January 19, 2010

chain grocers can ess my dee

i went to a grocery store last week after yoga. i was on the other side of the city at 9pm and hungry. i saw a 24 hour metro and wandered in. now, i haven't been in a grocery store since... well, i don't remember. that place is daunting, man. i found myself wandering through thirty aisles, dumbfounded. everything was either frozen, rotten, over-priced or completely indiscernible as food. $3.50/lb for small, wilty tomatoes from peru? no local option? no fresh option? i left with a bag of day old french rolls, a can of zoodles and a single tomato for close to seven dollars. that's what i would normally spend for a week's worth of produce!

the whole experience left me saddened for small town/uneducated eaters. is this the only option in your area? how can people afford to shop like this? please, if i am alone in these thoughts - let me know.

thank christ i'm not forced to shop in a big box that carries pads alongside frozen vegetables and imported bread. i'm still in shock, clearly.

3 comments:

Jacalicious said...

chain grocers have gotten stupidly large, to the point that it is annoying to get through them.

that said I know for a fact at Metro that things like produce procurement being local depend entirely on the individual store management, the produce manager. Some of them suck, some of them are good. And what they sell largely relates to what the customers buy and ask for. I know asking for local garlic instead of Chinese garlic has gone a long way.

The best Metro ever is in Newmarket. They carry all local produce from the Bradford Marsh. Their produce manager must work overtime. They even mark that stuff with special stickers.

Kristina Strain said...

Uneducated eater-- that's a good way to describe it. I live in a small city myself, without year-round access to fresh local vegetables. I shop locally all summer and can and freeze tons of stuff--so all I have to buy at the grocery store is celery & carrots (indispenable for soup-making) citrus and the occasional green vegetable for a recipe. It ain't easy, but it works!

Kristina
Sweetfern Handmade

Jacalicious said...

oops, I meant holland marsh. which I think is in bradford? sigh, I'm hungry.