Grocery Stores That Have Known Me
Perhaps the greatest opportunities for faux pas here are at grocery stores. The language barrier and unfamiliarity with brands make me slow to select groceries, especially since I’m not certain what’s kosher, but more challenging has been the learning curve on grocery etiquette. Italian grocery stores are governed by a series of unwritten rules, that unlike road laws, are strongly enforced. Guidebooks generally don’t include this information, as most tourists probably don’t venture into Neapolitan grocery stores, but forewarned is forearmed, or at least you can brace yourself for the inevitable yelling when you fail to anticipate the local peculiarities:
Cashiers hate everyone, including their own grandmothers, and will fling your change at your head. They will also casually toss your items to the side irrespective of fragile materials, so put your softer items on the conveyor belt first so that your glass bottles can come to a gentle landing on a package of tortillas and won’t shatter when the cashier throws them down into the bagging area.
Fruits and vegetables need to be bagged and weighed on an electronic scale located in the produce section that will print out a sticker, like the label printed at a deli counter, showing the exact weight and price of the produce selected. If you forget to do this, the cashier will show no mercy. Some stores allow you to weigh your own items, while others require you to ask a dedicated staff member for what you want and they will bag and weigh it. At the self-service groceries, access to the produce scales is a contact sport, mainly you against 500 nonnas who capitalize on your confusion and won’t hesitate to maneuver their carts in front of you.
If you bring a shopping trolley for easier grocery hauling, you must leave it at the front of the store when you enter and retrieve it when you’ve finished checking out. Never, ever use it to load your items as you shop like some kind of naive nitwit, thinking that you can just put your items in and then unload them at the cash register.
Here is my ranking of the grocery stores I’ve shopped in (survived?) thus far:
Sole 365: The best store I’ve encountered yet, and it shows, because the store gets very crowded. Broad variety of fruits and vegetables, produce looks fresh and crispy, and pasta is slightly cheaper than the competition. You can weigh your own fruits and vegetables. Sole 365 also carries more brands that are marked kosher or listed on the kosher list. The checkout is a madhouse, with lines that stretch into the next aisle and a salesperson shouting out the available cashiers.
Carrefour: Carrefour wins for slickest and snootiest design, but loses a few points for high prices. The fruits and vegetables are fresh, although without the broader variety of Sole 365, and you can weigh your own produce. It’s more difficult to find kosher products here. The products at meat and cheese counters are abundant.
Cuor di Crai: Cuor di Crai is a significant step down from both Sole 365 and Carrefour in both aesthetic and availability of goods, but it’s still a useful store for a grocery pit stop. Edges out Pam because a) you can weigh your own fruits and vegetables and b) they carry kosher butter. Otherwise, the produce is fine but very few options are offered. The one and only English-speaking cashier I’ve encountered in Naples works at my local Cuor di Crai.
Pam: Staffed by unfriendly people who insist on selecting the produce for you, and the prices are higher than Cuor di Crai.
Todis: Creepy and cramped. Only go here if every other grocery store has run out of milk, water, or eggs.
Conad: Death stares from salespeople as you walk in suggest high probability of getting murdered while shopping.
Buona fortuna!