I bought 15 cans of Dr. Pepper today. I also bought 25 cans of A&W Root Beer, and a few bags of Cool Ranch Doritos. I’m not having a party or anything, I’m just a fat white girl in China. I left my home country with people, places, and comfort food that I love, and now I live in a new country full of strange people who like vegetables and soup. (And soup with vegetables.) So when I find something close to what I grew up with, I swell up with memories, sigh longingly and tell everyone, “I just have to buy it!”

Photo: Greencolander

Sometimes I buy just a few units of an item, but other times I take the rest of whatever is on the shelf. I basically hoard, store, and enjoy the product for the next few months. I know what I do is truly inconsiderate, even despicable, because when another foreigner does the same thing to me, I get so angry. My nickname at our local import store is “crazy lady” because so many times I’ve been seen cursing out loud and rubbing the bare spaces of shelves where comfort food once rested.

Yes, it’s a foreigner eat foreigner world out there, and if you’re not quick to buy what you love you’re left putting Kewpie dressing on your food (egghh), and hand rolling your tortillas. So what foreigners do to make sure they always have what they “need” to live without collapsing into homesickness, is buy up the entire lot of a product when they see it. I’m not just talking crazy here. Everyone does this, from the struggling college students to the villa soccer moms. “If you see it, you have to get it then,” says one of my friends from America. “People will buy it. They’ll buy all of it. Get it when you see it. It won’t be there next time.”

It gets funny when our Chinese friends see what we’re doing. I’ve had many-a-strange look from my ayi when I bring home large quantities of soda. It’s also fun to let your Chinese friends try your imported delicacies, because most of the time they don’t appreciate Western flavors. (For them, eating real Western food is like an episode of Fear Factor, and vice versa – most foreigners flinch when, um, faced, with chicken feet.)

I’ve even heard of expats who hide products in the store where other shoppers will never see it, so they can come back for it later. “I saw Dr. Pepper, and I put it upstairs and hid it behind a shelf of pasta,” confesses one of my American friends. I was amazed at how he could do something so devious, so low class, but then he told me he actually hid the soda for me to find it. “I told them you would come and pick it up sometime,” he said. Aww, I was so touched.

Not everybody is so selfish. There are those expats who are so altruistic that they tell others what is available. They send out mass text messages to everyone in their contact list, telling everyone that Kraft Mac n’ Cheese or Cinnamon Toast Crunch is at such and such a place. They divide and share their spoils with all. Some of my friends are like this, and really I wish we all could be. But until I can depend on a steady stream of goods from the US market, I cannot risk being generous.

Part of the problem is import stores in Nanjing are so deplorable. They are usually nothing more than a small shop with Japanese ramen and lots of crackers. I’m sorry, but I don’t really appreciate the Saltines. Please, can we get some Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups!?

 

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