The Annoyingness of Shopping

Look, I've bitched about this before. Our local grocery store has become unreliable about carrying some items that we consider staples in our household. Just last week, it didn't have any yellow bananas, which is pretty standard for this particular store, or yellow onions. Onions. Could we be asking for anything more basic than that? It didn't have any single yellow onions, let alone a bag of onions we would have been happier to have. It also appears that the store has decided to stop stocking the gluten-free hot cereal we enjoy, the only gluten-free chicken and vegetable stock that doesn't taste like ass (Kitchen Basics), and my favorite popcorn.

So I have become that person. I remember going to a party filled with grad students a couple of years ago and rolling my eyes at a group of people who were discussing how they went to a several grocery stores every week to get everything they wanted. I remember thinking how pretentious these people were - what did it matter one brand of mozzarella cheese or another? What's wrong with these people? Why do they have so much time to devote to grocery shopping?

I just spent two hours of my precious Sunday time, not watching football, but going from pretentious grocery store to pretentious grocery store, buying things I consider necessary (oh, and, shhhh, don't tell the boy, but I also bought a big stick of wheat-filled bread and demolished it on the way home in the car...oh, my god, bread from a bakery...it was indescribably amazing). I have become that person.

I also found myself panicking a little bit as I thought about what would happen to us if we ever left this city. Our options here are not limited. We have co-ops, we have the fancy stores, the big box stores, and farmers markets. We have it all. It is time consuming for us to get what we need (maybe need is too strong a word - want is perhaps more appropriate), but we can get it. What will happen to us when we have to move elsewhere? I shudder at this thought.