Trade Fair

There's a grocery store in our neighborhood that caters to the multitude of niche markets that make up Jackson Heights. I went shopping there this evening with Eric, and it's amazing what you can find in this tiny store. (Tiny by grocery store standards. There are 8 skinny aisles--and if you haven't shopped in a NYC supermarket, think skinnier than you are imagining.)
Due to the limitation in space, this market uses every inch of vertical space. If you are looking for toilet paper, look up--as in 8 feet above the ground over the produce--up. This market doesn't use the psychological approach that the inexpensive items should be high or low, out of the normal range of vision. Instead, it seems to take a very practical approach of putting light items like toilet paper high as well as items that can hang from hooks, like feather dusters and frying pans. To find the items on my shopping list, I had to walk slowly and scan the aisles all the way up to the ceiling, and this is some of what I noticed in my search for Q-tips. (which I didn't find by the way):
-black rye bread like we buy in Germany
-British cookies
-half an aisle of Indian specialty products -- large bags of nuts, dried beans, spices, etc.
-a large section of canned Turkish items like stuffed grape leaves and specialty olives
-half an aisle of Goya products
-Kosher soap...which is right above the
-Catholic candles in glass jars with pictures of Jesus and the saints on them
-Mexican white cheese
-Columbian arepas
-Twinings tea
-Nestle and Hershey chocolate chips and generic American baking products
-organic, cage-free eggs and a new section of organic vegetables to cater to the new arrivals in the neighborhood
-mango concentrate and other sugary drinks with fruits that I don't recognize from South America
-Microbrew beers (including ones from Brooklyn)
-And then the somewhat bizarre assortment of items like hot pads and fly swatters and frying pans and charcoal and lighter fluid, which I know are common enough in normal grocery stores but feel bizarre to me since the store doesn't even stock Q-tips.