Our furnished apartment in Escazú Village came with a random assortment of home goods and small appliances. For example, the dinnerware consisted of 3 white plates and 1 bowl. We also were given 2 platters, one pan, and 1 small cooking pot. For some reason, though, there were 14 glasses (made of glass) and 2 stemless wine glasses. Based on a subsequent discovery of balloons and birthday candles in a kitchen drawer, we think that the “new” apartment was used at least once for a party before we took residency.
We needed some basics to just live – more dinnerware, cleaning supplies, paper products (think paper towels and toilet paper), etc. And, we needed groceries to eat. So, we had to shop to set up our new household.
Did we mention that we live in front of a Walmart? Addresses in Costa Rica are more like directions, and “al frente de Walmart” is part of our address! So, we started with Walmart. We didn’t just start with Walmart and then move on, we have continued with Walmart every single day, an average of two times per day since the day we moved in. And, yes, we are shopping other places. But, it’s our new reality, we still have to go to Walmart.
Since we’ve been there so much, you would think that we would have shopping at Walmart down pat. But … no. Some things are the same, like the general layout inside of the store, and some things are different. (This is not counting the fact that everything is in Spanish.)
The good things that are different in our Costa Rica Walmart
There are escalated ramps going up and down from the parking area to the store. There is a cart section near the ramps. The carts lock into the escalated ramps, too, to prevent runaways. We don’t have a car, so aren’t parking there. Still, if we go in on the parking level, we are able to do leg calf stretches as we go up the ramp.
There are a lot of people that are available to help stationed throughout the store, in addition to people that seem to really be working on things, like stocking shelves. I don’t know about you, but in my experience in the US, finding a person in Walmart who wasn’t at the register was nearly impossible. (Finding a person at a register was sometimes impossible, too.) If you spotted one, they managed to turn a corner and disappear before you could seek their assistance. The downside is that if I want help, I need to know Spanish. Still working on that part.
They give out samples. Just like Costco (or now, our PriceSmart), Walmart has people giving out samples. We’ve had the opportunity to sample ham, sausage, cheese, cereal, coffee, just to name a few items.
Salad greens come in their own dirt baggies. These are balls of dirt wrapped in plastic around the roots and it keeps the greens fresher longer. Plus you can get three different kinds of greens in one package.
You can pay bills there. Paying utility bills in Costa Rica is a different experience. More on that in another post.
It has an area labeled “Pedicure.” We thought that this was for pedicures, but there is another salon area that has a manicure table. The Pedicure area has separate little rooms with blue walls. I saw a door slightly ajar into one of the rooms, and it looked like there was an examination room table, like what you see at the Doctor’s office. So, we think it’s a walk-in clinic.
They have “Caja Especial” checkout lanes. There are signs with pictures on them to explain what this means. (Banks have “Caja Especial” lines, too.) Based on the pictures, it is for the people in wheelchairs, pregnant women, women with babies, and old people, or at least that’s what we think the stick figures with the canes represent.
The not so good things that are different in our Costa Rica Walmart
We have had a checkout person target us when we were in a long regular checkout lane, to open a Caja Especial lane for us. And, we know we were targeted for the Caja Especial, since both times younger people with only one item got in line behind us and were turned away by the checker. Nothing says to everyone else in the store, “HERE ARE OLD PEOPLE” than having someone open up the Caja Espeical lane just for you.
Although the carts have train-like wheels that lock in the ramps, they don’t work that well in the store. Pushing a cart is like pushing a football blocking sled along the floor. Typically one and as many as all four wheels don’t roll. It’s a fine but rare day when we find a cart with four functioning wheels.
We can’t find things based on where we think they should logically be, or what we think they should sell in Walmart. We’ve spent a lot of time traipsing back and forth through the Walmart, looking for items you think you should easily find. And with each back and forth through the store, you just feel like you are getting stupider. (Ok, trudging back and forth in any Walmart store, Costa Rica or otherwise, makes you feel that way.)
Examples of difficult items to find:
Paper towels. Normally I would expect to find them with the toilet paper. This Walmart has a whole toilet paper section, without a paper towel in sight. At one end there is bug killer, so there was room for paper towels if they wanted them there. Next aisle over? No, not there. That’s pet food. Next aisle? No, not there either. Finally two aisles over, there they are!
Kleenex. Well, what about near the toilet paper. No, not there. What about near the paper towels you just managed to find? No, not there, either. Um, where else to look? Well, all over, really. You can rule out electronics, housewares, clothes, car stuff … A ha! Finally discovered them in a small section in the make-up aisle, taking up only part of two bottom shelves.
A bucket. A bucket is great for cleaning. Not near the cleaning supplies. Not near the paper towels. No bucket in the car section, even though they had car cleaning supplies. We made several trips back and forth through that store looking for a bucket, any bucket; we could feel our IQ lowering. Finally, I thought, well, maybe in the laundry section. Not sure why I even considered that. You don’t need a bucket for laundry here. Nobody is filling buckets to wash clothes. They have washing machines – even sell them at Walmart. But, we made another trek over to the laundry section, and there was a bucket – right under the clothes pins. Just where you would expect to find it.
A Sponge. Another item we needed for cleaning. Checked in the laundry area, and it wasn’t there. Didn’t expect it to be, but didn’t expect to find the bucket there either so had to check. In the cleaning supplies? Nope, no sponges. In the dish washing area? Yes and no. The only sponges there had scouring pads attached. Every single one of them. These were not what we were looking for. In the car cleaning supplies? Well, actually, there was a sponge there. It looked like it was vacuum packaged to save space and would expand on opening. It was the best we could find in the whole store so we bought it. The sponge expansion was a disappointment – guess we were expecting more of a show. And it turned out to be more like foam rubber than a real sponge.
Salt. There is a spices section in the grocery area. Weirdly, there has been a woman in a black suit standing by the spices many times we visited. She seems to be the spice lady, ready to help with a spice selection. We looked up and down the available spices. No salt in sight. Finally I resorted to asking the woman in black. Salt and Spanish “sal” sound enough alike that she understood me when I asked, “Dónde esta salt?” She pointed to the bottom shelf of shelves running the span of three aisles along the back of the store. Oh, there it was, right under the beans.
Sugar. We managed to find the baking aisle. There are a lot of sacks of flour there. Expected the sugar to be right next to it. No, not there. We looked up and down the grocery aisles and didn’t find it. Finally, I asked a Walmart guy who was walking by. I thought I remembered how to say sugar in Spanish. I said something close enough that he corrected me. (We have found out that if we say something close to the actual word we are trying to say in Spanish, and we are corrected, it probably means that we said something we shouldn’t have. For example, John once tried to say “years” in Spanish and innocently said “anos” instead of the correct “años”. The tilde in Spanish, it turns out, makes a big difference between “anuses” and “years”.) Not sure what word I ended up saying, but he did lead me to the sugar. Where was it? In that same area of shelves running along the back of the store, but on the opposite end from the salt. White and brown sugar were together at least, right next to the rice. We were a little slow on the uptake, but finally realized that section is for Costa Rican grocery staples, which based on the items located there, includes sugar, salt, beans and at least 40-pound bags of rice. The smallest package of rice available would last us a year.
Lemons. Impossible. They have small round greenish fruits that look like limes that are called “limóns”. They aren’t lemons.
Hammer and nails. Also impossible. We finally decided to buy a wall clock, as we were getting tired of hunting for our cell phones whenever we wanted to know the time. We couldn’t find one of those adhesive wall hangers that was the right size to hang the clock, so decided we could use either a picture hanger or nail. We checked in the tool section. They had screwdrivers and pliers, but no picture hangers or nails. We also noticed there were no hammers, either. (John thought to bring a small set of tools with us, so we at least had a hammer.) OK, maybe where they sell things that hang on the walls, like wall clocks? No, not there. Electronics? No. What about electrical? We found plastic cable staples that had nails included. In desperation, we bought that so we could get one nail to hang the clock.
When John hung the clock using the nail, it was a bit long and the clock is not flush with the wall. I think it’s fine, but John says it is going to bother him forever.
Remember, it's an adventure. 