The Minefield Whine

Usually when I go to the grocery store I don't want to give it all that much thought. I think about it before I go--i.e., we make a meal plan for the week and make out a grocery list. But when I go, I want to go in and get it over with, and have it not be too much of a hassle. It's a chore and I hate it and often I'm chatting on my cell phone the entire time. The only time I'm focusing on the drudgery of it is if someone's in my way (annoying), someone that works there wants to chat (annoying), if the potatoes have *dirt* on them (annoying) or the produce is bad quality, if there aren't enough available plastic bags in the produce section or meat section (I don't like getting raw meat germs on my hands and my stuff if I can help it) or if they don't have something I'm looking for. Other than that, I don't want to have to worry about the packaging, think about what I'm buying, talk to anyone or wait in any freaking lines. Maybe that sounds princessey, or very American, but whatever. It is so.

This last weekend I made my first trip to the grocery store after reading up a *little* on plastics and food storage. In other words, not enough to make informed decisions, but just enough to make me tense and annoyed. Baby steps!

First stop was the produce department. I usually get bagged salad and bagged broccoli, because I don't like to have to wash stuff. Both items are, of course, in plastic bags and they're damp. So wet food contained in plastic is not optimal. And I put everything but everything that's loose in plastic bags. In Texas they often offer either plastic or brown paper bags in the produce section, but I haven't seen that in Indiana. I wonder if they would mind if I brought my own? At this point, already I'm feeling discouraged and kind of annoyed. I mean, come on--does it really make enough of a difference that I should actually make changes? I'll have to read more.

Next stop was the meat department. Even the Laura's brand of organic, no-hormone meats are packaged on styrofoam and wrapped in plastic. That's supposed to be bad. I guess I could go to the meat counter and ask them to wrap it in butcher paper instead. Is that stuff coated in plastic? I'll have to check into that.

Then it was on to the canned goods, some of which have plastic linings, the turkey for sandwiches that is, of course, all in plastic. We can go with aluminium cans for sodas (or stop drinking sodas, which would be the better option), but do they have plastic lining, too? And the bottled water is just all plastic. But is it the bad plastic?

At the checkout, I had everything packed in plastic, as usual. I've been doing this because we use the bags for picking up dog droppings when we take the dog for a walk (we meaning "Jamie), so the former theory was, they're needed and used. But I've noticed some of our neighbors have dog crap retrieval devices that are probably a billion times more eco-friendly, so we're going to look into that.


So now I'm thinking I need to figure out this plastic stuff ASAP, so I can get back to the way things were. I have phone calls to make!