Mass Confusion at the Carrefour

I have been comfortable grocery shopping at the local Carrefour for months now.  I didn’t like the layout of the store but I knew where everything was.  I could make a trip during the week and be in and out in under 30 minutes!  When you can’t read or speak the language, you really depend on stuff to be where it’s supposed to be!  There is an issue with them keeping up with expat stuff though.  One week its there, the next week it’s gone. Sometimes it takes a few weeks to be back in stock. But unlike the US, Turkey prefers local and not exports. I am highly impressed that they have been expanded their expat foods.  When we first moved here, we were told that Migros was the best place to find our kind of food, but it is EXPENSIVE!  I was surprised the first time we went we spent 500 TL and still had to spend another 150TL at the Carrefour to make up for what they didn’t have. Btw… that’s for a week worth of food!  Now that Carrefour is carrying the things that we bought from Migros, we are officially a Carrefour family!

With all that being said, after being away on holiday, THEY CHANGED THE WHOLE STORE!!!!  And it wasn’t just  we left and came back and the store was different.  No, it started small.  The alcohol moved…not once but THREE TIMES!  Walls started to appear.  Last weekend, when we did our grocery shopping, I was a dumbfounded lump of confusion.  I couldn’t function!  Doesn’t help that I was sick and the place was packed, but I couldn’t focus to find what I needed.  And its not like I can just ask anyone.

Since our shopping trip Saturday was a big fat FAIL, I went back today to pick up our missing stuff.  I went early so it would be me, Nate, and the old people.  I always loved going to Hyvee at home on Tuesday morning.  If you could get past the annoyance of the driving old people in the parking lot, it was a calm trip. And whatever kid was totally spoiled.  Today, I made the decision I was going to walk every aisle.  Truthfully, the new layout makes much more sense and is more what our grocery back home was like.  Before, it was like a maze!  I have some odds and ends that I’d like to find.  Like someone slammed the plug of the GPS charger in the center console, so I need one of those.  I needed to pick up dog food to donate to our locate shelter (which has 2000 dogs for adoption!!).  I need some new sponges to keep working on removing grout. Another story.  Just random stuff that I might miss other days.

So after my complete freak out, today I have found peace with the Carrefour.