Thursday, February 5, 2009

Supermercado is not so super

It seems that any grocery store in the Spanish world, whether big or small, is called a Supermercado, which translates directly to mean supermarket.

I don´t know if that comes from the english or if it´s vice versa. But in english, a big store is called a supermarket, and small store is called a market. It´s not that case here. You could find a store that was 5 sq. meters that sold a couple groceries and it would be called supermercado, which makes the name a misnomer in a way.

If you ask for a mercado, you will get directions to a flea market most of the time, so you have to ask for a supermercado. I don´t get it, which is why I thought it was worth mentioning.

3 Comments:

Blogger suslee said...

i thought mercado = market?

February 5, 2009 at 9:53 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Don't complain.
Just follow their rule.
In some place, "drinking water is self" means "get drinking water by yourself".

February 5, 2009 at 10:25 PM  
Blogger Jimmy said...

mercado does mean market, but in spain if you ask for mercado, they send you to the open air market where there´s a butcher, a florist, etc etc. you don´t get taken to a grocery store, which is what you thought you were asking for. Maybe it´s different in south america? I haven´t tried asking for just a mercado yet.

February 11, 2009 at 4:57 AM  

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