Let talk groceries and laundry

C

capital

Banned
So I am spending 2 months over the summer in hong kong, most of that I will be on my own with 3 kids, age 1,5,7. I have never spent that much time there, or by myself there, so I am trying to figure oiut how I am going to do everything. I live your typical north american suburban life, grocery shop 1/week in 1 BIG trip and try to do it with only the baby or alone as draggin 3 kids to the store is generally a nightmare. My older 2 hate shopping in any form and will whine and complain the entire time. The baby doesn't like it either, but he is strapped into the cart so it doesn't really cause me any problems. So now how am I going to buy groceries, a little at a time as the carts are so small and I have to walk home and fridge is half the size as at home.
Do stores deliver groceries?
Are there any online grocery stores?
Do you eat local meat or only meat that is imported.
Same with produce? I never worried too much about his befoe because I wasn't there that long, but now I'm not so sure.
We are at the gold coast and I think the store there is a welcome, but my husband seems to think it is a "special" welcome with "special" higher prices. Any truth to this?


How do you realistically do laundry in Hong kong. In past visits I have had to run that sucker constantly day and night to wash and dry cloths in those terrible little combo machines. It takes hours to do 1 load and it still isn't dry! what am I doing wrong? Do you just not wear cotton, how to you get anything dry line drying with such high humidity. I just don't know what to do. With 3 kids I go through a lot of laundry! I do laundry all day long 1 day a week with a giant washer and dryer in Canada. How do I adapt to hong kong laundry.
 
Well I can't answer them all but I can help with some! Wellcome does deliver to your home if you spend over a certain amount, which in your case shouldn't be a problem. My husband and I have done it before for just the two of us, so I am sure with three kids you will too! I don't think the fresh stuff will be delivered though since it takes a day! I don't know about online stores. Most of the meat in grocery stores has been imported I think. If you buy from wet markets probably not. I have done it and never got sick from it but just thinking about how the meat is kind of hanging there all day makes me kind of ill, so in general I buy from grocery stores with refrigerators! The produce mostly is imported too, though I like the idea of buying it from here, it is sure hard to come by. Gold coast is a nice place with a big expat population. (I got engaged on the beach there, actually!) Can't remember exactly what the grocery store is like, but your husband is probably right.
About the laundry, we have a very small washing machine also. Just the two of us so far, so it is still alright. It does not have any drying functions, just a damn good spinner! Once they are done spinning, we hang them up next to the window and in the summer time that is usually sufficient for them to dry within that day. In spring or winter sometimes it doesn't work so well, so we have got small dehumidifiers that also have a drying function. Put one under the hanging clothes and it works very well. We also have a pretty cool dryer installed in the ceiling of our bathroom. It can be either a room heater or a clothes dryer. Just hang all the clothes in there, set the timer, and shut the door and they get dry. I don't know what to tell you though- space is way smaller here and you have to do things on top of other things a lot. I don't really know how it will even work so well when our baby is born and there are three of us, so I can see with three kids it will be challenging! Good luck!
 
For Groceries you can use

http://shop.wellcome.com.hk/jsp/sys/Sf_render.jsp?hf_s_id=WD11&hf_srv_id=Pv_fcu_home&hs_resol=1024

This is Wellcome's website. So long as you spend $500 or more delivery is free. You just select the day and a time you want it delivered. I generally don't do fresh vegetables or fruit etc but at least you can get the bulk delivered and then just pick up fresh stuff as you need it.

The other way to do it is if you head to your closest supermarket and select the stuff you want then you can just ask them have it delivered. Again if it is over $500 delivery is free. You will need to take the fresh and frozen stuff with you though.

As for "special" Wellcome stores. The main stuff should be the same price as in other stores but you may find there is more western imported goods compared with another store. This is because Gold Coast has a lot of Westerners so they will try to have items that they would like.

For fruit and vegetables I generally buy imported stuff although there is now a few local organic farms that friends have started using that deliver. Here is a few websites to have a look at...

This is a HK one where you can get a delivery every week but will not get to choose what you want you will get what is in session.
http://www.organic-farm.com/buy.htm


Another website is an Australian one that imports fruit and veges. Quite expensive but worth a look.

http://www.aussieorganics.com/page.asp?parentid=19&parent2id=22

Meat is also another one I tend to buy imported. Most of the stuff has been pre-frozen so it is a case of buying for the next few days, not buying to put in the freezer. There is lots of stuff in the freezer section also and they work out slightly cheaper. Again there are websites that you can purchase stuff through. Not cheap but worth a look.....

http://www.south-stream-seafoods.com/store/index.html

http://www.meatmarket.com.hk/home.php

http://www.meat.hk/english/home/default.asp

http://www.tenderloin.com.hk/

Hope that helps.
 
I live a the gold coast and there used to be a "wellcome" here but it changed to "market place by jasons" last year and your husband is right... the prices are much higher! I do a weekly park and shop order and they deliver here, there is also a "Taste" in Tuen Mun and one in Tsuen Wan which are easily accessible from here.
As for washing, I just wash in the machine and hang outside, you are right that it does take a while to dry. There is a laundry shop in gold coast which does normal washing/drying and dry cleaning so that could be an option for you.
 
capital said:
How do you realistically do laundry in Hong kong. In past visits I have had to run that sucker constantly day and night to wash and dry cloths in those terrible little combo machines. It takes hours to do 1 load and it still isn't dry! what am I doing wrong? Do you just not wear cotton, how to you get anything dry line drying with such high humidity. I just don't know what to do. With 3 kids I go through a lot of laundry! I do laundry all day long 1 day a week with a giant washer and dryer in Canada. How do I adapt to hong kong laundry.
Click to expand...

When we lived in an apartment with no balcony, we had the dehumidifier running. We could handle two loads a day.
If you happen to live in a home that has a central fan running in the bathroom, we used to line up the clothes over the bathtub (using hangers) on the shower curtain rail/string (like they have in a hotel). It takes a day to dry and some days two. But, we had to limit laundry to one load a day or else it didn't dry.

Otherwise, you could drop it off at one of those Chinese laundry shops which charges by the kilo/pound for washing drying and folding. We lived out in the N.T. where there was a cheap laundry shop. Just to give you an idea of prices, king size bedsheet + kingsize doona cover + 6 adult pillo cases + one child's bedsheet + donna cover + two pillow cases + towels = $75. We're now in a more expat environment and it's more expensive, $98.
 
Hi there,
There are some places that will deliver frozen meats and stuff online: http://www.south-stream-seafoods.com/store/index.html
Laundry can be a challenge, but what you could do is get your sheets and towels done professionally (not sure how much it is, but lot of people do this) and then do the clothes on your own with a dehumidifier. We buy most of our meats and veg at the grocery store. You'll need to take the perishables home with you, but they'll deliver the non-perishables.
 
Both ParknShop and Wellcome will deliver, $500 minimum to make it free. For fresh stuff you can go to that Market Place that AmyH mentioned. The selection is small but should do ok, though the prices are high.
If I have a choice, I eat imported meat (Aus, US, Canada), but am ok with HK meat, and will only eat meat from China when desperate. Most of the packaged meat here is from somewhere else.
For produce, whatever will be at the Market Place will be ok. I think they have organic produce too. But local stuff is fine and fresh too.
Laundry here is a pain. We do laundry here every day because they are smaller loads. I actually live on the top floor so I have access to the rooftop, but I don't always use it. I often hang the clothes in the spare room, open the windows or turn on the dehumidifier. A lot of apartments have small clotheslines outside one of the windows where you can hang clothes.
If you're here in summer, shouldn't be a problem bc even with the humidity, it's really hot and clothes dry fast.
 
I agree with all of the above. With all the food scares in China (a recent one on hormones injected into pork) we avoid all meat from China and try and avoid veges from there as well but that sometimes means we can't have something because it is just too expensive (eg: sweet potato). We find some imported veges are reasonably priced - eg: carrots from Australia, lettuce and baking potatoes from the US, asparagus and cherry tomatoes from Thailand, beans from Kenya. We are also avoiding veges from Japan at the moment with their devastating nuclear situation there. Imported meat is expensive but often on special at our Wellcome. We buy Brazilian chicken and beef mince. Sometimes Australian if it is on special. We occasionally get frozen meat or fresh fish from South Stream (mentioned above) and that is good.

Laundry - we also wash every day and run a dehumidifier in one room constantly to dry the clothes. The combined washer/dryers are hopeless at drying. On the odd occasion we have something that needs to be dried urgently (grobag/blankie bear!) we use the dryer function on the washing machine but it takes 2 hours!
 
Thanks for all the tips and websites!

How do you tell if meat is from china, will it be labelled as such? Or does one assume it is from China if there is no label from any other country. Or do I only need to worry about that at wet markets?

that would be great to take the laundry out, but I just can't imagine hauling all my laundry out somwhere. I'll have to get used to line drying and buy a dehumidifier.
 
The meat in our Wellcome store is almost always labelled with its country of origin. Not sure if it is a new thing, but I find almost everything in the store (dry goods too) is labelled. I have really taken to checking everything now as was surprised to see my "big name" brand peanut butter is now made in China. Really pays to check the labels if it is something you are concerned about. There is a lot of Chinese meat in the supermarkets so it is not just something you need to think about in the wet markets. I should stress that this is a concern for our family but a lot of people have no issue with this. If I see meat that is not labelled then I avoid. It is probably HK (which I would be ok with) but could be China (which I am not ok with). I think a lot of people (me included) have been scarred by the melamine baby formula tainting in China recently which has made me make much more of an effort in choosing the products I give to my family.
 
capital said:
that would be great to take the laundry out, but I just can't imagine hauling all my laundry out somwhere. I'll have to get used to line drying and buy a dehumidifier.
Click to expand...

Depending on where you live, you might get the ability to drop off and pick up your laundry at the front desk. We have this in our apartment block so it's easy to get both bulky laundry and dry cleaning done.
 
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