Supermarkets?

Not in this town.

You have tiny markets. And tinier markets.

Selling small portions of stuff. And smaller.

For anyone used to the basic SoCal mega-market (never mind the massive portions of a Costco) … shopping in Hong Kong is to feel like Godzilla going to the store in Tokyo.

Everything is bitsy. I mean, European stores seem enormous, by comparison.

I think I have figured it out. It’s not all that difficult.

It’s a back-formation.

In Hong Kong, the masses live in tiny places.

With minuscule kitchens. And often little or no pantry space.

And miniature refrigerators. Everyone in HK seems to have the same one — about five feet high, maybe two feet wide and 18 inches deep. It holds almost nothing.

So, sure, you have tiny grocery stores. Property is dear, so every commercial building skews small. At groceries, they take these teensy spaces and jam them with as many shelves as they can, and stock them with the small versions. Of everything.

I have been in, what, a dozen Wellcome grocery stores and a couple of Park N Shops — the two leading chains here on the island. And I have yet to see milk sold by the gallon. Or ice cream sold by the half-gallon. Or bread sold by the loaf (a real loaf) or a large jar of peanut butter.

You can buy the tiny version of everything. Ham slices about 2 inches by 4 inches. Milk by the quart. Ice cream by the pint. Bread in packages of four slices. A jar of mustard that might hold two ounces.

And while you do this, you’re wheeling around a shopping cart that looks like something a 5-year-old girl might have in her backyard playhouse. And maneuvering down aisles about four feet across. You can’t help but feel a little ridiculous.

Anyway, yes, Hong Kong groceries. You don’t buy in bulk. You can’t buy in bulk. They don’t offer it, you can’t carry it, you can’t store it and you certainly can’t freeze it.

That’s your life and the groceries, in a small space occupied by 1.26 million people living in 450 square feet.