The "American" section is very small.
I am an American and Scotland's version of American food in grocery stores.
There are hot dogs in jars, giant marshmallows, Nerds candy, and uniquely named Doritos.
Twinkies, pancake mix, and cereals are expensive in the UK.
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I have lived in the United Kingdom for several years, but I was born and raised in America.
American goodies are usually offered by UK grocery stores. The "American" section is usually small and expensive, and can be confusing.
Here is a picture of the American food section in a large supermarket in Scotland.
There is a wide variety of American snacks and products in the UK.
There's usually a small end cap.
The standard American section in a large grocery store is usually a few shelves.
It will usually only include packaged snacks and drinks.
The American section has hot dogs in brine.
The hot dogs in a jar are not made in Brooklyn.
A juicy ballpark-style hot dog fresh off the grill is definitely American. According to UK supermarkets, true American hot dogs come in salty water.
Two popular brands are the Brooklyn All-American Style Big Dog and the Ye Olde Oak American Style Hot Dogs.
A jar of hot dogs costs about $5.
Breakfast cereals are one of the most expensive imports in the store.
The price of American cereals can be over $7 a box.
If you want to live in the UK and eat American breakfast cereals every day, you need to remortgage your house.
A single box of fruit loops costs $5.25. It's about $7.45 before milk.
The UK has its own brands of cereals, but none are as dessert-like as Hershey's Kisses, which retails for £5.25.
Pancake mix is a high end product.
The item that is considered a luxury item here isbisquick.
If you thought cereals were expensive, you might want to check out the price of the pancake mix at $5.85 per box.
Americans would call pancakes crepes. They're thin, floppy, and often served with fruit syrup or lemon and sugar.
It makes sense that the cost of the mix is roughly the same as the cost of gold leaf.
Apparently marshmallows are an American thing.
The marshmallows are pink.
Some UK stores offer marshmallows for baking or hot chocolate.
If you want large marshmallows, like the kind you'd use for s'mores, you'll usually have more luck in the "American" section.
I thought marshmallows had no nationality when I moved to the UK. I assumed their availability in supermarkets was the same as "Law and Order" reruns.
Big, puffy marshmallows are an American thing.
A bag of toastin' marshmallows costs $4.30 They're pink, not the standard white color in the US.
The UK has a different look to it.
The popular American item is Gatorade.
When my husband first visited America, he bought a lot of sports drink. He said he had never seen a drink that was so colorful.
A 500-milliliter bottle of the sports drink costs about $2.20 in the UK grocery store.
Glacial Cherry and grape are not available in the UK. In the UK, I've noticed that grape-flavored food and drinks are rare.
Artificial flavor is included in the US version of Cool Blue. Cool Blue in the UK is made with natural flavoring.
The ingredients are different in the US.
The UK limits the use of certain artificial dyes and colors in food, which may have something to do with my husband's shock at seeing a beverage aisle with all the colors of a supernova.
The rest of the drink section includes cans of A&W root beer.
The drink section has a few types of soda.
Different flavors of Doritos have different names.
There are different names for Doritos in the US.
The UK doesn't have the classic US flavors of Doritos and Cool Ranch, for reasons that must make sense to Frito-Lay's marketing wizards.
They have been renamed Tangy Cheese and Cool Original.
Cool Original and Tangy Cheese seem to be slightly less loaded with flavor powder than their US counterparts.
The Tangy Cheese is similar to the Nacho Cheese in the US.
They're on the shelf next to the other flavors of the brand.
I haven't seen this type of food in the US.
A bag of the snack costs about $3.50.
The Cheetos look like a soccer ball and feel like a mental agility test.
These are puzzling because of the differences between the US and the UK.
They taste like standard American Cheetos, but with a hint of confusion. Footballs in the US are oblong and brown, but they are called footballs.
You can afford to snack on these puffs until the packaging makes sense, because they're only $1 per bag.
Nerds candy is in the American section of UK grocery stores.
I'm not sure why nerds are popular in the UK.
Nerds are not an award winning candy like M&Ms or Reese's Cups.
Nerds are thought to be a pillar of the American diet by grocery stores in the UK.
Nerds take up one of only six shelves in the "American" section. I count six different varieties of Nerds products.
They're cheap for imported candy. You can get a Nerds Rope for about $1.
The rest of the candy section is random. The white-chocolate Reese's is not the milk-chocolate original.
There is no milk-chocolate Reese's.
WarHeads Cubes and Sour Smog Balls were not popular in the US.
Twinkies are expensive.
Twinkies are very expensive.
Twinkies are a cheap treat in the US. A box of Twinkies costs about $8 in the American section.
You can buy an organic, 30-day matured premium steak in the same UK grocery store.
The canned pumpkin is only in the US.
It's pretty rare to have a pumpkin that's been tinned.
premade pumpkin-pie filling in the UK is more difficult to buy than antimatter.
The British don't know if canned pumpkin is sweet or not, so it's shoved between crackers and candy in the American section.
If you want to buy a can of pumpkin in the UK, you can expect to pay about $2.
Pop-Tarts are expensive.
The UK only has a few Pop-Tarts.
There are only three flavors of Pop-Tarts that are sold in the UK.
If you want any of the US flavors, you have to check the American section.
A box of Pop-Tarts will cost you about $4.70
There are many pretzels in American sections.
pretzels are a common American aisle item.
I'm not sure if Synder's has a deal with the UK grocery chains or if the British just love Pennsylvanian pretzels, but these snacks are often front-and-center in American sections.
A snack bag costs about $1.
pretzels aren't as popular in the UK as they are in the US Soft pretzels are rare.
peanut butter is not in the American section.
When I first arrived in the UK, I couldn't find peanut butter. I would sometimes go to an American import store to get a jar of Jif for half my rent.
The peanut butter aisle in the American section has been replaced by regular UK shelves.
I haven't been able to locate the large swimming pool-size tub in US grocery stores.
American boxed macaroni and cheese is not available.
I would do anything for reliable access to classic, neon-colored, American-style boxed macaroni and cheese in the UK.
The American section sometimes features cheesey pasta that is not like American macaroni and cheese.
This isn't close to mac and cheese, in my opinion.
The chance to taste my beloved American version of mac and cheese is included in the price of each box.
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