Waste an American Grocery Tradition
Since I started working at the grocery store I have often wondered how much can people really eat at one time? The last week has been especially difficult because ASU is starting the fall semester tomorrow and parents from out of state are trying to leave their children enough food to last them 16 weeks? I saw a dad buy his daughter 500 dollars worth of groceries today! It was not even non-perished food items. Among the top ten items this week is:
1. Ice cream
2. Cheese
3. Produce
4. Meat
5. Bacon
6. Yogurt
7. Milk
8. Butter
9. Eggs
10. Cookie dough
How can one person really eat that much before it goes bad and truth is they cannot. I sometimes see people work themselves into a frenzy buying get one free items or buy so much and get five dollars off your next order. Its not only the television ads, its the intercom pitching ads, and seeing what other people are buying. This all amounts to a consumer that is being bombarded on all sides to get the ‘best deals’. I have heard one particular evil ad used over and over that uses the pitch line “get yours before someone else does”. That sort of blatant use of psychological ploy really rattles my cage but that is what social psychologists do. They use focus groups and study how people are going to respond to stimulation and then use the data to lure people into buying way more than they need. As a minimalist and a person living in poverty my daily ‘stipend’ for food is about 4 dollars and I am not fat. I know that eating meat for every meal is not that great but produce can be very expensive. Jane the cashier told me yesterday, “I wish I could afford to eat more fruits and especially vegetables but they are expensive to cook” I think that is why it is a big pet peeve of mine to see these low-rent people in my lane that I am bagging on buying three carts worth of food on one trip with their food stamps. The most food stamps I have seen on one card is 4000 dollars. What would the grocery food business do if the republicans win the election and 10 million people lose food stamps? The republicans are going after the national debt business on the backs of the working poor seems kind of farfetched but it does appeal to the right wing party. Why should the 53% of American tax payer have to buy the food of the lower half who will also need government welfare to pay their medical bills once they become morbidly obese? I used to think that government stabilizing the national debt was as easy as balancing a check book but that is not nearly the case. There are so many issues with society that need to be addressed and that can only be done by removing the loopholes in place currently and exploiting more of the 0.3% of Americans who are wealthy to pay a more fair share of the tax burden. I am looking in your direction Apple computers it would seem like you got a lot extra cash laying around and we have quite a bit of national debt?
Fin
