Grocery Shopping One

I know that I have already said that I went to the Market Basket (the local food supply store) and I know that I already said that I like it. But now, after doing real shopping there, I can say that I love it. It is great! They have tons of stuff, with a huge variety, and is a lot cheaper that I was expecting. This may be due to the fact that Giant Eagle is taking advantage of their monopoly on the Pittsburgh food market. Anyway, it was a good experience.

Some caveats: I left the apartment at 2:30 ish. It is only .25 miles away. And I have already driven this particular way a number of times, but it was a mad house. Apparently everyone does their shopping on Saturday afternoons. There were people parked next to my apartment walking to the shopping center, it seemed like most of them were going to H Mart, some sort of Asian import store. So yes, there were tons of people. Which lead me to realize three important things that I am going to have to deal with here in New England. First: people, no matter where or how far they may be parked from the store don't use the cart return. It is appalling how many carts I bring back from the beyond. It seems as though people just leave their carts wherever they maybe when they get in their car to leave the parking lot. I have seen this before, we all have. The stray cart or two out in the last row of cars... but here there were more carts in the parking lot than there were in the cart return. And there were a lot in the cart return! So... this just means Ill be parking farthest from and corralling as many carts as I can. Second interesting tidbit: when walking around, no one makes eye contact. At all. None. Everyone, regardless of perceived social or economic class looks up or away from what they are doing. They are in their own little world. This makes things like navigating a busy grocery store rather difficult. Dad you would have fun with this... The best is when there is 10 people in an isle, all with their own carts, pretending to be the only person in the store, and you just want to get some mustard. Then third: you have to be a little pushy to go anywhere. Both with driving and with pedestrian locomotion. If you let one person by then everyone things that they are deserving. If you wait for a path to clear... it wont. You just have to jump in and go. This combined with tidbit #2... makes for some interesting stress. Oh well. We will see if it gets better.

I was able to get enough supplies to make my crowd favorite Chicken Paprikash, Which is what was for dinner tonight. :) Along with dinner was a movie: 'Forgetting Sarah Marshal' which I found both enjoyable and amusing.

Now on to ironing!