Grocery Shopping Differences As an American in the UK

Moving from New York City to London wasn’t exactly a huge culture shock for me. The language and lifestyle are basically the same, and the only major differences I’ve noticed are the accent and currency.

However, since I moved in January, shopping for groceries has yielded some pretty big surprises.

From differences in business hours to product availability and placements, here are all the ways grocery shopping in the UK has thrown me for a loop.

Some staple items seem harder to come by

I live in a big neighborhood just outside Central London and have five grocery stores within walking distance. So, it’s not for a lack of trying when I say I haven’t been able to find some of my favorite grocery items nearby.

I was shocked to learn that half-and-half just doesn’t exist in the UK, especially because my then-boyfriend (now husband) had seemingly been preparing my morning coffee with it for years before my move.

Only after I expressed confusion about not being able to find it in the grocery store did I learn that he’d been mixing a custom blend of milk and cream for me all along.

I’ve also noticed that Italian sausage is harder to find. I evidently took for granted how prevalent and relatively inexpensive it was in New York, and even Michigan, where my parents live.

Of course, pork sausage is popular in the UK, but I’ve found that the versions available here (like the kind used in bangers and mash) are very different in texture and flavor.

Luckily for me, a local helped me find an Italian marketplace in Central London, where the sausages were excellent (and similar to what I had back home), just quite expensive.

The hours of operation are shorter than what I was used to in the US

Admittedly, I was spoiled by having access to a 24-hour grocery store in my New York City neighborhood.

I was accustomed to being able to pick up a few things on my way home from an evening out, or to occasionally capitalize on jet lag for some early morning shopping.

In London, I have to be more strategic — especially on Sundays.

If I want to visit a Lidl or Sainsbury’s on a Sunday, I only have a short window to do so, as the shops typically open at 11 a.m. and close by 5 p.m.

Eggs aren’t located in the refrigerated section

If you’re wandering around the refrigerated aisles in a grocery store in the UK, you won’t find any eggs.

Unlike in the States, eggs in the UK aren’t sold refrigerated because of differences in the sanitization process. Instead, they’re located on shelves, possibly near the baking supplies.

At first, I thought it was odd, but I quickly learned to adjust. I’m still keeping them in the fridge at home, though.

Certain items in the UK go by different names

It seems like every time I visit the grocery store, I have to Google what exactly I’m looking for.

Anyone familiar with “fish and chips” knows that chips equal fries in the UK, but what about Doritos? Here, they’re called crisps.

Meanwhile, zucchini is often called courgette and rutabaga is known as swede.

There are many American brands here, but some of the flavors are different

When I moved, I fully expected to adopt different brands of things like chips — sorry, crisps — and breakfast cereal.

What surprised me, though, was the differences in flavors available.

Cheerios are sold here, but they bear Nestlé’s logo rather than General Mills and the primary flavors are honey and multigrain. Big yellow boxes of plain Cheerios are conspicuously missing — at least at my local supermarkets.

The main difference between the plain Cheerios I’m used to and the multigrain variety I often see here is that plain Cheerios are primarily made with whole-grain oats, while the multigrain variety is made with a combination of whole-grain oat flour, whole-grain wheat flour, and whole-grain barley flour.

Meanwhile, Doritos still come in recognizable packaging, but some of the flavors have been renamed. Cool Ranch, for example, is called Cool Original in the UK, in part because Ranch dressing doesn’t really exist here. Some other differences include portion sizes, ingredients, nutritional contents, and bag colors.