It was interesting to hear on the radio this morning, while I was rushing as usual to get out the door to work, about how the majority of people in a recent survey expressed their dismay at the hardships encountered when manoeuvring around their local supermarkets.
I’ve been suffering extreme frustration in shopping for groceries for quite some time. The items you rush in to buy are way up the back of the supermarket so you are forced to walk from the entry right round the store to find what you want.
In a Coles supermarket, local to where I work, the margarine and cheese is on the side of the supermarket near the fresh vegetables, whilst the rest of the ‘cold’ foods are on the opposite side of the store. Beats me how come margarine and cheese don't live anymore with milk, yogurt, cream etc. I wandered around one lunchbreak absolutely frustrated to the point of being angry when I couldn’t find the margarine. I looked where I assumed it would be, in the ‘cold’ fridge area. Nope, sorry lady, it’s over near the veges.
This particular supermarket is small compared to the large Woolworths’ supermarket closer to home. I am lost in there since they changed their aisles. There are signs up yes, but they don’t tell you all that is in the aisles, just the main products, or what they assume to be the main ones.
Again, you have to walk right through the store from the entry to the back right hand corner for milk, and bread is closer to the entry, depending whether you want bakery bread or brand bread. Now if you are in a hurry, or if you are not feeling well or are disabled in some way, that walk for two important daily commodities for most homes, is a long one.
The story this morning centred on the fact that most of those surveyed complained about there being too much choice and that the shelves and stores are cluttered. I agree with that chain of thought. It’s wonderful to have such an array of foodstuffs to choose from, but why can’t they set the supermarkets up so that all the imported food is in one section for those looking for that type of foodstuff, and the old standbys that we buy more of, in an area of their own?
You can stand in front of a shelf for 5 minutes sometimes looking for what you want, having to scan the shelves and the rows and rows of variations in foodstuffs. Like tomato sauce for instance; there are so many different tomato sauces that coming home with the wrong one is quite easy to do. The bottles all look the same, the labels are the same, there’s just an additional word on some of them – such as tomato and onion. All I want is the good old fashioned tomato sauce that everyone in my family knows and likes, and yet it takes extra time to find it. Baked beans are another source of frustration. So many varieties and brands; too many for my liking.
The new layouts of the supermarkets are enough to contend with without food being stacked like it is. It reminds me of some of the clothing stores, even the big ones, where there are so many garments hanging on a stand that I can’t even be bothered trying to look at anything. Everything looks squashed and untidy and nothing is appealing to the eye.
Do we need so much on display? It’s nice to go into a clothing store that specialises, where you don’t have to fight a clothing rack to find a size you want, or a colour, or style. The same goes for shoe shops. There are stores where shoes are just like a jumble sale, and then there are the more expensive stores where the shoes are on display, and catch your eye.
It’s even worth paying extra to walk in and sit down to try your shoes on. Most of the big stores don’t cater for sitting down to try shoes on – you have to stand there with all your shopping, try and change shoes, try to find a mirror to see what they look like. You can't find a mirror of course, so you stand there juggling the shopping and your own shoes, and wonder what the ones you are trying on look like as you can’t see them properly, there is no room!
People stacked on people rifling through the shelves, throwing shoes on the floor in frustration. If you ever go shopping in the afternoon in say Kmart, have a look around at the mess on the floor and the mess on the racks where shoppers have rumbled through during the day. It’s enough to send you screaming out the door!
It’s time the stores pulled in the reins and started appealing to the eye of the shopper. We don't need so much variety. If we did the stores would be moving the clothes so fast the racks wouldn't be stacked with items being advertised at 1/2 price of less and yet remaining unsold. If I want a jumble sale I can go to the weekend markets, pay a lot less, and expect clothes thrown around the tables, and shoes. But in a big store, where there should be appealing merchandise, there is nothing but a jungle.
I don’t know what shopping is like overseas but I will be finding out soon when I set out on my travels. I shudder to think the whole world is a jumble sale. It reminds me of an orgy, people stuffing their faces with food – strange but there it is.
Or maybe I’m just getting older and less able to handle chaos like I once did. However I can’t remember a time when there has been such a glut of clothes and shoes and almost everything else you can think of in Australia.
Sad part of it is too, that most of the stock comes from overseas. Makes you think a bit doesn’t it? We are, by the very way we shop, making other countries rich whilst losing all our skilled workers and our manufacturing and food producing outlets.
I don’t blame anyone for buying products from overseas because I know how expensive the alternative ‘made in Australia’ items are in comparison. But we are fast approaching the corner where there will be very little that we can buy in this country that is actually made here or produced here. Will we ever go back to what we had? No we can’t. There won’t be anyone here with skills to take us back.
We will become a country with more people living on welfare than not. Now that is a frightening future for all of us and yet, with jobs disappearing overseas so fast you can’t keep count, that is where we are heading. Or so I believe.
I have never, in my lifetime, seen so many people out of work. Our Government tells us that the unemployed figure is very minimal, less than 5% I think from memory last time I heard. What a joke that is. I only have to look around my own workplace where the numbers have been reduced, probably by half in the 11 plus years I have been there, to know that’s a downright ugly lie.
Where will it all end? I see only one answer for a world built on the greed of the few. A World War where everyone that can work will be at work and where we will all hit a brick wall very fast. We are so reliant on shops to keep our fridges full of food and our freezers. How many of us can go into our backyards in today’s world and find food to eat? I have a lemon tree and due to water restrictions and little rain for years, it isn’t doing too well. Perhaps it’s time we all got back to basics and realised that if hard times do come, we will all be pretty hungry a lot of the time.
Just my thoughts but they are real concerns to me. I must get that vegetable garden going soon, and instead of preaching basics, practice some myself. I remember the taste of the tomatoes that were home grown, the zucchinis, capsicums, lettuce and any other vegetables that one cared to grow.
What will you eat if a war breaks out and you have no money to buy food with and the stores are empty? Don’t think it won’t happen because it’s already happening in Israel and Lebanon. Take a look at the pictures coming out of those countries and imagine. War may not come to our shores but the ravages of war will no doubt. The lucky country will be no more.
So out you all go into the yard and dig a garden and plant some produce. I like to live day by day and yet that’s a dangerous way to live when it comes to staying alive and healthy with enough good food to eat. Tomorrow could be too late. Think of the petrol you will save by growing your own food, the money you will save if you have any to spend, and the salads you can take to work to eat for lunch, if you have a job that is.
Food for thought?
Good article...good luck with your garden.