10 Items or Fewer

When travelling internationally, one thing I always like to do is go to supermarkets.  One, you never see any tourists.  Two, you can save a lot for little things like bottled water (which is important if you don’t want to get sick while you are on vacation).  Three, there are all kinds of different products for sale that we don’t have in the US.  Many multinational companies test new products in other markets (in a lot of ways, Canada is a large focus group for the US) before bringing them stateside.  Four, you will get a chance to practice the local language since you know what items are, so you will learn the vocabulary for it. 

This market in Hong Kong called Taste was very well designed.  It didn’t have the cheapest prices, but the place was huge and offered British goods (I saw quite a few Heinz items like baked beans that I recognized from the UK), American items (see below), along with local brands. 

The picture above is a good example.  In the center is New England Clam Chowder from Campbell's flanked by a mushroom & seafood soup to the left and oxtail soup to the right.  You definitely don’t see those last two varieties in the US. 

Here you see what is essentially Campbell’s Chunky New England Clam Chowder with a different label.  Chunky doesn’t really sound that appealing when translated into soup for the Chinese market.  Ironically, today is New England Clam Chowder Day (No, I didn’t plan the timing of this post to coincide).