Balkan Shopping: 8 Facts for 08-08-08

One of the things I'm most often asked is, "What's the shopping like in Macedonia?" Well, on this second day of a series of blogs to answer that question, and in honor of it being 08-08-08, I thought it would be fun to share 8 little facts about shopping here in Skopje:

1. Upon entering a store you will be greeted, "Повелете?!" ("povelete" meaning "hello may I help you?"), and then promptly followed around the store... closely like a shadow. This is purely out of polite courtesy so that they're there to help you or answer any questions you may have.
2. At Vero (one of the supermarkets) you have to insert a coin to get a shopping cart... you get your money back when the cart is returned.
3. Fruit and veggies don't get weighed and priced at the check-stand, you have to get it done in the produce section of the supermarket.
4. The best place to get fruit and vegetables is in the green markets (like farmer's markets) located in several key areas around town.
5. Speaking of produce, every different kind of fruit and vegetable gets its own plastic bag... that means you can leave the green market with 20 different items in 20 different bags... vendors don't really like to consolidate
6. Little stores tend to specialize in one thing and several different types tend to be grouped together. For example, the picture with red car includes: 2 fish markets, a mini-mart, a cheese & deli-meat place, a butcher, a hardware store and an appliance store... that is, in addition to the street vendor selling brooms, dried flowers and gourds among other things.
7. Most clothing items are sized the US equivalent of 0-7 and the stores usually only have one size/color available of each item.
8. The secret to insuring that "specialty items" (aka. things that we really like from back home) become regular? Be sure to buy a couple of the items when they first appear in some small corner of the store. If enough people do this, the owners realize that the item will sell well and will order larger quantities, put them in a more predominate place, and drop the price. Here's just some of the items for which this strategy has been a success: tortillas, Chinese food items, brown sugar, dried cranberries and fresh cilantro. :)

This is just a brief introduction to some little facts of shopping here in Skopje. More detail and interesting facts will be included in upcoming blogs... just wait until I take you to visit the butcher! :)