I had been looking forward to making a big pot of turkey chili. Most of the ingredients were in my kitchen or pantry already. Beans, tomatoes, chili powder, salt, pepper. All I needed was a small onion and some ground turkey meat.
Easy, right?
Maybe not.
What I was unprepared for as I entered my new, local Whole Foods Market supermarket is that I would leave broken-hearted and in need of a change of dinner plans.
First stop, produce…
Why are there no organic onions other than in big bagful portions?
Hello? Nice Mr. Produce Man. Do you have any organic onions not in bags?
He went in back to check. Thinking he might have some Vidalia but not sure if they were organic.
Much to my great relief there were a few non-bagged Vidalia onions that were organic. Yay.
Okay, so I made my way through the long, cavernous expanse of store and when I found myself on the other end I began looking for the in-store, pesticide-free, non-hormone, all-natural ground turkey meat.
After having to backtrack a bit I discovered the display holding all the packaged ground meat.
No in-store, pesticide-free, non-hormone, all-natural ground turkey meat in sight.
Hmmm…
A couple of store employees tried to help me out by checking in the back. (I often think there is a jacuzzi, large screen television and big parties in the back of stores….)
After much effort it seemed that the in-store, pesticide-free, non-hormone, all-natural ground turkey meat was unavailable.
Sheesh, who do they think they are?!
I started feeling guilty. If exploring farms has taught me anything it has made me recognize that not all foods need be available ALL OF THE TIME.
The debate started swirling around inside my head. If this is a manically large supermarket should I expect them to be more well-stocked than a local farm? I mean, I don’t get irritated if something I’m in the mood for is not in the nearby farm stand when I wander in.
And should it follow in our thinking that we need to be less stressed about what is available period no matter the type of store? Isn’t an attitude of I WANT IT NOW only contributing to the demise of our food system??
Buuuutttt…. if I am going to support a supermarket, isn’t their purpose TO have whatever I want whenever I want it?
I found myself irritated not just by the lack of in-store, pesticide-free, non-hormone, all-natural ground turkey meat but at the quandary it presented for me.
Should I have planned ahead? I did have some in-store, pesticide-free, non-hormone, all-natural ground turkey meat in my freezer. All I had needed to do was take it out that morning. Or, I could have left myself enough time to have gone to another store if necessary before it was dinnertime.
Somehow, I found myself wanting to blame Whole Foods. This huge, city-sized store maybe should be expected to have what we want when we want it.
What do you think?
