An Only in Israel Shopping Experience By Suzie Schwartz
It was one Friday, a mere 3 days after our initial arrival on aliya in June, 2016. With the Sabbath almost upon us, we decided it was time for our first foray into an Israeli supermarket. I was used to the Australian supermarkets where getting hold of a trolley was a simple matter of taking (for free) the first one in the row and getting on with the job (of shopping). I didn’t imagine it would be any different in Israel. I soon discovered my assumption was wrong. Outside the supermarket, we eyed a
the customer service desk and the person behind the counter demanded that we leave our teudat zehut as collateral for the use of a green, plastic shopping basket on wheels. I looked at my identity card and thought ‘I have to hand over this in exchange for a green bucket?’ With her arm insistently stretched out, she twiddled her fingers, while waiting for me to hand it over. I had no choice but to give in and place it in her clutches. Now, we were ready to get started on the actual shopping. With She had her doubts about our family ties and asked him our plastic wagon exactly what was the nature of our relationship. ‘Were we in tow, it felt as uncles, aunts, cousins?’ Then he blurted our ‘Horim’. though we were being put through our paces and it man who was slipping his trolley into was beginning to resemble an obstacle the row lined up and asked if we could course with various hurdles designed take it over from him. I wondered why to test our manoeuvrability skills. he was giving us such dagger looks and Eventually we were ready to check out then I noticed he was retrieving a 10 and stood in line, awaiting our turn. shekel coin from the slot. A light bulb Processing the queue seemed to be went on and we realized supermarket taking longer than we anticipated so trolleys in Israel didn’t come for free Lionel and I started chatting about our and we needed to put down a deposit experience so far in English. There was for the use of one. Except on this a man, in his 40s in front of us and he occasion, we hadn’t come prepared must have overheard our conversation. with small change. So I went inside to He suddenly turned around and asked, 20 |Pesach 2020
