Why Are There No Super Wal-Marts Here?

Spain is constantly filled with new learning experiences aka situations that often make me feel dumb, whether its getting off on the wrong stop at the metro or not being able to open my apt door with the key.  On Friday, I had one of those learning experiences at the supermercado, or grocery store. When I was living in Valencia, my madre always cooked for me so I never had to go shopping unless I went to get some semblance of American chips (which don't exist by the way) or some vino or something. Well this has all changed.
I walked into the store and the first thing I saw were the different cart choices. I wasn't there to get a whole lot so I choose the medium one.  Now this isn't the normal push cart, this is a 2 ft. deep by 1 ft. wide cart that rolls much like a suitcase would.  Please tell me I'm not the only one who has trouble with those things.  Now of course I go to the produce and bread first and then am smushing stuff on top of my soft items because there's really no where to put anything but on top of everything else.  But that's ok, I continue to do my shopping and sidenote--groceries in Spain are CHEAP. you can get as many fruits and vegetables as you want and they're all at least less than 50 cents, no 3.99 for cherry tomatoes here 4.50 for some stupid spring mix, its awesome! And they're all better quality, in my opinion.  Ok, so back to the story. I happened to be glancing at another gentleman's cart and notice that his produce is in these plastic bags with labels. That's when I see they have scales here! Ok Ok I can weigh these things. So I'm trying to scoop out all of my produce at the bottom while keeping my purse under my arm so as to deflect pickpocketers and then make my way to each sign so I can find out the number to type in to weigh every item (and come on, I went a little crazy what with all the cheap stuff!) I asked for help but customer service is often lacking here in Spain so she was pretty useless since she just couldn't pull herself away from restocking. Anyways I figure out what the item is, type in the code, weigh it, print the label, and voila! I do this for everything am off to find my delicious salty snacks. WHICH ARE NOWHERE TO BE FOUND. I know Spain is healthy but I need some starches which don't include bread! (I later found out the supermarket has a downstairs?)
Ohh well, I make my way to the checkout, which is another "oh shit" moment. I slowly realize the ones nearest me are for the big daddy carts and the checkout I need is near the door. But there appears to be a complicated maze to reach it. I just hang out, pretend to be browsing, until some girl makes her way over and I follow her. So when its my turn to finally checkout, the cashier notices that all of my produce have been weighed for the same fruit or vegetable item--every one!--I don't know what the word meant in Spanish but clearly everything had been weighed as some pear or Brussel sprout.  Now I know that I had found the correct item because it showed up as such on the screen but somewhere between that and printing, it never actually changed from what the person before me had been weighing.  Anyways the lady just kinda shakes her head as I apologize, realizing its not worth getting the American girl to fix her mistake. So I'm almost home free when I see that I should be bagging my stuff, but of course I don't see any bags! I ask her to hand me a couple and then 2 times after, ask for more. I was wondering why she was being so doggone stingy but afterwards my roommate tell me that bags cost money and most people bring their own (go green!). So, red in the face, I finally have everything bagged right before the guy behind me had already checked out and was leaving when I realized maybe I had about a little too much for my 5-7 minute walk home.  No dumping stuff into my car and driving from Barracks. And considering  I had to buy those bags, they certainly were not very good quality.  The entire way I kept thinking I was going to have the Kevin McAllister moment, when his grocery bags break like clockwork.
But alas, God smiled upon me and had had enough fun, and I made it up the 4 flights of stairs with my groceries.  Unfortunately, however, people shop here every 2-3 days so I'll be visiting the grocery store again tomorrow:(