VACATIONS ABROAD - SUMMER SHOPPING QUEST - WELCOME TO CROATIA

A few days ago I and my folks went to a short walk through the town in order to do some light-weight shopping. We have some favorite shops which we like to visit because they offer a lot of discounts. On our way I took a few snaps of my town, I hope you will enjoy my collages.

From the top left to right.

1. Town's main Clinical Hospital Center from the lower entrance
2. Streetview on the trees in Kresimirova ul. ( one of the main city's streets)
3. Department of Public Health PGC with a bronze sculpture called Motherhood.
4. Railroad terminal ( inside view)
5. Specific triangle corner building on Mlaka, Rijeka

Our main objective is to acquire a good, quality food under acceptable price. Discounts can be dangerous - expiration date, damaged goods, poor storage techniques... There are so many things to take in consideration.

I can even imagine what kind of a hassle it has to be if you are a foreigner who came to Croatia for a vacation.

I will list a few shopping malls where we usually go, and you can use it as well - Kaufland, Plodine, Konzum... others that we sometimes visit are Lidl, Billa, Interspar, and Tommy. Basically, you can buy the same things in one and each of them, but the discounts are held on different days.

There are also the certain tricks how to get away with low expense. The in-house brands are usually much cheaper than the branded products, even if they are the same thing. And many products, with minor differences, taste the same or even better than the originals.

For example, if you come anywhere in Croatia, and you enter the Plodine, almost every basic and even the luxury product has the domestic match, you just need to find a product with a stamp that says 'Plodine'.
If you come to the Konzum, you will notice that some price covers are blue- that's because they offer a discount for the holders of the Multi Plus cards, a little piece of plastic that gives you an advantage of a discount in 8 various shops.

This is one more snap spree which I take the same day. This is a boiler room tower in Hospital center, and this image you won't find anywhere but maybe in some personal collections. It doesn't get much press.

So, you ask me, where you can find all these discounts? I mean if you go to the summer vacation in Croatia, you should have a base website where to check all of that, or you can just buy all those things in a local shop...

I will stop you right there. The local shops next to the summer resorts or local small town's shops are multiple time more expensive than the shopping malls.

I will give you a head start. Going through an each and every one of the official websites for food, clothes, materials ... etc, will lead you nowhere. The only website you will ever need to find everything in one place is... Katalozi... and ... if you hate paying full price but you need something in specific ... furniture, books, free stuff, a piece of an ancient UFO, Byron's skull... you will need to head to the Njuškalo and go a bit thought it. It is a garage sale type of a website and you can easily find anything even the free giveaways.

I will not preach to you about how our food is fabulous and great, we all know where the world is going in matters like the organic farming and no-dangerous chem policies.

All that fruit and vegetables on the shelves are soaked in an anti-decay agent which is toxic in the greater amounts...

I said enough.

Always, always, always ... check the expiration date on everything because they tend to put the food on a discount at the very last day. I don't know for other places, but in Croatia, they are notorious for doing that.
Never ever buy previously frozen fruits( unless it is deep frozen) because it will rot faster or it is already rotten in the middle.
Don't buy eggs, unless you check an each in a box. Other shoppers know this, so people usually transfer all the cracked eggs into one special box and if you are 'lucky' you could get home with that special 'smashed' box.
Don't buy double packaged chicken with the low expiration date. Trust me you don't know why. If you want roasted chicken, just buy one at the counter.
Don't buy any stuffed peppers in the sauce at the shopping mall's kitchen, they usually use too much of the preserving spice ( I mean insane too much), you will not appreciate it.
Buy only the watermelons that are cut and split. Some can be green, and others can develop gasses due to the transport and heat, and explode while you cut them.

I am an avid shopper and discount hunter, so I know a lot of tricks and tips, places and details that may help anybody passing or spending a vacation in my country. I hope I will share more of them with you soon.