The Small (and Big) Ways We Get Scammed in America, According to My Danish Husband
Low-fat yogurt is not the cure-all
During his two years of living in the U.S., my husband from Denmark has asked me a fair share of questions about his new home (you can find some of them here) and accumulated a good deal of opinions.
One of the things he likes to talk about is all the little, and big, scams he finds in his daily life in America. I’ll share my favorite ones here.
Thinking that low-fat products will keep us fit
“What’s with the low-fat dressing?” my husband asked me the first time we went grocery shopping in the U.S. He was genuinely puzzled.
“Do Americans think fat in their salad is what’s making them obese?”
Big fans of buttery pastries and bacon, Danes would never agree to cut out fat from their diets. Likewise, when living in England, I enjoyed their “single cream,” “double cream,” “extra thick double cream,” clotted cream, as well as “Creme Fraiche” varieties, available at any supermarket, for about one or two Pounds. A Brit wouldn’t be caught dead dipping their strawberries in low-fat yogurt, so cherished by Americans.
And a Dane would never call a dry American “Danish” a pastry, simply because “there’s just no butter in them,” according to my husband. In Denmark, a pastry is judged by the amount of grease dripping from it. Luckily, Danes go just about everywhere by bike, so staying fit isn’t a problem for them.
“It’s like they don’t trust you to make your own choice,” my husband commented on the limited selection of full-fat products in supermarkets. “Instead of educating people about healthy eating and exercise, they’re attacking fat as if that was the cure for obesity,” he continued.
Even at Starbucks, when asking for cream in his coffee, my husband was offered “Half and half” as an alternative.
“And I thought this was a free country,” he sighed.
“It’s refusing to get out of the car to buy their coffee that will get them at the end, not the cream in it,” my husband concluded.
Junk food that’s cheaper than fresh food
Yet another food-related complaint from my husband comes from his observation that fast food options in many areas we visited seemed to outnumber the stores selling fresh food. What’s even worse, only in America, in my husband’s opinion, it’s cheaper to buy junk food than it is to buy fresh groceries.
“How can this be okay, but finding full-fat cottage cheese is impossible?” he wondered.
We reminisced about grocery prices in Europe, which were undoubtedly lower than in American supermarkets. It’s clear to both of us that while the first source of nutrition for a European comes from a local supermarket, for Americans, it’s often just about any food joint they pass on the way home.
Using cash and paying ATM fees
My husband is lucky to have landed in America at the end of 2019 when we slowly, finally, started to realize that civilized societies don’t run on cash anymore. Still, he was shocked by the number of places that accepted “only cash” and shamelessly directed their customers to an ATM located in the corner, assuming that it was normal to pay a three-dollar withdrawal fee to buy a small lemonade. What shocked him even more was that American customers didn’t seem to have a problem doing just that.
In New York, which was my husband’s first home in America, a “credit card minimum” (usually set at ten dollars) was pretty much the norm for any small store or cafe. Everyone knew it was an illegal practice. No one bothered to do anything about it.
In almost entirely cash-free Denmark, where just about every transaction is done via a phone, or at least a contactless card, cash has been considered “dirty” and archaic for quite some time. Even their wallets are much smaller and meant to carry only cards. Upon our arrival in the U.S., we bought my husband a new, American, wallet.
On top of that, in both of our experiences, European banks don’t charge ATM fees, so if you do need cash, you don’t have to run around looking for your bank’s branch to withdraw money.
Given how popular cash still is in America, can’t we at least provide people with free ATMs?
Paying for ice
Another great everyday scam we so easily fall for in America, according to my husband, is paying for ice in our drinks.
“Why would I wanna pay for a glass full of water cubes?” my husband rightfully complained to me at Starbucks.
Given Starbucks’ prices, I agree with him. Surely, there’s a better way to get a cold beverage. So we never buy a drink unless it can be ordered with “light ice.”
“Do they think I’m cheap when I do that?” my husband worries. I shrug.
Ordering a five-dollar coffee (hello, LA!) shouldn’t make you feel guilty, but somehow it still does.
Thinking we’re a first-world country
After two years of dealing with government agencies and filling out what seemed like thousands of pages of paperwork (all amidst the COVID outbreak), my husband jokingly called the U.S. a third-world country.
“It’s like a war zone!” he laughed, “Nothing works. Everyone is angry.”
I know what he means. “And why wouldn’t people be angry if their government doesn’t even provide them with free basic health care?” my husband goes on.
Indeed, America is the only developed country in the world that doesn’t have free universal healthcare.
Sadly, we’re so used to this fact that the majority of Americans don’t even question the system that is so barbaric. Brainwashed into thinking that we’re “the greatest country in the world,” we don’t stop to think that any good (let alone great or the greatest) country would make the health of its citizens its foremost priority, not turn it into a profit opportunity.
Not only our healthcare system is expensive, but it’s also ridiculously complicated and stressful to navigate (I wrote about my husband’s reaction to it here). Something so basic should also be simple and available to all. Then we can assess our greatness.
Not only is low-fat anything a cure-all, it is one of the major causes of obesity and heart disease. That's because sugar is added to replace the flavor lost from the fat. Our food is now a good-tasting melange of chemicals that provide almost no nutrition, while causing damage to our bodies. That has allowed health care to become a huge industry, keeping us alive while treating us like cattle in a feed lot. And yes, we absolutely are a third-world country!