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By Jan O'Connell
There are, what, 20,000 or so items in your average
supermarket? Yet, each time you shop, maybe 40 different
items end up in your trolley.
Who buys all that other stuff?
When it comes to supermarkets, I’m a speed shopper. I don’t
browse, I dash through the aisles, checking off the stuff I
grab against a mental list. It’s all muscle memory –
coffee on the right, biscuits on the left, skip the
confectionery aisles, dogfood on the left, catfood on the
right.
My other half actually looks at things.
He picks them up, reads the labels, compares one kind
of curry paste against another. Thus we end up with various
exotica in the pantry and, eventually the fridge (see
Refrigerate After Opening, Issue 1). Even he, however, has
not worked his way through the 20,000 shopping choices in
our nearest Coles.
Who, for example, eats fish paste any
more? I’m old enough to remember that “A little Pecks goes a
long, long way” but surely the days of fish paste on Jatz at
cocktail hour have long, long gone?
Maybe the local retirement home has a standing order
for their Friday night happy hour. “Just the thing to go
with the Yalumba Autumn Brown, Mavis.”
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