I don't remember when, but I recall seeing a link posted somewhere to an article/blog post/whatever titled "What you should buy at Whole Foods," or something similar. The subject was about which foods the author believed should be purchased from stores that sell organic produce, "responsible" seafood, and other items of that sort.
The actual article didn't interest me as much as the fact that the comments following the article seemed to (mostly) fall into one of two categories:
Category 1: "Whole Foods is for pretentious people who want to maintain an image and be snobby. If you had any common sense you'd buy in bulk at Costco."
Category 2: "Well if you don't mind feeding your family poison, then you can shop at Wal-Mart if you want!"
What I honestly thought, and several people voiced a similar thought, was, "What if I don't want where I buy my groceries to define me as a person?"
I do go to Whole Foods sometimes. When I do, it's more of a treat that anything else: to pick out some item I wouldn't normally buy, but I do shop at Wal-Mart sometimes also. I will admit that being raised by a single-parent with a tight budget has left me with a slight chip on my shoulder, and I get a kick out of knowing that I can save money by shopping at a less-premium grocery store.
But I don't usually shop at Wal-Mart: it's often crowded, the checkout lines are long, the stores seem dirty, and it's just not a pleasant shopping experience.
Ah-Ha! You snob! Since when is shopping an "experience?" Don't you know that some people just need to stretch their pay-check as far as they can?!
Yes, I do.
Which brings me to a post-gym errand run that took me to Wal-Mart this week. It was crowded, and nearly everyone there looked tired. Not a post-gym yuppie tired, but an I've-been-on-my-feet-all-day tired. One woman in particular caught my attention.
She was wearing scrubs and white tennis shoes. Her chin length dark hair framed her dark tired looking eyes. Her face had kind of a square shape, but I think that was really just how it appeared when it was framed by her hair. I wondered how she would look with her hair pulled back.
She was pushing a cart, and there was a young girl, who was maybe 6 or 7, riding in the main basket. She looked bored...really bored. "You're old enough to walk!" I wanted to say. "Your mom's tired, why are you making her push you?"
Maybe her mom felt bad because her daughter had to be out at 8:30pm on a weekday, picking up groceries after her mom got off work. Maybe the little girl had spent the whole day with a grandma or an aunt while her mom was working. Maybe that's why she was bored.
Wal-Mart has a slogan I've heard, "Save money: live better," and I've always mocked it. What? live better by saving money so you can buy even more crap you don't need from Wal-Mart? Ha! There's consumer culture for you! ...but maybe not.
I hope the woman saved enough to treat herself and the little girl to some ice cream. Even it was just a quart of generic brand artificially sweetened vanilla ice cream, sometimes the smallest gestures can mean quite a bit.
They should get some chocolate sauce too...I think they both deserve it.
No comments:
Post a Comment