Answers to last Friday’s question at f.riday5.com 🙂 

1. What do you usually reach for when you need just a little bite?

Usually chocolate if I want something sweet. If I want an actual food, a drinkable yoghurt.

2. How frequently do you visit convenience stores?

I guess my closest grocery store is technically a convenience store because it has somewhat limited selections and sells no clothes etc. but still has plenty of choice in food brands etc.? It’s a very common type of shop here, part of a supermarket chain called K-Supermarket – the next biggest type is the hypermarket which also sells garden stuff, small(ish) electric appliances, clothing, some books, cosmetics etc. in addition to food stuffs. But all the shops here which sell groceries sell the same brands, even if they have just a tiny selection basics.

I go shopping in my local store 1-3 times a weeks; it’s my main shop. Then there’s another shop of this same type and size but by S Group called S-Market, that I also go regularly to because some products are a little bit cheaper there and the fresh bakery breads selection there is different from my local shop and currently better. This shop is located in the city center and I usually go there when I also go to the library. But I try to shop a lot in my local store so that it stays and isn’t closed because then there won’t be any stores close by and probably also the other serviced in the building will get eventually closed down (post office, the chemist, restaurant etc.). Both shops have a nice fresh fish and meat counter, but in the S-Market it’s a lot bigger with also things like cheese and grilled chicken and fruit and vegetable salads. I love this because for a while there fresh fish and meat counters were non-existent except in the very big hypermarkets and even then, often not very good. But they seem to be making a return so I guess I’m not the only one who missed them!

I go the huge hypermarkets only about 3-4 times a year these days because I don’t have a car and so have to take the bus and the whole trip always takes 2 hours minimum or 3 hours depending on which hypermarket I go to, even though the actual shopping itself usually takes only 20 mins. The bus trip each way take so much time that I don’t want to do it often – when I go to a hypermarket, I’m always after some particular product my local shop doesn’t have or, after several rarely bought products (flour, cleaning stuff) my local shop does have but it’ll be a little bit cheaper to buy all of them from the hypermarket than my local shop. Back when I had a car, I generally shopped in a hypermarket once a week. Hypermarkets are usually a little cheaper than the supermarkets but reaching them can take a long time if you don’t have a car or don’t live right beside them. But if they are conveniently located or you have a car, they are the best place to shop at for the prices and the selection.

3. What’s your favorite chip?

Potato chip? Either the classic Taffel Sips The Original (flavoured only with salt) or Taffel Sips Broadway (sourcream & onion). Depends on the day.

4. What’s your favorite candy bar?

Fazerina by Fazer and/or Fazermint by Fazer. I can’t decide! I buy both of them as much, I think. I also love Pätkis, also by Fazer, almost as much as Fazerina and Fazermint.

5. What are some hard candies you especially like?

I’m not huge fan of hard candy and almost never buy it… but I LOVE Monpensiers Fruit Drops. I don’t think I’ve seen these fruit drops being sold anywhere but in tax-free in airports and on the Helsinki/Stockholm and Turku/Stockholm cruise ships. Before COVID-19 I used to ask my Mom to get them for me sometimes when she and her SO went on the 24 hour cruise to Stockholm. They used to do that 5-6 times a year so he could buy his topacco on the ship because it’s a lot cheaper there than in shops here in Finland. So I’d ask Mom to get me certain chocolates, chocolate liquor for baking and these fruit drops sometimes for me.