I went down to Luxembourg City (hmm, that’s almost how the Republic and Thus Spoke Zarathustra begin) in the hopes of getting a data SIM card. Alas, the prices I saw on the internet are for established customers who commit to a year. I’ll have to keep looking.

I also went to the hypermarket Auchan. To say that it anchors the eponymous mall doesn’t do justice to just how big it is. The ground level floor has electronics, clothes, more school supplies than I knew existed, and so on. The upper floor has food; the two floors are connected by escalators. At least in this mall, the escalators are flat like conveyor belts rather than having steps as they do in the States, which allows carts to easily change floors.

The three most frequent complaints I heard online were that Auchan is expensive, has poor produce in the store, and has produce that doesn’t last very long at home. One reviewer claimed that produce goes bad on the way home. That wasn’t my experience, but I did just get home.

The quality of the produce in the store seemed just fine to me. Everything looked great and the selection was greater than in other stores. Maybe Auchan upped their game. There is a small produce section by the coffee, and that produce does not look too great (but not bad either). I suppose it’s possible that some reviewers missed the main produce section.

I don’t have much data about prices. In fact, I have only two data points. On the one hand, they have the Nespresso Inissia for 10€ below MSRP. On the other hand, my beloved bitter lemon soda was 2.70€, substantially more than the 1.85€ I pay at Delhaize.

They do have Domino coffee:

But the real reason to shop at Auchan is this:

Yes! Colored toilet paper! How great is that?!