ABCDiamond

You listed these examples, and I said "Ours have a bigger range of biscuits than you have just listed" as we can get most of those plus more:

Just a few example biscuit Manufacturers here from Woolworths, I haven't checked what Coles, BiLo, IGA, Foodworks or ALDI sell.

* Mars Bisc And Bounty150g
* Mcvities Digestives Wheat Biscuit 250g
* Westons biscuits Nice 200g
* Griffins Biscuits Lemon Treats 250g
* Aunt Bettys Wheelie Chocolate 8pk 360g
* Dick Smith Shortbrd Cream 250g
* Cadbury Fruit And Nut Biscuits 200g
* Nabisco Oreo chocolate Creme 320g
* Fine Fare Creamy vanilla 250g
* Unibic Rsl Anzac biscuits 375g
* Paradise Cottage ckis Macadamia 220g
and of course Arnotts

What I am stating is that NOT ALL supermarkets in Australia are as bad as you indicate, and to indicate that there is only ONE manufacturer of Biscuits on Australian Supermarket shelves, does appear to be inaccurate.

NickyC

Well, here are 51 Arnotts varieties that I just thought of, off the top of my head - plus there would be others, of course made by different manufacturers:

Butternut Snaps
Gingernuts
Kingstons Orignal
Kinstons White Choc
Marie
Monte Carlo
Tim Tams:
Original
Chewy Caramel
Classic Dark Mocha
Coffee
Double Coat
Hazelnut Praline
Chewy Chocolate Fudge
Tia Maria

Chocolate Dessert
Custard Creams
Delta Creams
Full O Fruit
Hundreds and Thousands
Iced Tic Tocs
Iced Vo Vo
Lemon Crisp
Orange Slice
Rasberry Shortcake
Shortbread Creams
Spicy Fruit Roll
Rasberry Tartlets
Gaiety
Mandarin Slice
Mint Slice
Strawberry Slice
Chocolate Slice
Cherry Slice
Coconut Slice
Chili Chocolate Slice
Kahlua Slice
Royals
Choc Ripple
Emporio
Glengarry Shortbread
Granita
Malt-O-Milk
Milk Arrowroot
Milk Coffee
Morning Coffee
Nice
Tiny Teddy
Scotch Finger
Chocolate Scotch Finger
Tee Vee
Triple Wafer

Pollyana

This is nearly up to the standard of the threads on lettuce

ABCDiamond

How many different types of Lettuce are there in Australia ?

MrsDagboy

Mustn't have been to our local supermarket then, they have a whole isle of biscuits, both sweet & savoury, including half of the ones you mentioned. I'd guess at least 50 different varieties from different manufacturers. Arnotts is one manufacturer not one type of biscuits!

Are you for real? Where in Australia would you not find evaporated milk?

MrsDagboy

Some friends who came over for diner last night bought a packet of these with them - I dont usually like cherry or cherry ripe, but they were delicious!

NickyC

I bought both the Cherry and the Coconut recently - Coconut ones were lovely too. Haven't been game to try the Chili ones yet

NJJ

any of the supermakets in bairnsdale, victoria

MrsDagboy

Very weird! :scared: Did you ask them?

We even used to get evaporated milk at Eulo General Store 600 miles west of Brisbane, population 32 (including the policeman & storekeeper & their families) .

MrsDagboy

No, they sound a bit weird :scared: . Dagboy despises both coconut & cherry, so at least if I buy them I know they wont all disappear - unless the kids get to them of course .

ProofReader

Toowoomba is a smallish regional Queensland city which, up until a few years ago, was still very 'countrified' and behind the times in many ways. However, I have been there a couple of times with work in recent months (this year) and was pleasantly surprised to see a lot of changes and modernisation. There are several new estates and several new shopping complexes with excellent supermarkets.

So, to answer your question, specifically to Toowoomba: yes, there are supermarkets there at which you can buy everything you would in a large supermarket in UK.

As to the differences between supermarkets in Aus v UK, some of the more noticeable things for me were:

• In Aus they pack your bags for you at the checkout - every time.
• In UK far more unnecessary packaging was used, particularly on fruit and veg.
• In UK there is far greater variety of 'ready to heat and eat' meals, particularly frozen ones. (I call them 'pre-chewed' meals!)
• In Queensland you can't buy booze in the supermarkets, but there's usually a booze shop nearby.
• In both countries the standard of customer service is low, specifically regarding the use of good, old-fashioned manners. Most young workers these days have no concept of saying "please" when asking to be paid, nor do a lot of them say "thank you" once you've paid them. This one really gets under my skin!
• In both countries the amount of stock, and so the choice of products, carried by any given supermarket will vary from area to area.
• Overall the fresh meat (particularly beef and lamb) in Aus is far superior in quality and choice of cuts and a lot cheaper. Try getting diced lamb in a UK supermarket - not impossible, but not 'regular'! Also many of the cuts in UK (including bacon) are pumped up with water to add weight. Try frying UK bacon or what passes for 'steak' in UK on a low heat and you end up with a pan full of watery fluid. Sausages, however, are generally better in UK.
• Fruit and veg are generally cheaper in Aus, though there is less choice in types of potatoes.
• You will find some things named differently here (Aus) but they are the same thing: eg sweet peppers are called capsicums here, corgettes are zuccini here, etc.

Overall, the grocery shopping 'experience' is much the same in both countries. Of course you will notice differences between your local shops and those in Toowoomba, it is, after all, a different country! However, I think you'll find things to be much of a muchness.

Oh, and by the way, the range of types of biscuit here is just as good as UK. There may just be less brands (manufacturers). McVities Digestives and Hob Nobs are available here in the larger stores which carry more imported stock. And chilli Tims Tams are alright; different, not the sort of thing you'd eat a lot of, but good nevertheless!!

Megalania

Cripes - you've taken the cake!

Scossie

If an Australian decided to go and live in Tibet, would he expect all the Tibetan supermarkets to stock Tim Tams? Probably not!

At the risk of winning The Nobel, Stating The Blatantly Obvious, Prize, the reason why you can't get a lot of UK goods is because you now live in Australia.

Apparently, The UK is on the other side of the planet.

bal56

In the days when I was contemplating Melbourne, I was talking to a recruitment agent about jobs at Coles and was quoted several ex-Tesco and Sainsbury's people who'd moved to Oz. (I worked for Tesco in my formative years - wish I still did - I'd have some pretty decent share options!).
There is also some commonality in IT, so pretty soon I imagine Aussie supermarkets will closely match those in the UK.

robyn01

Hi
I would like to say that here in oz we only got electricity a couple of years ago so what do you all expect when it comes to a supermarket........lol
Come on people where do you all shop we have supermarkets and bottle shops that sell all sorts of stuff and yes you can go to a supermarket and buy what you want all i can say if you dont like our country dont come here go to a more modern country like the USA we really dont care.