Supermarket Shopping

It has been very much a typical wet winter’s day here.  We started off with grey lowering clouds that turned into rain around lunchtime and a torrential downpour about an hour later.

With one eye on the weather forecast, I went our early to do my supermarket shopping.  I am glad I went when I did.

One advantage of city living is that there are several different shopping centres within easy reach of home.  I visit around five different supermarkets to buy groceries, usually choosing a different one each week.  It keeps things interesting!

Most supermarkets seem to have similar layouts – you enter through the fruit and vegetable department before progressing to the meat and fish department.

Only then are you allowed to escape into the heart of the shop to hunt for all those glorious bargains of cans and packets that call themselves food.  (Sorry, I am being a bit sarcastic here)

One of the last aisles will be full of crates of bread.  I like a thickly sliced MacKenzie Country mixed grain loaf, but they can be difficult to find.

Finally, on the far wall of the supermarket, can be found all the dairy produce.  I always find it a clever stroke of marketing genius that when you enter such a place for a solitary bottle of milk, you must weave your way across the whole store before you find it.

I remember my mother placing her weekly grocery order with the small country store several miles from us, and they would then deliver it to the house.  She soon became a fan of the self-help supermarkets when they appeared, and would load our car up with bread once a month and take it home for the freezer (we had a great big chest freezer with very thick walls and a lock on the handle).

I shopped at supermarkets, either weekly or monthly, all my married life and I still do.  They are convenient, but I also like the greater choice they provide and their (usually) cheaper prices.

It is now almost 5pm and the day is drawing in.  We have lit the fire and pulled the curtains, so it is time to feed the cats and think about dinner – and maybe, just maybe, a little tipple to warm up with J

Margaret.