Shop-a-holic

I love grocery shopping. Not so much any other kind of shopping, like many women do, but I do like to go to the store for household necessities. Most people I know don't just dislike grocery shopping, they dread it. And many folks find me an anomaly when I say that I love it.

I think it all began when I first moved out of my parents' house. I was freshly 17 years old, full of myself and full of knowledge about the world, or so I thought. I revelled in my independence - getting an apartment, having a part-time job, choosing my classes at college, staying up as late as I wanted. I distinctly remember going to the grocery store for the first time after moving into my apartment. I needed to buy some household basics like laundry detergent, shampoo, toilet paper, but also, I needed to buy food.

As I strolled through the aisles gathering items, I felt such a rush of freedom. For breakfast, I could have chocolate ice cream . . . and as much as I liked. For lunch, I could have white bread for my sandwich. My mom had previously banned this from our kitchen, mandating instead that we eat only health stuff. Her homemade whole wheat bread could double as a door stop. Finally, I could buy some of those mini-pizza rolls for no good reason at all.

My shopping cart represented my power to choose anything I wanted to eat or use in my new untethered life. A shampoo for $7.99 - why, yes, I would love some. I could easily reject "budget" items like Suave just because. The quantity of options and the ease of my ability to select them was heady.

Nowadays, I am still enamoured with grocery shopping. When I walk in the store, the variety of fruits and vegetables looks like a colorful mural. The number of food items in a store reminds me of my algebra class from 7th grade - variables, variables, variables. You can take ground beef, potatoes and carrots and make shepherd's pie, or Salisbury steak and mashed potatoes with steamed carrots, or with some broth you could make soup with them all. Considering all of the food ingredients in the store, the possible outcomes, that is meals, are endless. That, in itself, is awe-inspiring.

As I shop, I am very thankful to be an American - that we have such abundance to choose from, that the quality of our food is regulated, but the choices in our basket are not. Someone can be a glutton and eat chips, donuts and pizza for every meal, or have fish and veggies. Our grocery store choices can enhance our daily lives - give us energy to work, give us comfort on a cold day, help us celebrate a birthday, and can even improve our health.

Although I am a big fan, there have been times when I have been frustrated with grocery shopping. Like when they remodel a store, and you are nearly done shopping only to find the milk has been moved to the complete other side of the store . . . and you are still wearing your painful work shoes. Sheesh. Or when you go to a chain store in another town, looking for a favored product, only to find that the layout of the store is completely different than the one in your home town. Or, and we have all been behind this person, when you are checking out behind that sweet little old lady who is using coupons and paying with a ziploc bag of pennies, and then rooting around in her purse for her checkbook to pay the rest of the bill.

But these minor disturbances do not take away from my positive outlook on gathering my goods. I love finding a new product, and like a little kid, all the while I am shopping, I am anxious to get home and try it out. Sometimes when I am hungry during my outing, I will buy myself a little snack as a reward, promising myself if I will avoid the mini chocolate-coated donuts, I can have a satisfying banana on the way home. Okay, right; a banana is not more satisfying than the donuts. But again, I can choose either one and no one will stop me!

Nowadays I have added a new twist to my market-ing: my iPod. While enjoying my favorite playlist, I seem to find even more enjoyment when lingering over soup selections . . . chunky basil tomato? or creamy butternut squash? or comforting chicken and corn chowder? Since it was cold and rainy, I didn't choose one . . . I choose them ALL. And was probably tapping my feet while I was doing so. My fellow shoppers may not have enjoyed their own task, but as they watched my head-bobbing while picking apples, shuffling down the cereal aisle and maybe even a teeny-tiny shimmy by the wine & beer, I do think they liked grocery shopping with me that day.