that there would be no way a cart would fit in there. I would say the width of the aisle was probably the length of my leg (and at 5'7" that's not very long/wide!) There is barely room to move as people are trying to maneuver to get the things they are looking for. I was surprised at all of the options available. Divya explained that there is demand for imports as well as Indian brands, so
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