Ipercoop, no 5

last question in the quiz- if you've been grocery shopping in Italy even once, you'll probably get it right away:

Q. How do you choose and purchase produce in an Italian grocery store?

A. If you said grab a bag off the roll and put the fruit or veggies of you choice inside then throw it into your cart, one of two bad things will happen to you: 1) you will get dirty looks from your fellow shoppers because you just touched that produce with YOUR BARE HANDS, and 2) you will be send back to the produce department to weigh all your purchases and get price stickers while the whole line of customers waits, rolling their eyes. All over Italy you must first put on a plastic glove (available right next to the plastic bags) before touching any produce unless you are a fully trained and authorized greengrocer. In France, right next door, using all these plastic gloves would be considered wasteful and polluting, but here they are an essential part of self-serve produce. There are signs at greengrocers that say- Do Not Touch! Weighing your fruits and veggies is becoming more common even in the states, but at one local supermarket you choose on the screen if you are weighing a fruit or vegetable first and then you can select the item- FYI: tomatoes are vegetables and avocados are fruits.

sorry for the photo quality- one is of an official Italian produce-handling glove, the other is of a weighing station