Groceries

Leading up to vacation, I always "thin out" our food supply (ie. refrigerator) just because I don't like the idea of food sitting for a week. When we got back late Saturday night, our fridge was completely and utterly empty, but I knew nothing would be open Sunday. So this morning (Monday), I did a huge grocery shopping trip, and it always amazes me how inexpensive it is to shop in Germany. My cart was completely overflowing with nutritious food, strawberries, apples, zuchini, lettuce, carrots, eggplant, milk, paper products, bread, cheese, meat etc., etc. and the grand tally came to 70 euro (that even included coffee and the equivalent of 2 gallons of organic milk). 70 euro is about $100. If I went to the base and bought $100 worth of items, it would probably fill 1/2 a cart, and would certainly not include such healthy items. Why is it so much cheaper???? The only expense that I can think of that is so different is that here they do not have baggers to bag your groceries (which I am used to now, but it is a huge pain when you have a huge load). It certainly makes me wonder....