How often do you think about grocery stores? I would argue that they are an important symbol of a civilization's mode of existence. Have you noticed that virtually every escape- from- communism- into- democracy story features a first trip to a western grocery store? I think we should all write brief histories of shopping. They would be illuminative of our socio-economic backgrounds.My first grocery memories are of Pueblo and Pueblo Xtra. While they didn't carry North American staples like chocolate chips or whole wheat flour or raspberries, they were a step above my grandmother's situation -- she used to have to drive to San Juan to procure anything more than rice and beans.
I was always marveled at Meijer when I would visit the States. The rows upon rows
of bulk candy, the free samples, the sanitized shininess and lack of aroma in the meat and fruit departments. Finally, we got a Walmart in Puerto Rico and it seemed that we had arrived.But after moving to the States I became more picky. I always left Walmart (i.e. "Mecca" in Leesburg) smelling slightly of fried chicken and Chinese labor camps. Trader Joe's and Whole Foods, of course, leave one feeling much more enlightened and middle-class. But for everyday shopping without connotations, there is always Kroger in the midwest.
3 comments:
I'm not familiar with Kroger. sounds cool. I've been so freaked out by what I've read about chemicals and pesticides used in agriculture that I can barely enter a regular supermarket anymore. I shop almost exclusively at the local organic market. why do you think that's middle class?
because working-class people can't afford to double their grocery bill, and aristocrats don't do their own shopping ;-)
ah, right on! I hadnt thought of it in that light because my local organic market is a very pleasant place to shop. In Brussels, though, I often had jealous thoughts about the aristocrats who could dispatch servants into the city's nasty, dingy depressings grocery stores.
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