Culture shock for Canadians in the US

[Autumnchik 6]

Loyalty card programs...

Is it just here in northern California, or do stores in the U.S. ram their loyalty card programs down your throats? If you don't use your store cards, you miss out on all the discounts and sometimes have to pay twice or three times as much. Back in Canada, loyalty cards were all about collecting points towards gifts or air miles!

Unfortunately, not just Northern California. I have had loyalty cards to stores everywhere I have lived .... DC, West Virginia, Southern Cali, Georgia and now New Hampshire. And you never get anything really good from them .... just the ability to buy a second high fructose corn syrup and preservative laden box of junk food at half the price of the first one. Really wish we could get air miles!!!

[girl 37 7]

You can't buy booze on a Sunday in some states, but they have 'DRIVE-THRU' LIQUOR STORES.

Drinking + Sunday = Bad. Drinking + Driving = Alllright!

[Flames9_RN 358]

Pretty much need those damn loyalty cards to get the discounts! But i Belive some stores in Canada, such as safeway are the same.

[giraffemd 0]

Pretty much need those damn loyalty cards to get the discounts! But i Belive some stores in Canada, such as safeway are the same.

And of course let's not forget the *extra discount* when you use your Bay card......I said it many times a day, when I worked there, and now I am substituting the word *Macy's* for *Bay* Please, someone get me out of retail

[warlord 72]

Well on this topic mine would be a culture shock going back into Canada as I've lived here in the US for almost a decade. One thing that really annoys me (not sure if it's still that way) is that I can't seem to use my Visa Debit card to buy things at fast food places, the beer store etc. It has to be either a real visa credit card or a specific Canadian bank card or something. I would always stand there telling them it's a Visa see VISA. I guess that was a few years back I would have that problem. Now they seem to rezlize that our cards don't work over there and now when I go back I get informed "I'm sorry, our machines aren't designed to read the debit Visa cards at all".

I'm sure there's other shocks I can't quite think of, other then the language and names of stores that I have long forgotten or never knew existed in Canada that seems to be a big thing over there and when someone says it I'm like huh what the hell is that? Oh it's the biggest chain store in Canada, oh ok, didn't know ha ha. They sometimes look at me like I'm from another planet...

[Marilyn. 340]

Oh yeah, that high fructose corn syrup thing really bugs me - come on, they even put it in half and half cream! Yikes - I spend so much time now reading labels trying to find stuff that doesn't have it - ridiculous. No wonder so many people here are obese (and I have gained 15 pounds since I arrived - not happy about that!) Yeah, I think USPS rocks too - except that you can't get stamps anywhere else except at the post office and the lines are often out the door.

I found you can buy stamps almost anywhere here in the US... even from some bank ATM's....

[Krikit 1,163]

My shock with Canada post came when I went to mail a large envelope from Ontario to Alberta for my fiancee. $10 for something that would've cost $3 from the States!!! For the next hour I thought "$10?!?!?!?, until I had to say it out loud.

Oh #######. I hope mine doesn't come back with insufficient postage. I just mailed a large envelope to Canada without having it weighed. We've moved to a new city and I haven't found the post office yet. Plus I'm getting tired of feeling like a moron. Everywhere I go and everything I do comes with its own special learning curve. Anyway, I figured, "Twice the size of a regular envelope.... twice the regular postage." and stuck it in my mailbox for pickup. (I looked everywhere for a post box until my husband told me they pick it up at the house. LOL) USPS.... gotta love it.

Edited January 10, 2007 by Krikit

[Velvettt 0]

I could either laugh or cry over the points made in this topic (My headline would read "Liberal Canadian Atheist Follows Her Man to Texas, massacre photos on pg 2!") and since I'm more tempted to cry, I'll stick with the humorous stuff.

Up here in Waterloo, I feel like a giant tub of lard lumbering past all the slim Asian girls so prevalent at my university. Then I went to Kentucky. In the Walmart parking lot, I had an epiphany; I am slim! Sleek! Slender! I only have a chin and a half!: I am a Seal swimming among the Walruses!

And I'll be in Lubbock. The culture shock may send me over the edge. When he came to see me I took him to Pride in Toronto because it was the most fun thing happening at the time; when I go there I may actually be witness to people making homophobic comments out loud in public without getting collared by the police. My head spins at the thought.

And I forgot to mention: I don't drive. Yikes!

LOL!!!! Hey, that was my headline too, except substitute "pagan" for "atheist". Luckily, I was able to spend one 5 month block down here before I emigrated, so I got most of my anti-organized-religion anger out of the way first. And, gf, you ain't seen nothin' till you've seen the hispanic women down in San Antonio, as far as weight goes. I'd be standing in front of my bathroom mirror, wailing about looking pudgy and then I'd go to the grocery store... Holy cow! Not only did they all weigh more than me, they all wore their clothes AT LEAST one size too small so there were rolls and rolls of fat hanging over the waistbands. The WASPy types all have streaked blonde ponytails and designer clothes and the hispanic ones all wear skin-tight Walmart stuff that shows every bulge. I'm gorgeous down here!

[Canuck Carrie 1]

There are no farmers' markets in south Texas. There is no such thing as "in season" for anything.

TX Farmers Markets

[Caladan 19]

LOL!!!! Hey, that was my headline too, except substitute "pagan" for "atheist". Luckily, I was able to spend one 5 month block down here before I emigrated, so I got most of my anti-organized-religion anger out of the way first. And, gf, you ain't seen nothin' till you've seen the hispanic women down in San Antonio, as far as weight goes. I'd be standing in front of my bathroom mirror, wailing about looking pudgy and then I'd go to the grocery store... Holy cow! Not only did they all weigh more than me, they all wore their clothes AT LEAST one size too small so there were rolls and rolls of fat hanging over the waistbands. The WASPy types all have streaked blonde ponytails and designer clothes and the hispanic ones all wear skin-tight Walmart stuff that shows every bulge. I'm gorgeous down here!

Oddly, that was my experience in Alberta, minus the Hispanic thing. Lots of very round people in tight expensive clothing.

[Velvettt 0]

There are no farmers' markets in south Texas. There is no such thing as "in season" for anything.

TX Farmers Markets

Thanks, Carrie, but I already knew that website and investigated a lot of them. Not one REAL farmers' market among them. Most of them refer to someone with a pickup truck in the parking lot of some store, mostly selling watermelons. I'm talking about a whole parking lot full of different vendor stands, selling everything from apples to zucchini. No such animals around San Antonio, I'm afraid.

[DeadPoolX 9]

You know...if you live in Texas, you have access to Central Market. When my Canadian fiancee was down here in Houston on a trip, I brought her there, and she thought the place was fantastic. That store isn't cheap by any stretch of the imagination, but it has practically anything and everything you could want (even things my fiancee had suggested I buy but I couldn't find elsewhere at other stores, like Krogers or Randalls). Most of the items are also without the "extra #######" put into them; much of their stuff is organic as well.

Here are the locations of Central Market in Texas. It is, in fact, a Texas-only operation.

I hope that helps a little on your quest for finding "good food" here in the United States.

[Velvettt 0]

Thanks, Dead. Central Market is actually on my street, valet parking and all. I take all Canadian visitors there so they can see what $40/lb meat looks like. LOL

Central Market is owned by HEB, which is the one and only grocery store chain in San Antonio and while they carry a lot of "luxury" items, their fruit and veggies section contains the same stuff as at a regular HEB store, but at grossly inflated prices. I.E. the same asparagus that is $3.99/lb at HEB is $5.99/lb at Central Market.

That said, I do really appreciate you folks trying to help me out.

[littlepoem 0]

Ok, I just have to put my 2 cents in here. It's about the portions of food they give you here!!! It's amazing, I could not possibly eat 1/2 of what is on my plate. We have a buffet here called the Old Country Buffet and I am telling you it is like a yard sale at that place of not just overweight but obese people. We watched people who play cards between platefuls and even a lady that was falling asleep with a bun in her hand at the table with a HUGE plate of dessets in front of her. Now, maybe it's just me but isn't it time to quit when you are sitting comatose at the table???? lol....I only weigh 93 pounds and feel when I am there like I need to keep moving because I could be mistaken for a snack or a rack of ribs..lol....ok, enough from me but I just had to share. By the way I just watched the movie "supersize me" WOW!!! MCDONALD'S ANYONE?

[Canuck Carrie 1]

Thanks, Carrie, but I already knew that website and investigated a lot of them. Not one REAL farmers' market among them. Most of them refer to someone with a pickup truck in the parking lot of some store, mostly selling watermelons. I'm talking about a whole parking lot full of different vendor stands, selling everything from apples to zucchini. No such animals around San Antonio, I'm afraid.

Even the one in Rockport? I was hoping that one might be okay as we try to get down to the coast whenever we can.

You'll have to drive up to San Angelo then, ours is a 'proper' one but you have to get there before 9am.