Things I wish Sweden would adopt from the U.S.
1. Wal-mart, K-mart or Target
I’m not choosy, any one of the stores would be terribly appreciated. You can say what you like about Wal-Mart, but if you’ve lived without something like it for 5 years, you will never complain again! When we moved to Sweden, it took me days of hard searching to finally find a curling iron that set me back 50 bucks. Where did I buy it? At a home electronics store. . . go figure.
2. Doctors’ offices that schedule appointments for the next day if they haven’t any time slots available. Nothing is more irritating than being told, after waiting on the phone for 45 minutes, that there are no time slots available for the doctors to see your screaming child who is burning with fever, and that you should call back tomorrow or go to the emergency room after 5:00 p.m.
3. Tex-Mex or Mexican Restaurants
We went to a so-called Mexican restaurant yesterday and I nearly cried from disappointment. They served a buffet lunch and there was nothing that resembled my beloved American mexican food. It didn’t even resemble authentic Mexican food. I just want to enjoy fresh tortillas, homemade salsa and something that has some cheese on it. . .
4. Peanut Butter Cups
Most Swedish chocolate is terrific. But every once in a while, I really miss peanut butter cups.
5. Customer Service
Restaurant Servers don’t care if they help you or not. Complaints are greeted with the phrase “it’s the rule” and that is the end of the discussion.
6. Lower sales tax. Swedes pay 25 % tax on everything. It makes things so expensive.
Before people start feeling smug, I’ll write a post about things I wish the U.S. would adopt from Sweden.
Great perspective. I personally like Walmart. The ability to get almost everything I need for a very cheap amount is very appealing to me. 🙂
I cannot wait to see the US list.
Is there no Tesco? I discovered this store was in England, London, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. It is much like a Super Wal-mart.
Oops, I meant to say Austria instead of London.
Also, I noticed that peanut butter and peanut items in general were very rare indeed. Hazelnut seems to be the ‘peanut’ of Europe.
Who eats peanut butter? Swedes don’t eat, and I don’t eat, too. But nevertheless (my favorite English word!) your list is wonderful. I agree with most of the things, but not with peanut butter. (I’ve seen it here somewhere, but it’s as you described with your curling iron: Where did I buy it? At a food store…)
Of course Swedes don’t eat peanut butter. I don’t even eat it. Peanut Butter cups are an American candy that has a peanut butter filling and a chocolate coating. It’s a nice combination of salty and sweet. You can buy peanut butter at Willys–the skippy’s kind which is really awful in Sweden (which is why Swedes and europeans don’t like it). If you really want to try decent peanut butter to understand why Americans like it, you should try Jif. It’s much more like nutella or something like that. The Skippy brand that is sold in Sweden is horrible. Now I’m going to have to make you try some. Stackars dig!
I’d miss peanut butter cups, too!
And I can appreciate the lack of a Walmart from being in Armenia.