Atacadão

Atacadão

Everyone loves a bargain..

Atacadão is a wholesale store kind of like  Costco, all groceries, no tires and stereos, no fun stuff.. 

I love stores like this, but... this is Brasil style, the store is huge, and packed, lines at the check out are Very long,  so this is how you have to shop there. 

You need a minimum of 2 people.. you grab a cart, and enter put a couple of things in the cart.. then one person, we will call him A, goes and gets in line to check out. The second person, we will call her B, goes around the store, ( can you guess which person was me?) filling up her arms with stuff then when passing person A  in the line,  B  dumps her arm load of stuff in to the cart, smiles at person A, then moves off into the store to find more bargains on a gross of beans, or a bushel of rice.

It may sound like fun all fun and games for Person B,  but she has to navigate the aisles.. not easy here, no such rules as keep to the left, or watch your snot nosed kids, she has to dodge the employees  who park the restocking fork lifts in the way of clients,  thank god Person A  has the cart, you could never weave it through all the obstacles  . Person B has to fight with the large bottomed girls to get a good pick of the bargain cheese, but she does not have to stare at a sweaty hairy back for 2 hours..

Meanwhile Person A,  gets to stand and watch the slowest cashiers on earth, the examine every item, roll it around finally deciding you are worthy of the item, then scans it, on to the next item.. PAINFUL  to watch.. They give the cashiers chairs, is this why they are so slow, they are to comfy?

The people in front of you have the same system,  multiple shoppers, one Person A..but their shoppers bring them cases of stuff, their Person A then picks through the box and decide how many items from the case they need, ( usually 10 of the 12 in the case) dumping the rest of the items on the floor  in front of Our Person A's cart!!  WTF..opps there goes our Person B, where did she get a coffee..geezz, another Person A, from a shopping team behind our Person A decides  he wants some of the stuff left on the floor and puts it in his cart, ( this is good for our Person A, he won't have to  GRUNT an eyebrow crinkle, shoulder shrug and up raised hands,  the universal WTF.)  but when his person B sees this, She is not happy, he had no right to make a decision like that, they start pushing the cart into our Person A's  ankles, our Person A  is NOT happy about this and in his best Portuguese gives a GRUNT an eyebrow crinkle, shoulder shrug and up raised hands,  the universal WTF.

Person B does not want to stand in line, even though Person B promised Person A that they too would get a chance wander the store and see the wonders that grace the aisles , but no,  person B  times it just right,  she returns just as Person A reaches the cash register.. oh  like that wasn't planned.

Now it is your turn, the excitement...wait a minute the cashier  decides to cash out, and a new cashier is going to take her place..  ohhh gaaaawwddd  noooo.. now she has to do some cyphering .. my luck.. 15 minutes later.. did I mention they are slow? 

All paid up..

The parking lot is hilarious, you ever seen a Fiat mille,  the size of a shoe box, and the same shape.

4 doors and a 1 litre engine .. enough power to run the Air conditioner, OR  drive the car, but not both at the same time.. 

the 4 people from the shopping team in front of us, have so much crap loaded in to it

.... they have left no room in the back seat..  geez  should of thought of that before you bought all that crap..opps  I'm in Brasil.. not much fore thought going on here..but this is Brasil, if three guys on  motor cycle can handle a queen size mattress, a mille can do 4 people and a crap load of rice and beans. Not to worry,  driver in the driver seat, person in the middle, butt hanging into the back seat, balls on the stick shift, careful with reverse, and the 2  women doubled up in the passenger seat, hope they don't have far to go (not really,  I hope they have a 2 hour drive)..

Now all we have to do is drive home, ahhh another adventure in Olinda.. I wonder what tomorrow will bring..

PS  here is a TIP,  when you live in a hot and humid tropical climate, best not slather on the sun block then work up a sweat going to the barber..  the hair sticking to you won't just be yours!