A Question for my Irish Readers...

[ecosophia]

...and those in England as well, come to think of it. The not particularly "super" supermarket (submarket?) where I shop has an ethnic foods aisle which, unlike many members of the same species, isn't primarily a place for whitebread Americans to sample exotic (to them) foodstuffs. It's a place for immigrants or members of ethnic subcultures to buy familiar foods that you mostly can't get in US stores. Up to now it's been pretty much what you'd expect: a very good selection of Portuguese foods (plenty of families in this part of New England came from Portuguese-speaking countries, and East Providence in particular has a lot of Cape Verdeans and Azoreans), an even bigger selection of Mexican foods, some foods from other Hispanic countries, a decent collection of Japanese and Korean foods, a decent collection of Indian-subcontinent foods, and a Jewish section with some of the classic Jewish foods. 

The store just rearranged its shelves, and there's a new section in the ethnic foods aisle. Batchelors' canned beans and mushy peas, Marmite, Barry's Irish tea, McVities' Digestive Biscuits. Devonshire cream custard. 

Yeah. Irish and, to a lesser extent, English food. 

Do any of you happen to know if there's some kind of quiet exodus from Ireland and, possibly, England as well to Rhode Island -- and if so, why? 

Comments

Just on my way back from Ireland

[seanbolger1]

I'm on the ferry, just about to arrive in hollyhead. I was visiting my parents for the week in connamara.
To answer your question
I think it's the strong dollar and brexit. Its become harder and more expensive to export to England.The us dollar has risen significantly and it now makes economic sense to ship more stuff across the Atlantic plus people in Europe and the UK are switching to generic supermarket budget brands because prices have been rising so much.
Kind regards
Sean