I think one of the most interesting things about grocery stores is that they are like clothes closets.
You know how you wear 20% of your clothes 80% of the time?
Regardless of how much I buy when I shop, I am always acutely aware that in the universe of choices at my local grocery, I am probably only sampling about 5% of the items; maybe even LESS.
Granted, I’m a picky eater, but still.
Who is buying the tofurkey? Who is paying $7.99/lb for cherries in winter? Who, for god sake, is buying fat free cheese?
Would you buy it? Not me. I won’t even buy Deviled Ham anymore and we ate that when I was a kid. But the fat content is terrifying. And the sodium.
Who is buying Cookie Crisp cereal? Photo of fruity pebbles with 37% sugar. There are worse. Like Reese’s Crunch (I think that is the name) which has 41% sugar
So I play games at the store. Sometimes my game is to buy at least one item that I have never purchased before.
Just to shake myself out of my routine.
Other times, it is to watch the people in line ahead of me and see what’s in their cart and try to imagine what they are making for dinner.
And we have TINY grocery stores in Palo Alto – by law they have to be under 20,000 square feet. This is essentially like a corner store compared to a Wegman’s or a Sam’s Club.
I’m sure one person’s weird food is another’s comfort food. It just fascinates me.
I think people should send in comments about their own strange food observations.
Okay, enough of sounding like Andy Rooney.
---Colleen