For quite some time, S.D. and I were lazily fond of grocery shopping at our local Cub foods store, as it was convenient. Sure, we had other places where we would buy many of our other groceries, but recently, our normal plan and strategy of multiple grocery stops at our other favorite shopping places. Why? We got lazy.
As some or all of you know, S.D. makes fruit wine, and often a 5 gallon batch needs about #20 of fruit. Cub had a coupon on pears, at a price (about half price) that made it worthwhile to buy enough to make a batch of pear wine. It took 4 bags of pears, as Cub maintains a consistent standard of sub-standard bags for their produce, and when we went to check out, the coupon only covered the first bag. If we couldn't get the discount on all of them, we wanted none of them. The happiness that ensued at the check out was in a word, terrific. The upshot is that we are no longer using the retail giant for our grocery needs.
So, as we walked out, and drove away, the discussion happened, centering around where and how to get our groceries that did not involve anything that even rhymes with Cub.
We looked about, and found a small. local grocer that's not really farther from us than the mega-store is, and there are some ethnic grocers nearby, and a discount food place that's also local. The set up will be a program of shopping once a week with a grocery buddy, on a circuit that fulfills a list. The best part is that the money all stays in the community, as the food places are all local, and not chain operations. This will merely take a bit more planning on our parts, and a bit less laziness.
The mega-store was losing ground with us for over a year now, and one of the nails in the coffin was when I looked up, and saw a refrigerated case, an entire aisle, over 2/3 dedicated to frozen pizzas and frozen, prepared entrees. Less than 1/4th of one side had frozen vegetables and fruits. At what point is it right to pay for that kind of retail space to items that we do not now, nor will we ever use? When we looked at the considerably smaller, local option, there were fewer choices on packaged, prepared foods, and it brought the whole concept home, how many different types of chocolate cake mixes does one really need to choose from? How many variations on frozen pizza? The small local place is perhaps 10% more expensive than the mega-store, but I know my money is going towards wages of people in my community, keeping it local.
Now, I must be honest, that the produce at small-local store leaves something to be desired, but that ought not be an issue in summer, and with planning, I can make up for it at the Asian grocer and farmer's markets. Maybe we as Americans need to know that we don't really need oranges in the middle of summer (out of season), or strawberries in the middle of winter. Maybe we need to know we can't have everything we want, when we want it, even if it is entirely unreasonable to ask for it.
It takes a bit more planning, but we'll get along. I think happiness should be the specialness of getting an orange in season, in winter, and enjoying a strawberry from our own garden in the summer.
