Grocery Shopping in Cairo

Hmmmmmmm,

I've been figuring my way around shopping for groceries & thought that maybe a couple of you could benefit from my experience.

Metro Markets are dotted around the city. They are each a small supermarket. Like a Foodworld from Bangalore. They have all the baiscs that you need for daily use. Some fresh fruits & vegetables. A small selection of raw meats, marinated meats, cold meats, cheeses & pickles. They have some variety in brands but not a huge lot. They are ok when you need to pick up groceries in a jiffy. But I have found them more expensive than the other local groceries or the bigger ones. The advantage is that most items are labelled in English as are the prices. A lot of expats do their regualr shopping here because of the convenience.

You can also try the Hawary Supermarkets. Its similar to metro but with more reasonable rates. The locals shop here. A word of warning though. Most prices are written in Arabic if they are written at all. The store personnel cannot speak too much English & the stores are quite crowded. The aisles are small & have a lot of people jostling for space for themselves and their trolleys. Once you know which brands you like & can speak a few words in arabic then you can attempt to shop here.

For your major shopping, try Carrefour It’s a French Hyper Market where you can get everything you want, that’s available in Egypt in quite a few varieties. You do get good discounts & they always have some offer or the other on. Most of the service staff can speak some amount of English or can refer you to someone who does speak English, so its quite a pleasure to shop here. The aisles are wide, the air conditioning works, lots of choice, good rates. Drawback : It’s a long drive from most residential areas. There's one on the Cairo-Alex desert road at Dandy Mall & another at Maadi grand mall (which isn't within Maadi as the name may suggest but some way off) They are both located in pretty decent malls, so you can plan a day around the experience. Of the 2, the Maadi mall is a better mall & there's a new one with more shops coming up along side it.

If you are more confident of yourself & know for sure which brands you want to purchase, then Hyper1 is a better option than Carrefour because their prices are much lower & they have a huger range especially of local products. Most locals shop here for their monthly shopping. Its completely worth the drive if you have to spend about 100LE on your groceries, you will save at least 15LE. So very worth it. Nicely spaced out. Only, the identifiers are written mainly in Arabic, prices are written in English numerals but not the names.

Between Hyper1 & Carrefour, I would recommend Carrefour for cold meats (cheaper) & unpacked spices in barrels -which you decide how much you want(labelled in English) For everything else Hyper1 is a better bet.

I've heard that the CityStars Mall in Nasr City has a Grocery store too in a Khan El Khalili Section, but I haven't really checked it out. So I can't comment. The Virgin store, located here is excellent for music & books & the Food Court is humongous. But I digress. Longer post on that sometime.

The local markets are always good for fruits & vegetables. Whatever I've seen of them, they look fresher than the stuff inside the supermarkets. I'm not yet too comfortable haggling in Arabic, so I've not attempted them yet. Although I have been told by locals, that they sell at a fixed price & there's no need to bargain. But given that I have no clue what the fixed rate should be, I'm still apprehensive. Maybe in the next couple of weeks.

You can buy lovely spices at the Khan El Khalili for much lower rate than at the above mentioned locations. But be ready to bargain. Most of these guys can speak enough English to bargain with them because of the sheer number of tourists that visit the market.

Your neighbourhood grocer will have a lot of the stuff that you may suddenly run out of, but I feel that the guy next to my house is overcharging me. Its easier to walk up to Metro Markets where prices are fixed & marked. At least there I know that I'm being overcharged the same as the other customers. LOL ! Your bowab or his wife will just as easily pick up the stuff for you from the grocer for a small tip (50p to 2LE depending on how much stuff he has to carry up)

Anything else you would like to add or would like me to answer ? Just drop me a comment. I'll be posting again in detail on what things are available & not available in Cairo.

Edit Add (29 Nov 06) : Spinneys at City Stars mall is similar to Hyper1 & Carrefour but I found its meat section cleaner & the general overall ambience was much better. But I was just window shopping, so I can't really comment on the prices vis a vis the others. Whatever little I saw, they were comparable & they have a better section of clothes here.