Claustrophobia on aisle 6

We have a new, fancy mall in town.  It is rather incredible, with dozens and dozens of shop spaces....and several shops actually up and running....mostly phone shops right next to each other.  We have been waiting for the new supermarket to open its shiny glass doors since Christmas, when they put their sign up and sold several items in the main lobby.
So when Dave visited TSN on Monday, which he has affectionately called 'The Super Narket' (actual name Tanzania Sisi Nyumbani), he told me that the prices were great and there were a lot of customer service people (think "How Can I Help You" blue shirts at Walmart).  In fact, he said the customer service people were rather intent on their jobs.

I grasped on to the idea of cheap prices and chalked up the 'service people' thing to the fact that he is an introvert and might not like talking to everyone in the store.

Later in the afternoon, when I went to check it out with the kids, I called Dave within two minutes of entering that air-conditioned paradise and told him I had found my new favorite place.  Cheap chocolate?!  What else could a woman wish for?!  He said he was glad for me, that yes, it was nice.

Five minutes later I told him I had changed my mind.  Five minutes of telling red-shirted customer service people that I was just looking, thank you.  Five minutes of trying to push my own cart with Ben in it, because they each wanted to push it for me.  Five minutes of continuing to put on a smile that was rapidly fading.  Truly, they were trying to be helpful, and Tanzanians are notably kind and patient (more patient than I am, obviously) and their idea of service is to make sure you know they are there for you.  So most of the time I couldn't see what I was trying to look at because someone was standing between me and the product,  asking if I wanted to buy the product I was trying to look at.  Frustrated at my independence, finally one just decided to follow right behind me through the rest of the aisles.  By this time I was cracking up laughing because I didn't know how else to say that I just wanted a little space for me and Ben.  And I found myself racing through the aisles, away from help.

In addition to wanting to help, there were also not any price tags on the products, and the prices had not been entered in the computers yet, so if someone saw something in your cart that didn't have a sticker on it, they would tell you to wait while they ran back to find out the price, wrote it on a pad of stickers they all had in their hands, and label it for you.

Some sections of the store had a stockpile of one product with a sign that said SALE SALE SALE SALE but there was no price, and people were not quite sure how much it actually was until they asked around.

I ended on the cheese aisle, and stared wide-eyed at mozzarella and cheddar and even specialty cheeses.  Funny--there were three customer service people in this aisle and not one of them approached me.  In fact, when I caught their eye, they looked away.  Finally I tapped one of them and asked how much the cheese was.

"It's not for sale."

"No one knows how much it is, so you can't buy it yet."

"But we have little bottles of chocolate and strawberry milk?"

It's OK, I don't love chocolate milk on my pizza. :)

Somehow I had missed the stickers for some of my items, so at the checkout counter with fancy computers that were all turned off, I had to tell the lady writing every item down in a special book how much certain things were, and then another lady added it on a little calculator.

Until heaven, things will not be what we think they should be.  Progress takes time!  And that is right and good.  Let me not put my hope in cheeses and peaceful shopping experiences. :)