“Forget about being world famous, it’s hard enough just getting the automatic doors at the supermarket to acknowledge our existence.”
Gee, it’s raining. What a surprise! I was shocked when I woke up and saw yesterday and the day before and the day before that outside my window. The difference is today is warmer at 50°.
It’s sci-fi Saturday when I get to watch a whole day of TV filled with creatures whose main diet is man. Right now Manticore is picking out his entrée having already enjoyed several appetizers, nearly a whole village full.
I have to grocery shop today, my least favorite thing to do. I’ll go up and down the aisles filling my cart while in a stupor hoping to avoid conversation and the carts parked willy-nilly in the middle of the aisles. My list of what I really need is even boring, mostly household cleaning items. I can barely wait for the dishwashing liquid aisle.
You might have figured I am feeling a bit languid today. If my fridge weren’t empty, I might postpone the shopping, but I’m stuck hitting the aisles if I want lunch or dinner. Where is that housekeeper I ordered?
I used to love to shop in the market in Ghana. It was filled with colors and sounds and chattering in a language I didn’t understand but loved hearing. First, I’d make my usual stops: the beef meat market, my vegetable lady, the egg man, the pick out your chicken line-up and then I’d wander. I never knew what I might find. Some days I’d buy cloth to have a dress made. Once I found a watermelon. Usually I’d just fill my bag with onions, tomatoes, maybe garden eggs and a yam. I’d greet everyone,”Sanda kasuwa,” (I greet you in the market), and they’d return the greeting. I was a usual sight so no one took special notice of this white woman wandering the market.
I loved market day. It was every third day, and I’d go if I could. Now I get stuck shopping in the dullest of places: Stop and Shop. I know their meat will never turn green and I won’t find a partially formed chicken when I break an egg but where’s the adventure?
Explore posts in the same categories: UncategorizedTags: Grocery store
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
March 3, 2012 at 1:09 pm
Much the same weather here today as we’ve had this week. Sunny, rather warm but without any wind to speak about.
I don’t mind grocery shopping since I always go to the same store. All customers seems to know each other and we often stay for a while just talking about the latest local news. I don’t like to go to the supermarket though, that I hate.
It is much funnier to go to a local market but they are rare here now days. Well I doubt we ever would be able to buy live chicken though 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
March 3, 2012 at 6:56 pm
Christer,
I always go to the same store too, but I still don’t like it. I often run into people I know but I’d rather hurry through without stopping.
We do have a local market, and it’s wonderful, but it is also very expensive. I still go though.
March 3, 2012 at 1:44 pm
Hi Kat,
Know what you mean about grocery shopping although I have to say that I have had some interesting conversations in the grocery aisles. It’s probably because we are all strangers to each other and so can say things we would not say to friends and family.
It’s good to know that your meat will not turn green and you won’t get an embryonic chicken in your eggs. Not as much fun, but good.
Once when I bought a half dozen of Pete and Whosis organic, free range eggs (mental image of eggs with little legs sticking out running around the fields) I got a surprise (because I don’t open the boxes before I purchase them like some people). All the eggs had polka dots on them and 4 out of the 6 had double yolks. I thought perhaps I should call the company and ask if I had won a prize for finding the mutant egg box. But I didn’t. I just enjoyed them. They reminded me of when I used to get eggs from the barn chickens. All variations of egg-shaped, all different colors and sizes and the yellowest yolks I have ever seen outside of a comic book. Lovely things.
It’s cold and rainy up here. I doubt we will see the 50 degree high that was speculated upon. Oh, well.
Enjoy the day.
March 3, 2012 at 7:01 pm
Hi Caryn,
Coversations just slow down getting out of there, but I usually run into a former student so I’m stuck being personable.
You’re right-not as fun but far healthier!
I buy brown eggs which come from RI. I can’t remember ever finding a double yolker. I do buy from locals who have chickens but not very often as I usually forget to buy them.
The Guinea fowl eggs from Ghana gave me quite a shock. They just wouldn’t break. Finally I really whacked one against the bowl. That’s when I found out how hard a shell they have.
March 3, 2012 at 2:00 pm
The thing I most hate about the super market is the layout of the store. It’s designed by marketing majors and mad psychologists. They place the milk, eggs and butter at the very back of the store. This requires that you must walk down the isles containing the soft drinks and prepared food items just to buy a gallon of milk. The entire layout is designed to nudge you towards the sections that have the greatest profit margins. Even the music played in the background is designed to get you to spend more time in the store. This of course equates to you buying more stuff then you really intended to buy when you walked in the door. Even the location of items on the shelves is designed to get you to buy the most expensive ones which are located at eye level on the shelves. I like to shop the perimeter of the store. This usually will take me around from the produce section, to the dairy, to the meat and then to the checkout line. Unfortunately, the store designers are wise to this tactic. One store here in Texas is laid out like a maze. You must walk through every isle to get to the checkout. They carry very high quality and high price food, wine and prepared meals so it’s worth the hassle.
Most cities and towns now have “Farmer’s Markets”. The reason I added the quotation marks is because many of the vendors in these markets are not local farmers but local produce vendors selling fruits and veggies that are produced on commercial farms and stored on coolers just like the stuff you buy in the super market but at a premium price. The city of Dallas requires that those vendors display a sign indicating that their goods came from cold storage.
It’s another day in the Dallas Ft. Worth Metroplex with sunny skies and temperatures in the 60s. Yesterday the wind was blowing stronger than usual reminding me that it’s March and kite flying season.
March 3, 2012 at 7:10 pm
Bo,
Vegetables and fruits are the first areas I run into just inside the door. You’re right about the back of the store, but I think it is because all the refrigerated areas ring the store on the sides and back except frozen but it is near the milk and eggs. The very first aisle is the bulk stuff which is cheaper, and we go on from there.
I can get to check-out from any aisle so I think our stores might be laid out a bit differently.
We too have a farmer’s market but only once a week. The places where the goods originated are posted. I also go to a couple of local farms for produce you can see growing in the fields.
It is still 45° which is warm for this time of year when the sun has gone.
March 3, 2012 at 5:58 pm
I think the adventure of shopping today is comparing prices. Coffee we buy just went up $2 at Publix; down .98 cents at Winn-Dixie. I’m sure this is the future. Shop with coupons, shop price so go to five different stores, shop in bulk for pepsi or some dry goods. A friggen baked potato is now $1.89 at one store; $2.05 at another. Hello rice.
March 3, 2012 at 7:11 pm
Z&Me,
I can’t imagine going to 5 different stores to save a few dollars. The bulk store has items which would take me years to finishe. Off-cape is always cheaper than the cape. The stores claim it is the shipping, but then they have to ship to every store.
March 4, 2012 at 12:29 am
Now days its very unusual to see those coupons over here. We used t loads of them just a couple of years ago but newspapers showed the food actually got more expensive because of them. They raised the price on all the other things so much just to be able to afford those coupons. I like it better this way 🙂
March 4, 2012 at 9:57 am
NEVER go food shopping when you are hungry!
I used to love going to the Bolga market every third day. We always had to stop and think, “Now, was market day yesterday or the day before?” Like you, I had my usual stops and favorite vendors; our second year in Bolga I discovered an egg man who had duck eggs, very big and with very yellow yolks. The meat market was always a challenge, fighting off the vultures who came looking for a ready-to-eat meal. I guess that was considered “fast food” in the developing world. We also had favorite shop vendors, selling tinned Australian cheese, Milo, powdered milk (never liquid milk in bottles–who knows how long it had been there), and tins of coffee, boxes of Wheetabix, etc. I remember during training in Tamale, we were in a shop which had cans of oxtail soup, apparently a delicacy for the local ex-pat Brits.
There is a family up the road from us now who sell their own eggs; we also get some of our eggs from a friend–she gives us “dirty” eggs, unwashed, with bright yellow yolks. We considered raising our own chickens here, but I don’t think it’s worth the time or expense.
March 4, 2012 at 10:46 am
Bill,
When I went back to Bolga last summer, I had my coffee and milk at breakfast. It was still tinned milk, evaporated milk with a tinge of yellow. I recognized it right away. There is also only instant coffee. FRancisca says she has a coffee maker so I’ll bring over some real coffee next summer.
I also remember saving up to get tinned Australian butter for the big holidays. I used to buy Golden Syrup in tins to use for the French toast I’d occasionally have.
The meat market was really disgusting when you think back about it, but I just figured it was part of living in Bolga. At least we got meat.
The market is now enormous, just the fugu section alone is bigger than the old market. A craft market is now across from what used to be the Hotel d’Bull.
I wandered through the market a few times. Once it started to rain, and I stood under the eave of a stall. The woman saw ma and invited me in to sit on her bench inside the stall. I’m sure all the shoppers wondered what this white woman was doing just sitting there and greeting them.