Grocery stores in Argentina are all together different than grocery stores in Chile and the States. You all know and are comfortable with a store like Albertsons for example. When you walk into Albertsons, you see an absolutely enormous building with almost every type of food in it that you would ever want or need. This is how they sell food in Chile too. They have two large grocery store chains there, Lider and Jumbo. Both of which sell things like electronics and school supplies as well as food, but I would say most people shop there for the food. Of course in Chile there are your smaller grocery stores too, depending on where you are and the size of the city. There are stores similar to Paul's (in McCall), Cash and Carry (in Cottonwood and Grangeville), and Riener's (in Cottonwood).
In Argentina however, things are quite different. There are grocery store chains here, yes, but the stores themselves are very small no matter where you are in the country. I haven't stepped in a grocery store the size of Paul's yet! I would say the majority of the grocery store sizes here are about the size of Riener's, and I've been in one or two about the size of Cash and Carry in Cottonwood. Now, this isn't bad necessarily, because it's pretty easy to find things, but rush hour in this town of 1.3 million quite overwhelming.
Also, what you find in a grocery store in Argentina is quite interesting. Yes, they have the normal produce section, meat section, cereal section, and all the other stuff sections, but each has their own unique taste of Argentina!
The meat section here is a lot like Rieners. At Rieners, you go to Gary and ask him to get you some ribs, and he does it with a smile. That's what happens here too. You go to the meat guy, tell him you want a certain cut of meat or some hamburger, and he grinds it up and hands it to you. (I guess there's a law here that states you cannot pre-grind meat due to businesses adding fat for bulk.) In the meat section, you can find already cut stakes... I usually get stakes this way to avoid the Spanish confusion. The cuts of meat here are different too, for example ribs. You know how ribs look in the States, but here they cut them like if you were to get a vertical CAT scan of your ribs. I still haven't learned all the proper cut names here, all I know is the meat here is excellent!
I usually don't spend much time in the produce section because you can get produce at the little fruit stands right outside my building. But, in the grocery stores, you have to bag all your produce while you're in the section, and hand it to a worker who weighs it and tags it before you go to check out.
The cereal section is not a enormous aisle like in the States, it's a tiny section of some imported, really expensive cereals and other cheap bagged cereal. Of course, I get the cheap bagged cereal, but I'd say most people don't buy cereal. For breakfast, normally Argentinians drink coffee or Yerba Mate and maybe eat some bread with a little butter on it... that's it. I remember when I was in Brazil, one of the girls almost gagged at the thought of eating eggs for breakfast! Very different here for breakfast than in the States.
Bread is another important issue. I don't usually buy bread at the grocery store either, because there's a bakery right across the street. The bread section usually consists of dirt cheap freshly baked, kind of like french bread, or expensive sliced bread like we have in the States. Now, because their freshly baked bread goes bad within a day after it's bought, you only buy what you need for the day.
The dairy section is all together different than the States. Packaging of milk is very different here. It's sold in cardboard like boxes, or plastic pouches. As you can imagine, the plastic pouches are cheaper than the cardboard boxes, so that's what I get, but milk in the cardboard boxes keeps longer, and is sold and stored at room temperature. I know, I thought it to, is that ok?? But yes, I'm sure it is. Every time I've gotten the cardboard box kind, it's been perfectly fine and safe to drink. The plastic pouches though, have to be stored refrigerated. They also sell yogurt like this. Yogurt in Argentina is like a thick flavored milk. People also drink this on occasion for breakfast. It's not sold in a big container, although they do have those little personal ones just like you're familiar with. On a sad note, they don't have cottage cheese, or whipped cream (usually, I found whip cream once in a spray can).
Argentina is huge on pasta. They love their pasta because a lot of the people here come from Italian decent. Therefore, in every grocery store, you can find gnocchi's, ravioli's, and tortellini's packaged, kept cold, and just need to be boiled before served and eaten! I think this is my favorite part in the whole grocery store. I just love how they have that here. I know in the States you can find dehydrated tortellini's that just need boiling, but it doesn't taste the same. The pasta here not dehyderated, it's freshly made and very easy to prepare.
The frequency of buying food here is very different too. I never thought I'd get used to this, but I go to the grocery store almost every single day to buy food (however, sometimes I just go to the bakery and fruit/veggie stand and call it good). They just don't have the highly processed things here that can be stored for a long time. I don't mind it because I live seconds from the grocery store, but I know it would be such a drag if I didn't. I think that's why Argentinians love to live in the center of town.
Those are the main grocery store differences... of course, when it comes to baking, that's a whole different story too, but I'll save it for a later time!
