Bright lights… gleaming counter tops… aisle after aisle… row after row… variety… choice… options… stretching as far as the eye can see.
O. M. G. Grocery shopping… at Woolworths*… You really don’t understand the unadulterated joy of shopping in a big supermarket until you have lived without access to one.
Now don’t get me wrong, I am not a fan of the supermarket giants. They have too much power over their suppliers etc. BUT when you live in (or near) a small town with a teeny tiny IGA and an even smaller Foodworks and a large body of water more commonly known as Bass Strait between you and anything larger… well it doesn’t take much to get excited walking into Woolies. Or any shop for that matter.
It’s hard to put into words the excitement of a large deli, green beans that cost less than $15 a kg and won’t be slimy and gross in 24 hours and of the availability of more than two brands of ANY one thing, neither of which is Black and Gold. So I usually go a little cray cray. 1kg block of haloumi. More fruit than you would normally expect to eat in a month. Ingredients that don’t match like parsnips and smoked salmon. And if you think I’m bad in the hated supermarket, don’t let me loose in a greengrocers…
This is a photo of my latest ‘loose in a big grocery store’ purchase. Given that I make everything Arlie eats (cooking up a fresh batch of milk while I type, multitasking at its best) I was still sucked in by the 6 for $9 bargain.
It’s a bit like a day in a theme park. Even the kids get excited. Like really excited. Where their attention span is maybe 5 minutes in our home town shop** in a big Woolies their eyes glaze over and there is excitement in every aisle. And usually a fair amount of shrieking . Actually there is a fair amount of shrieking in any given activity 😨😨. Wear ear plugs at all times is your bet.
And that ladies and gentleman is how you waste 504 words on the joys of grocery shopping. Sorry, no you can’t have the last 5 mins of your life back.
This one is for you Rissole
*I don’t shop at Coles unless everything else has burnt down. I don’t approve of their play on peoples ignorances with sow stall free pork, HGP free beef and they were the first (I think, from memory) to introduce $1 a litre milk. But I think we can save that rant for another post.
** Who am I kidding. 30 seconds, max. They fight over the pink kids trolley at IGA (the blue one having broken 18 months ago and never fixed). Then they run up and down the aisles and mix the open bins of chook and dog food up. And in Foodworks there is a kids trolley each and a slope at the start of each aisle. Either way I recommend shin guards. Especially if one of their friends happens to appear at the same tine.