shopping

One of my old supervisors back at Beale AFB was from Guam and he gave me some solid advice before I moved, If you see it on the shelf, and you want it, buy it now. I understood what he meant but now that we're living the island life, I really understand what he meant. 

Shopping on Guam is similar to the states in the fact that we have malls, we have a Macy's, a Kmart, a Home Depot, grocery stores, a Ross... But everything is crazy expensive and the selection leaves a lot to be desired. One quick example is toilet paper. Back home a 12 pack costs us about $5.99. Here, it's $8.99 for the same package on base and $11.99 off base! Luckily, we have base privileges and can shop at the commissary and the exchange. They tend to be cheaper than buying off base but still lacking in the selection aspect.

George and I were looking for a shower curtain for our bathroom. Right now, the bathroom is covered floor to ceiling in baby blue tiles. The shower curtain our landlord left is multicolored: dark blue, medium blue and light blue. It's a lot of blue. So we set out to get a new shower curtain, easy right? We checked the Navy Exchange, the Base Exchange, Kmart, Home Depot, Macy's and Ross. We couldn't find anything we even slightly liked, or that wasn't blue. So we'll just order online, right?! And here is where the quirks of island living come in... no one ships to Guam! And if you find that rare company that does, it's going to be super expensive to ship. However, I do want to give a little shout out to American Eagle. Not only do they ship to Guam, but the shipping is the same price as the states and it's fast! I bought some shorts online and not only did they get here in 5 days, but I qualified for free shipping. They seriously earned my business.

Another quirk is the supply. When something runs out, it may be out for a while. There's a brand of tortillas that we buy and the commissary sells. One grocery trip I noticed they were out so I figured I'd just swing by the next week and get some. Wrong. They were out for 3 weeks! When they restocked, I bought 5 packages to prepare for the next tortilla shortage.

Speaking of supply, on the island, Ross gets its shipment in on Tuesdays. I made the ill fated mistake of shopping at Ross on Tuesday. There may or may not have been tears during the 55 minute wait in line to buy the last yoga mat. Like a wise man once said though, If you see it on the shelf, and you want it, buy it now. Sure I waited a long time in line for one thing, but you know what? I've been back to Ross several times in the past month and there's been zero yoga mats!

While selection can be an issue, it can also be a good thing. Sure, they only carry one flavor of yogurt (and it's usually close to expiration) but they have a ton of selection when it comes to Asian style foods. Ever look up a recipe on how to make traditional Pancit or Korean Bulgogi and you can't find some of those crazy ingredients at your local Bel Air? Guess what? Guam has it alllllllllllllll. And I love to cook and eat all types of Asian food. So sure, California, take your fancy non-expired dairy and your edible fresh vegetables, I'll just be over here eating ramen and BBQing Bulgogi.

My advice to anyone moving out here is to stock on any items you use frequently because you probably won't be able to find it here and if you do, it'll be twice as expensive. Oh, and be forewarned that you may or may not become a hoarder of tortillas.