I was actually in a Kroger’s store earlier this month. My two favorite local markets – Keller’s IGA on Ludlow, and Clifton Natural Foods (+ Whole Foods / Wild Oats, but I go by the other two almost daily) – didn’t have currants. Currants are a sacred requirement for Irish soda bread, which I bake for about 2 weeks around St. Patrick’s Day.
So I entered the Corryville Kroger – hadn’t been in any Kroger for nearly 2 years. They don’t feel good – feel like they’re full of anxious, irritable, unhappy people. And as far as I’m concerned, there’s almost no food in there.
What most folk consider food includes preservatives and additives – material I do not choose to put in my body. And when organic food (and some Kroger stores have some) is handled by unhappy people – I don’t like that either.
So there I was – and they did have currants. I actually bought every box on the shelves – 10 altogether. But the smell of the place – like everything is about to go sour – and the un-cheeriness, were just as I remembered.
I checked out the health food section – worse than it used to be. Lots more snacks – healthier than the stuff on the main shelves, but not really healthy, more power bars, and fewer food choices.
And aisle after aisle of stuff that none of us really need, most of it not ‘green’, sustainable or necessary for a wonderful life. I wonder why we need 20 choices of toilet paper, none of it recycled? Are those really choices, or just different labels and prices slapped on wasted trees?
I’ll give you an update in 3 or 4 years, when circumstances force me back in those doors again.