I feel the grocery shopping is an art. Or maybe a science. Most days it's a sport. Either way, it takes a lot of effort, energy, and determination. And a few moments of gritting your teeth and muscling through. I enjoy cooking, and therefore I enjoy meal-planning. This does not, therefore, result in me loving grocery shopping though. I don't hate it, but oh, there are moments, people.
I usually go on Monday mornings because it's the start of a new week and the weekend usually taps us out of any food we had in the house. Plus, Lucy and Max are both at school on Monday so I only have to take Logan with me to the store. Shopping with only one child is glorious! Well, comparatively speaking. I imagine shopping alone would be a bazillion times MORE glorious...but that's an experience for another day.
When I lived in Cochrane, I would shop at Extra Foods. You see, there are only 3 grocery stores in Cochrane. Safeway (too expensive), IGA (too small), and then Extra Foods. Big enough to have what you want, but not fancy, so the prices are still good. Plus, they have those huge double shopping carts, so if I DID have to bring more than one child with me, I could get them to both sit in a cart and still shop at MY pace, and not a snails pace (or the pace of a child - read 'Max' here - that likes to point out EVERY. SINGLE. PRODUCT).
I liked shopping at Extra Foods. The produce was 'meh', but existed. The prices were good and the store had everything, and I knew where everything was. Plus, they had a little section of Joe clothing for the kids, so whenever they needed some new shoes, or socks, or pants or whatever, I could just grab it while I was doing my groceries and didn't have to make a trip into the big ol' city of Calgary.
Every once in a while I'd make a trip into the big ol' city though. To visit Costco and Walmart. I'd get what I needed, hopefully with as few children in tow as possible, and then I'd leave. Quickly.
Now, Kingston is a much bigger city than Cochrane. But not as big as Calgary. It has many many many different kinds of grocery stores. Many. Like, unheard of amounts. They all go by random names, but sell basically the same things. Most of them have some sort of 'PC' brand of products, but they all go by different names and compete with each other on prices. It's weird.
2 minutes from my house is a 'Bennett's Value Mart'. It's close and convenient, but their prices are a bit higher, and they're small, so they don't always have everything. They carry PC products. Then, there is Loblaws, which is the Ontario version of Superstore I guess. It's big, kind of overwhelming and has EVERYTHING. Even clothing. But, they are a bit pricey too. PC Brand stuff. There's 'No Frills" which is exactly as it says, no frills. You bag your own groceries (which I'm used to cuz I use those big black grocery bins, so I prefer to pack it myself anyway), but most of the stuff is the yellow no-name products with a few other things mixed in. I get their flyer in the mail every week. Sometimes I'm stunned by their prices. Really? that's a good price. One time, Tyler and I went there while Lucy was at Taekwondo to get some stuff because they had a crazy sale on. It was a blizzard outside. We had 40 minutes to get there, shop and get back to Lucy. It took us 20 minutes to get there. So we shopped in 5 and headed back out. We were 5 minutes late getting her. But, they had cheese on for $2. Two DOLLARS!! Plus Lysol wipes for $2. And water bottles, and Crispers. Anyway, you get my drift. It was a good sale. It made me have this beautiful, nostalgic, dream-like picture of no-frills in my mind. "They're dreamy," I'd say.
But then yesterday, I go to get some items that are advertised on crazy sale in their flyer, and they just don't have it. Like, it's not like I got there too late and they were sold out...just didn't have it. Seriously? I came all the way here for this? My dreamy crush on no-frills was shattered. Other problem, they don't have everything. Like canned mandarin oranges. Or baby corn. And when you go, they MAY have chicken. They may not.
There are other stores, like "Freshco", (also PC brand products), "Food Basics" which has some PC brand stuff and then a whole bunch of brand names that no one has ever heard of, ever. They do carry Hostess potato chips though, which are wonderful, and sometimes I go there just to get a bag of chips. Mmm. And again, not everything you're looking for.
Then there's the Walmart SuperCenter. Which is usually where I shop. It's massive. It has pretty much everything. And their prices are good. No PC brand stuff though. (Walmart animal crackers are not as good as Zookies). The weird thing about Walmart though is that sometimes they'll just be completely sold out of one item. And it's usually the item I'm looking for. There will be just this void on the shelf, where the product should be, but there's not a hint or sign of it anywhere. And I think to myself, "You're Walmart...don't you have everything all the time?" Once, I went to get groceries, and white sugar was on my list. White sugar. The most generic product you could possibly think of. Nothing. Empty shelf. They had Brown Sugar. Icing Sugar. Colored Sugar. Every other kind of sugar. But not white. Weird. So I go to the grocery store close to my house and get it from there. The next week, I have brown sugar on my list. Guess what. No Brown Sugar. They have Icing Sugar. Colored Sugar. And now they have White Sugar. But no brown. A few weeks later, Icing Sugar is on my list. And guess what? Yup. They had Brown. They had White. They had Colored...no icing sugar. Who is reading my shopping list and running to the store to buy the one product that I REALLY need, in all it's different brands and just leaving the shelves bare? It's weird.
Also, I don't know if you've ever shopped at Walmart, but I'm there weekly. And I go there out of necessity. Not desire. I don't like hanging out in Walmart. I don't find it a casual, relaxing shopping experience. I go in, I get what I need, I get out. Again, this may be due to having kids in tow. I heard a lady in line at Christmas time, who's child was screaming bloody murder, say to the person that was with her, "I imagine he's just tired of Walmart because I was here for 6 hours yesterday." I'm sure if she had turned around and seen my face, she would have seen my eyes bugging out of my head and my chin scraping the floor. I was in utter-disbelief. 6 hours? At Walmart? WITH a child? I'm sure you could pick up EVERY SINGLE product that Walmart carries off the shelf and carefully examine it in 6 hours. And who comes back the next day after 6 hours?! What could you have POSSIBLY forgotten!
Anyway, the point of that story is, why, when the whole SANE world KNOWS that Walmart is a stressful shopping experience that only draws people there out of complete and utter necessity because their prices are amazing...why, oh why do they play the music that they do in there? Why? Why are they trying to drive me insane when they know that a lady in Walmart with children has such a short distance to go to get there? I was there on Friday evening looking for a birthday present for Lucy's friend...with all 3 kids. Shudder. That's when I remind myself that I only go to Walmart with one child at a time. Survival.
The other problem with Walmart...they have other stuff there. Clothes. Shoes. Toys. Housewares. And my little brain KNOWS that we're on a tight budget and I'm just there to get groceries...but that scarf looks oh so pretty. Or I'm sure I really need some new tights. Why can't they make the grocery store separate from the rest of the stuff? Probably because they're preying on innocent moms like me, who are glassy-eyed as they walk through Walmart, listening to their shudder-enducing music, just trying to survive, hoping their kids will stop asking, "can we get this?" And they know she will inevitably think to herself..."I deserve a scarf for what I had to do today..." It's cruel.
You know what else is cruel? They have a McDonald's in the store. Come on kids...we're going home.
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