While you can always get your cereal and milk at Store 24, there is something different about taking a trip to the grocery store to buy these household staples.
Grocery shopping might start out as one of many errands you run with your parents on your drive home. And even now, it has made its way onto the "To-Do" list.
But it would be disingenuous to pretend that we don't take pleasure in it. Enough of this gambit, we're coming clean - this is our Grocery Shopping Manifesto.
College may well be the first time many a shopping cart rugrat realizes the power of having a voice; you can have Pop Tarts instead of celery for an after-school snack. You're now fully capable of wielding the customer-separating plastic bars to defend your items in the checkout line.
The versatility of "getting groceries" can mean anything from dashing in for a specific reason to just perusing the shelves. We all know the difference between running in to get the eggs you only realized mid-cookie-baking session that you didn't have and spending a lazy Sunday afternoon browsing leisurely through the aisles.
While it's easy to speed through a shopping trip, it's nearly impossible to try everything. Scratch that; it's not going to happen. Though, Winston notes: Technically, you could try everything, but ... you'd die.
Grocery stores are both endless in stock and timeless in their societal role. Who's ever heard of a passé shopping mart? Not only are they always "in" - by necessity, if not by popularity - but many have kept up with their increasingly trendy and health-conscious clientele.
There was a time when supermarkets pushed out the small-town grocers, but now gourmet grocery stores are popping up everywhere and dominating the market. Even if you think paying an arm and a leg for sustainable bananas is criminal, you still know what Whole Foods is.
Trader Joe's, however, though it doesn't have PriceChopper savings, is a grocery boutique that won't take nearly as much out of your wallet. Plus, while you're reveling in the fact that your tamarind walnuts didn't cost you a second mortgage, you can mull over how this semi-omnipotent, "Trader Joe" alleges such small-town commerce for a corporate monopoly.
Grocery stores have something for everyone. You can spend an entire afternoon standing in front of the cereals, cheeses or baked goods, just absorbing the options and letting it all sink in. Take it slow, start small. For instance: cart versus basket? It might sound trivial, but it's indicative of the sort of shopping trip you're planning to make.
Next time you're coming in from the city, stop by Shaw's and check it out. If you do it before Thanksgiving, you'll even get Turkey Points on your receipt. Save enough, and you've earned yourself a Thanksgiving turkey.
Who can say no to that?
If you want to take them out to dinner, email Winston.Berkman@tufts.edu or Charlotte.Bourdillon@tufts.edu
