"The Twin Thing!" - Rachael and Becky shop at a Deep Discount Grocery store!

My sis and I decided to add something to the blog that we’ve not done previously.

One of the things that makes us unique is our situation - I am living in Poland while she is in FL. I am the busy quilter and she is the really busy businesswoman at the store. However, we are identical twins! We really do think an awful lot alike. It’s surprising at times!

We thought it would be interesting to do a “twin post” once in a while.

She and I will do the same thing or go to the same store or similar, or restaurant, if not on the same day, at least within the same week, and report on it. It will give you a chance to compare and contrast our experiences. As of right now, we are planning on keeping this to shopping and restaurant excursions. We’ll see where this takes us.

We’ll describe it to the best of our ability with pictures—as much as possible. I may be more restricted than she is as the EU passed this law called RODO a while ago now which severely restricts us from taking pictures of people without their permission. I may have to blur out people’s faces in order to be “safe”.

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The first post we decided to do is:

Grocery shopping at a deep discount store.

I chose a store called Biedronka in Warsaw - just across the line from our city into the outskirts of Warsaw. She chose to go to Save-A-Lot in Dade City, FL.

I went shopping first and chose the items because I know better that is in both countries than she does! I am also 6 hours ahead of her with my day.

Here goes:

Sorry. I’m terrible at selfies. I’ll get better if I have to do them. You can see the name of the store in the background.

On Saturday, November 9, I went to Biedronka. I arrived at about 10:00 am and went in.

I figured my sis wouldn’t have any people shopping by bike at her store in Florida. Here there were plenty of shoppers using bikes as a mode of transportation. When I saw this many carts missing - I knew I was in for it at the check out!

You can use a 1 zloty, 2 zl, or 1 Euro coin for the deposit. Of course, sometimes other random coins fit - I think a quarter works as well.

First I had to get a cart. I forgot my coin so I ran back to the car to get it as I was pretty sure I didn’t have one of these in my purse anymore.

The carts at this store require a zloty coin for a deposit - it ensures that you will return the cart since most people don’t want to lose their coin. It’s about the size of a quarter (worth about $0.30).

It’s not a big deal, really. Kids love to do the honors of returning the cart and getting the coin back. It’s just that I don’t have any kids at home anymore.

It was very busy in the store because Monday was a holiday when the stores would all be closed AND Sunday the stores are now all closed. Saturday is normally a busy day - it was a Saturday and because there were going to be two days when the stores were closed, it was busier than usual.

This whole trip took me about 47 min in the the store and probably half of it was standing in line. Actually, from the time of leaving my car to checking out it was 40 minutes - it’s on my receipt and I had checked the vehicle’s clock when I arrived. It took me another 7 minutes to pack it into the vehicle and return the cart to the store and then go back to the car. Thus, the time at the store/parking lot was 47 minutes long.

I tried to choose things I thought Rachael would be able to buy without a problem.

This store is a deep discount store- meaning they don’t hire special crew to stock the shelves - they just chop the boxes open and place them there - a store like Aldi, Lidl, Save-a-Lot or other such no-nonsense stores in the states do exist. The cashiers do it in their free time. Often there are long lines at this type of store!

Here’s a picture I took of the frozen veggies section - at least part of it. They don’t offer a lot of variety—one type of broccoli, one type of cauliflower, etc. NO choices. You buy what they have or you don’t.

I managed to snag this picture of the meat like ham - in small packages. You can see that they just leave the stuff in the boxes and pile the boxes in the refrigerated cases. They have a very large selection of this kind of meat here in Poland at almost every store. I had to be careful to try to choose something I thought Rachael could find!

Here’s my cart. I took it as I was standing in line.

Here is the food while lying on the belt - That folded over green and tan thing is my reusable bag I bought. I also have more in my purse that I pull out as needed. We have to buy bags or go without (or bring our own). It is now illegal for stores to GIVE us plastic bags. Exception - they can give us those really thin things that hold your fruits/veggies together so don’t spill all over the place.

After shopping, I took the stuff out to the car in my bags and loaded it in the back of my van.

The bags on the right were for this project. The things in the striped bag were things I figured my sis might not want to buy.

I took the cart back, got my money, and drove home.

Here is what I bought:

Becky’s haul from Biedronka, Warsaw, Poland on November 9, 2019. I realized later that I forgot to ask her to get tomatoes. GRR.

This is my list of what I got:

• 2% milk – 1 bought 4 liter bottles

• 1 head lettuce – med. size

• 2.2 lbs. white sugar –

• 2.2 lbs. regular all purpose flour – – maybe they have a kilo bag

• 1 reusable shopping bag – better quality than the typical ones in the states

• 500 grams spaghetti pasta – 17.6 ounces

• 75 gram Snickers – 2.65 oz

• 75 gram Twix – 2.65 oz

• Pepsi Max – I bought 1.75 liters because that’s all they had – get a 2 liter

• Coke Zero – ditto

• Purple grapes seedless – 1 lb.

• 35 pouches of dishwashing cleaning detergent  in a box  I bought Kraft –the cheapest they had - store brand

• 6 - 175 grams (6 oz) yogurt – individuals – I bought 3 kiwi and 3 peach

• 1 medium red pepper – 9 ounce pepper

• 6 medium bananas – 2.2 lbs.

• 6 med/large Jonagold apples – 3.25 lbs.

• 2 packages of gravy mix – the cheapest they have (light gravy) – each one weighs 30 gr or 1 oz

• 2 – 1 lb. of margarine stick kind

• 1 long cucumber

• Sliced ham type meat – 140 grams – 5 oz.

• Chicken boneless breast meat – 21 oz. (1 lb, 5 oz.)

• Ground beef – 14 oz.

• Spreadable margarine – biggest one I could find – 17.6 oz. (500 gr)

• Large eggs – one 10 pack –not free range. They only carry one brand of ordinary eggs

• Frozen broccoli florets, store brand – 16 oz.

• Chicken thighs – 2.5 lbs.

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Here’s Rachael’s report:

She went to a store in Dade City, FL called Save-A-Lot.

I had given her the list and she had to try to go find the closest sizes possible to what I got.

Her shopping trip took “about 40 minutes - most of which time was spent trying to figure out what was the closest match” to what I got. There was no one in line at the checkout.

She picked up her cart (no coin needed, of course!) and went around the store, trying to figure it out. She had printed out the list of the things I had bought - with instructions for her - as much as possible. Matching the things closely was a pain, but she did well.

Her cart:

After 40 minutes in the store, trying to do the best she could, she called it quits and checked out and went home and took pictures! There was no line for her at the checkout.

Here is what she got.

I had not told her how long I had spent in the store, BTW!

Rachael’s haul from Save-A-Lot on November 9, 2019 - Dade City, FL.

This is what Rachael got:

• 1 gallon of 2% milk: $3.99

• 1 head lettuce – medium size: $1.49

• 4 lb. bag of sugar, $2.15 (2.2 lb. is not available)

• 5 lb. bag of flour, $1.99 (2.2 lb. is not available)

• 1 reuseable (larger than normal) shopping bag: $1.49

• 16 oz. spaghetti: $.99

• A super size Snickers candy bar:  (3.29 oz.) $`1.59

• Super size Twix candy bar: (3.29 oz) $1.59

• Diet Pepsi, 2 liter: $1.49

• Diet Coke, 2 liter: $1.78

• .92 pound purple seedless grapes: $1.83 ($1.99/lb)

• 25 pouches of dishwasher detergent, $5.99 (the only kind in the entire store)

• Six 6 oz. yogurt: $2.64

• 1 medium green bell pepper (no red individually available): .69

• 6 medium bananas at .45/lb: 1.23

• 6 medium Granny Smith apples (no Jonagold available) 2.89 pounds, $4.31

• Two packages of gravy mix, $.98

• Two 1 pound packages of stick margarine: $1.98 ($.99 each)

• 1 long cucumber: .59

• 6 oz. of packaged sliced ham: 1.77

• 1.49 pounds of boneless skinless chicken breast; $3.79/lb.: 5.65

• 1.10 pounds of ground beef (no smaller sizes available) pounds got 90/10, $4.99/lb.: 5.49

• 15 oz. spreadable margarine (smallest I could find), the next size was 3 pounds: 1.79

• Large eggs, 1 dozen; 1.99

• Frozen broccoli florets; store brand; 12 oz. (no florets in 16 oz. size, just cuts): 1.19

•  2.55 pound chicken thighs: $1.79/lb: 4.56

Grand total: $62.21 (Tax was .98)

So, I decided to make a table for easy comparison!

Here it is:

If the item is highlighted with yellow, it means that Rachael had to buy a bigger container - than Becky. If it is gray, then she bought smaller. If it has no color, it is close enough to discount the difference that probably existed.

I didn’t take the time to figure out per ounce how much the Pepsi and Coke were as well as other things - but I think you can get the idea from the side by side chart about the difference in prices.

I could spend more time and figure up prices ounce per ounce and make up a new table, but decided not to. I think you can see the differences for yourself!

That’s it for today!

Have a great day wherever you are reading this!

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Be sure to check out what my sis has for you in the store!

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