Supermarket

Once I land in any city, I promptly drop my bags and head to the closest available supermarket – an instinctive way to orient myself in an unfamiliar place. Perhaps a central marketplace would suit this habit better, but I'm not always near a mercato, bazaar, or pasar. However, I need to taste what the locals are tasting to really know where I have arrived.

I distinctly remember when I travelled to Japan a decade ago, my first taste was in a supermarket (of all places!) and it was a tamago sando. I didn't know what was different except that I knew my egg sandwiches at home did not taste the same. The answer was in one of the aisles, which I later discovered to be Kewpie mayo – a staple in my pantry ever since.

Never leave me unattended in the supermarket…. Japan circa 2016

As someone who grew up when corner shops were the only place to get groceries and basic fresh produce, I've adapted to supermarket culture quite effortlessly. To be fair, I have written about the design of corner shops before – I love the quiet simplicity of the local shopkeeper knowing your home address and household orders. The familiarity is what keeps my parents going to them. But me? I LOVE the supermarket. I find it a one-stop shop for all my needs and an enabler of independent decision-making. This is not to throw shade at the corner shop – I just find supermarkets are like an adult candy shop, a slightly healthier one perhaps!

At an event I attended recently, the ice-breaker question was: which is your favourite supermarket aisle? While it got me thinking, I haven't been able to come up with why I would choose a single aisle over another. I love my weekly grocery haul and how I can change things up according to seasons. I love the fresh produce aisle to see what I can add to my weekly rotation – early summer was mangoes, now it is peaches and strawberries, knowing that there will be figs soon! But I also love seeing new spices and discovering if there's a coffee I haven't tried.

Apart from the aisles, as someone who works with consumer brands for a living, supermarkets are also places I frequent for on-ground research. To me, a supermarket enables both efficiency and discovery. The design of the supermarket finds a fine balance between everyday necessity while allowing one to chance upon a wonderful world of indulgence. In an ideal world, I could grab essentials like table salt without a treasure hunt, while still leaving room for delightful discoveries like a new ice cream flavor when time allows.

Supermarkets have definitely contributed to making the world more local. A few decades ago, having your favourite cookie or chocolate from another part of the world, or the vegetables you eat at home available in another country, was a near-impossible thought. Now, I can find everything from okra and bottle gourd to Kewpie mayo and Reese's peanut butter cups everywhere, and I have never been more thankful. I am sure there is a price we are all paying to have globalised food available locally. But imagine that there are so many people who now have the opportunity to travel to a new place without even leaving their neighbourhood!

To me, one of the best ways to discover the world is through food. With the localisation of technology, finding recipes about a certain region is fairly easy. If you can find all the ingredients in the supermarket, you are able to transport yourself in the middle of a bleak winter to Tokyo with a warm bowl of hearty ramen. And for many people who are unable to travel, these aisles become their window to cultures they may never otherwise encounter.

Supermarkets are our modern-day trade routes. The Silk Road and spice routes are among the famous ones through which trade happened and ingredients from one part of the world were introduced to another. One of my favourite anecdotes is that while India is known for chillies and spice, it is widely believed that chillies came to South Asia with Vasco da Gama! A few decades after his arrival, three types of chilli plants were found growing in Goa, where they were called Pernambuco pepper, named after the region in Brazil from where they had arrived. And to think that Indians adapted to chillies so quickly that they are now ubiquitous to Indian food culture!

In our age of transparency, supermarket chains have become accidental educators, clearly labeling where each tomato or mango originated. These simple tags trace the very trade routes that shaped history, making future generations more conscious of their global connections. When I first came through to London, I was amazed at how many non-Indians cooked Indian food and for so many of them, they wanted to travel to India to try the real thing! Far from replacing travel, supermarkets seem to inspire it. Access breeds curiosity, and curiosity opens many doors.

Supermarkets are designed as spaces for curated discovery. One of my favourite supermarkets that does this exceptionally well is Trader Joe's. Their extremely friendly and distinctive branding aside, I love going there to see what's new. They market-test their products in stores with free sampling and a space for 'new arrivals.' I invariably end up sampling new things and usually fly back with a lot of these as well because I clearly love a good experiment in my kitchen. I also find that the premium supermarket chain M&S in the UK similarly does a lot of new trials and has an ongoing test kitchen. Recently, I love the idea of the new 'dessert sandwich' they have introduced in celebration of Wimbledon's famous strawberries and cream.

TJ’s new items…. and M&S introduced this sweet sando which I’m waiting to try!

Supermarkets are actually shaping community identity. Contrary to popular belief, supermarkets are not a one-size-fits-all response. I find that when I visit the same chain in a different location, some of the available fresh produce is different and many of the snacks and food item choices vary. There is a localisation to neighbourhoods and what people prefer to shop for. Increasingly, I find that many of them are cultural epicentres of the neighbourhood and spaces for congregation. I recognise some of my neighbours because I've seen them frequent the same supermarket, creating a sense of community in a new place.

The supermarket is holding us together far more than we realize. Weaving communities, connecting cultures and quietly teaching us to be citizens of the world. Perhaps one day supermarkets will fully embrace their role as cultural epicenters where food tells the story of our interconnected world. Until then, see you at the shops!