Supermarket Sweep Update….
Introducing Rami Levi….
Rami Levi has arrived in Karmiel!
OK I’m about 2 months behind but forgive me, we have had a rough winter (lots of health issues, but all on the mend now…)
You may remember I wrote a blog on Karmiel supermarkets after we had been here a few months, and done the rounds. Now we live up in Eshchar it is even more important to us to have a good service, as it’s no longer on our doorstep.
Living in a foreign country can be challenging – each new task takes an Olah like me a little longer to get to grips with, even something as simple as trying out a new supermarket. Still, I decided it was worth the effort since it might save us some money.
And boy was I right!
I couldn’t find the entrance at first – if you drive past it (i.e. from the main road up to Shivuk) from the side it looks closed! So I had to ask the security guy and he pointed me to a brand new shopping area which they have somehow managed to build without me noticing, and he informed me its open several nights a wee til 10 pm and even til 11 on Thursdays whereupon I replied WHO THE HECK WANTS TO GO SHOPPING AT 11 o CLOCK AT NIGHT?? Answer; Israelis. They don’t sleep. They think it’s normal.
Anyway the new supermarket is clean but it was a total balagan. Admittedly I was there on a Wednesday (thats a busy shopping day in Israel, I usually go earlier in the week when I can). But still, the place was HEAVING. What I want to know is WHERE WERE ALL THESE PEOPLE 2 MONTHS AGO?? seriously! Its like they all appeared from nowhere. And I only recognised 2 people in the entire store (a married couple from our yeshuv who claimed to just be passing by…. one thing I will say about Israelis, they are always curious about new shopping opportunities…nobody wants to be a mug here). This might sound strange to you but Karmiel is not a big town and I usually recognise lots of people when I shop. So where did all these people come from? It’s as if the supermarket imported customers.
Well that’s what I thought. Until I took a closer look at the prices. They were significantly cheaper than Supersol AND Shivuk (my usual haunts) – especially on fruit & veg. They must be working very hard to pull in customers. Either that or the other supermarkets have been ripping me off for 4.5 years. I signed up for a reward card and despite getting a pretty big shop it only came to 500 shekel.
Down sides? They have no own brands. So if you want to buy tinned tomatoes, frozen veg, that sort of thing, you have to buy “Israeli” brands. Not a problem if you are truly israeli but for olim like me I personally can’t abide the Israeli brand of tinned tomatoes. They taste funny. And they have more than one thing written on the ingredients. The ingredients should be “Tomatoes”. End of. Also they don’t appear to sell non-antibiotic chicken, I didn’t spot a fish counter and their fresh bread looked very nice but gave me a stomach ache so I suspect it may not be as healthy as they were implying.
Other than that far cheaper than the other places. I haven’t tried their delivery service yet. I frankly can’t be bothered to figure out a new website….