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Veggie shop

This is a quick introduction to what an Auckland fruit and veggie shop is like.

It's generally in a handy location with ample parking but the area is rarely tidy or clean

It's often where the bread-winner of the family sits in the car with the children while the wife does the shopping.

It's also a place where inexperienced drivers with no insurance race for convenient parking spaces with the inevitable dents and scratches to car bodies resulting, and the occasional dispute over who was actually at fault.

The car-park is so busy because the goods are very cheap, attracting housewives, students, pensioners and people from a wide range of cultures and backgrounds.

Everyone is happy to be hassled in the car-park, jostled in the crowded aisles while they choose their goods and obliged to step over discarded or damaged foodstuff lying on the floor because the total price of their purchases is comparatively low.

Often there are meat and fish vendors nearby also, enabling the shoppers to get most of their buying done from the one stop.

One other feature of these shops is the efficient checkout procedure.

Shoppers don't mind queuing if the queue appears to keep moving.

One way this is achieved is by having someone available to supply boxes for shoppers when needed and sometimes this task is performed by the manager.

This typifies the owners' sensitivity to what the shoppers want.

Glossary

veggie (n)(adj) common abbreviation for "vegetable"

handy (adj) close at hand; nearby; conveniently placed; within walking distance

bread-winner (n) main earner in the household; person who earns the money

inevitable (adj) what cannot be avoided; certain to happen

dent (n) hollow dip made in some surface after an impact

car body (n) the visible part of a car; panels on the sides of cars

hassle (v) bother; pester; annoy; cause inconvenience to someone

jostle (v) bump; knock; push; contact others while in a crowd

aisle (n) walk-way between shelves of goods or rows of seats

sensitivity (n) understanding; awareness of others' needs