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| - After shopping at a small middle eastern market and bragging to a friend about my cool finds he asked me if I had ever been to the International Marketplace. I hadn't, so we decided it was time for a field trip!!!! Oh... how I love our field trips! We drove to the south east corner of Decatur and Tropicana and there it was. It was huge. I would compare the size to about a regular large grocery store. Until now, I had always been used to teeny tiny international markets that specialized mainly in Indian and Middle Eastern finds. This surprised me. They had a small parking lot that was almost full. We quickly parked and hurried inside to see the treasures we (and our tummies) would find.
As soon as we walked in on the left right before entering the actual grocery was a small place where it seemed that ducks were roasting along with other cooking meats. It smelled delicious. We kept going on in to the grocery and were almost overwhelmed with all there was. There seemed to be almost every country represented in some way or another. There were so many spices, teas, candies, cookies, seafood, exotic vegetables, and even live fish and oysters! Some items, such as the feta cheese, I found cheaper here than in my neighborhood grocery store!
I returned on that weekend because I had been searching all over for blue and white dinner bowls. Guess what... this place had them! There were even cooking utensils and blankets at the very end of the market! What don't they have???
Everyone should know beforehand though that this place is considered a "club" store. This means that you should have a membership to get "member prices". If you don't have a membership and choose not to get one I believe an extra 5% is added to the order. Otherwise, you can purchase the membership right as you are checking out and fill out the rest at the customer service desk. It only costs $10 for an entire year. I think this is a great price to pay. Some items I find here cheaper than other stores and also I like the options there are. It's nice to pick up some things for gifts or parties that no one else can find. In fact, as I am typing this, I am drinking my Japanese Jasmine bloom tea and eating some Croatian chocolate wafers as a little dessert!
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