Faroe Islands vs. Fayetteville, NC. USA: Shopping

I made a last-minute decision, and i'm going to divide the subjects into several days, and the first subject is: Shopping.

This is a simple, but yet valid comparison I think, of what features both of these places behold, or at least, some features.

Shopping:

This is something which struck me, when I first got to the US. Alot of things are on a grand scale, compared to what i'm used to in the Faroe Islands.

In the the States, there is Wal-Mart, which is probably one of the most, if not most distributed store, and reaches the widest audience, either on a Super-Center level or a more mediocre one. Stepping into Wal-Mart was like unlike anything else for me. 20+ cash-registers were lined up in a perfectly syncronized line, checking people out, and most of these registers were occupied all the time, when I first there the first time (beginning of December). People were walking around with their kids and families, some with regular shopping-carts and some even in, and this is a first for me, electric shopping-trucks. People sit in these "trucks", and like some mini-scooter, they drive around and do their shopping.

Almost everything is available at this Wal-Mart giant. I mean, you can't buy a house or something of that nature there, but everything which on a day-to-day basis can be used by an ordinary US household, is available. You can even get your tires checked there.

A thing which I didn't really know how to react to, was when I got to the cash-register and the woman behind the counter said: "Hi, how are you doing?". Like a goof, I just stood flabbergasted, and said: "Fine!", not knowing why she really asked me that.

Moving back to the Faroe Islands, and looking at how it is these, is a great difference. The only shop I maybe can compare this to, is SMS. Although, SMS is a mall, with several boutiques and a "big" grocery-store. Combined, can SMS maybe make a somewhat valid comparison to a Wal-Mart shop.

It is 3 stories, where Wal-Mart is one huge. On a Faroese scale, alot of people use SMS. I should note, that while SMS is open monday through saturday, at limited hours, Wal-Mart is open 24/7, almost 365 days a year.

The variety of products is so much more in the US, than in the Faroes, and the pricing in the US, is on a lower scale. This comes mostly from the fact, that almost 100% of the produce in the Faroes has to be imported, whilst in the US, almost 100% is produced in the States.

This was a somewhat mediocre comparison of "shopping" in the Faroe Islands and in Fayetteville, NC. USA.

Next time the subject will be: Infrastructure.

Still alive!

I am still alive, and I do tend to liven up this blog in the near future. In the meantime, head over to faroepodcast.blogspot.com and see what's new there.