Just an Average SKIRT

I love change and variety.  My brain is programmed this way - I love trying new things on a menu, rearranging the furniture, changing up my training plan, not getting stuck with the same ole’ same ole’.  I need variety and I’m not scared of change - in fact I crave both on a regular basis.  BJ - not so much, he’s the two egg white guy at the Walnut and the bamboo steamer guy at the Sunflower.  He finds an outfit and wears it until it wears him.  We are a nice complement to one another in this way, one of many actually.

So today I thought since I was doing the grocery shopping by myself I’d try the new Sunflower market.  I heard some good reviews and also some money saving chatter.  We’re Whole Foods people through and through, it’s expensive but to us, we don’t care, it’s our health and we’re not putting a price on that.  I know, we could get some things at Safeway, some at Target and others at Whole Foods but you know what, I hate that plan.  For us, time is money and our time is valuable plus I loathe both Target and Safeway.  I actually have a physical reaction when I walk into either, I get sick to my stomach.  So no, that plan doesn’t work for us.

I headed out to Sunflower with my Whole Foods bags and a deep feeling of betrayal and guilt.  I was turning on my Whole Foods community, I had this gut feeling that this wasn’t a good idea.  I had read some reviews on Yelp which may not have been the best idea for me….although the produce received rave reviews there was talk of needing to read labels becuase there was items with crap in them.  A warning to be careful but that in the end it would save you money and all would be well in the world again.

I went in and took one aisle at a time.  Nothing looked much less expensive than Whole Foods and yes there was some crap on the shelves and the only organic OJ they had was $6!  It’s ok I thought, just get through this and see the difference it will make in your pocketbook then decide.  The eggs….ahhh, they weren’t all cage free!   The organic avocados were more expensive than Whole Foods. Where was the Earthbound organic spinach?  Ground beef….there wasn’t any at the meat counter.  I was getting a really bad feeling but my cart was filling with brands we don’t usually buy, I was in too deep at this point.

‘Am I missing the ground beef?’, I asked the guy at the meat counter.

‘It’s all pre-packaged around the corner’

Pre-packaged?  No, not pre-packaged….  ‘Great, I”ll take a look, do you have grass fed?’

‘No, we don’t buy grass fed, but it’s natural’.

Oh no, if I know anything about food items being touted as natural, it means squat.  I rounded the corner to take a look….no grass fed, no 96% lean, no freshly packaged in recyclable material and handed to me with a smile.  Where was Jimmy  - the salt of the earth guy with the thick New England accent stocking the shelves.  Where’s the check out lady from Brooklyn who loves to shoot the shit with me?

That was it, I couldn’t do it - I hit reverse, returned everything from my cart and hit the road for Whole Foods.  I walked in and there was Jimmy, greeting me with a big smile….my check out lady, the hot ticket from Brooklyn….it was good to be home again.

We are forever grateful that we are able to shop at Whole Foods but we’ve said before there are many things in life we would give up before we gave up this.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 8th, 2009 at 6:42 pm and is filed under Triathlon. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.