Kultur Post 1

I read the article about the discount grocery stores in Germany. It sounded like a combination of Costco and christmas eve shopping in Toys 'R Us. The general unpleasantness conveyed in the article was removed from anything we would expect to encounter normally here in the United States. The condition of the store also surprised me; the idea that moldy food is left in the displays and messes are not cleaned up until the end of the day are completely foreign in the States. Any business allowed this to continue in their store would soon be out of business due to either a health violation or simply because of lack of customers. The Germans strike me as a neat and orderly people but this article disproves that stereotpye. The idea that people would scramble over a newly opened shopping lane is not unheard of in the US but it only occurs on special days, not the average day of shopping. I enjoyed reading the article becuase it showed me a side of the Germans I was not familiar with and deposed a long standing stereotype of them in my mind.