5:44 am, Saturday, August 9, 2008
After the pool yesterday we stopped at Sunflower Market on the way home. There were only two items we needed. We were out of tamari sauce, and we were out of half-and-half for coffee. But last time we stopped at Sunflower because I was out of 2 items, I walked out of the store with 4 huge shopping bags. I don’t know how it happens, because I do fully intend just to buy the two items I need. I hadn’t been to Sunflower in a while because Fry’s supermarket is right by Billie’s pool, so the past few Fridays (when we have been at Billie’s pool) we have been going to Fry’s. And one week I stopped at Discount Foods on the way home, the day after we had been at Fry’s. I was just out of half-and-half, I had forgotten to buy that-- and I don’t know what happened. I got back to the truck with 10 bags of food. So the result is we haven’t been to Sunflower in 3 weeks.
I was at the meat counter, they had spectacular sale on London Broil, when Andrew, one of the baggers there, found me. “Where have you been!” he asked. “I don’t know” I said. And then I said “I went to Discount Food,” and burst out laughing. It tickled my funny bone because Sunflower Market-- it’s not quite a gourmet supermarket, but everything is high quality. The produce is organic (half of it anyway). The meat is organic. The deli counter is all Boar’s Head brand, which is the same brand as the Italian sausage store on next block when I lived on Lower East Side. It is tremendously high quality brand for cold cuts. And they make home made Italian sausages at Sunflower too. When Sunflower opened I found things I had not found available in Tucson until Sunflower Market opened, I was really really happy.
Discount Foods is the reverse. It is a hillbilly supermarket, which is why Bill won’t step one foot in it, he hates it. But I like a hillbilly supermarket, I love Discount Foods. You never know what you will find there, because they buy from food producers who have over-supply and just want to get rid of it. Sell it cheap to Discount Foods, who sells it cheap to their customers. So there is hardly any fresh produce, it is mostly either canned or frozen.
And whole side of store isn’t food at all, it is stuff. I bought an electric fan the last time I was there, and a sheet set of espresso colored sheets and pillow cases, and 15 cans of Campbell soups, and two containers of salt, and two quarts of half-and-half.
That is why we went to Discount Food. I had forgotten to buy salt and half-and-half at Fry’s. I went in to buy just those two items and nearly forgot to buy them. I was so distracted by the sheet sets and electric fans. And Campbell’s soup for 40 cent a can. And in canned vegetables, they had all those things Bill likes, collard greens and things I don’t even know what they are, I guess Southern vegetables, Bill likes them. So I came out to the truck with electric fan, espresso colored sheet set, 20 cans of Campbell soup, 10 cans of collard greens or that other kind he likes. 2 containers of salt and 3 quarts of half-and-half. The third one was a mistake, I should have stuck with two, but it was half the price of the supermarket. So I made booboo.
After that, and we had just done huge shopping at Fry’s the day before, I knew I had to cool it with grocery shopping. I had enough cans of soup for a whole winter, for two whole winters. And ditto cans of collard greens. O that’s right-- they had canned cherries and canned pear halves on extra sale when I walked in, and for some reason my mouth watered for that. I did exercise some self control, I only bought two cans of each. I never before bought canned fruit in syrup because my mom served fruit cocktail for dessert every night as dessert for dinner, when what I really wanted for dessert was chocolate cake. The instant I grew up I bought chocolate cake for dessert and never once bought fruit cocktail, or any other canned fruit in syrup. I will never buy canned peaches either, which was the other thing she served. But very occasionally she served canned plums in syrup, and that sounds good to me now, I would get that.
I love everyone who works at Sunflower and they love me, and I used to be there twice a week like clockwork since they opened few years ago. So naturally when I didn’t show up there this whole past month, they missed me and I missed them. Andrew must have come back and reported to them that I wasn’t there because I was shopping at Discount Foods instead.
That is the only reason I can figure out why, when they were ringing up my groceries (of course I bought more than I intended to, but I did not totally disgrace myself like I have always done in the past) the check-out girl made a big point of telling me how much money I saved. “It was two London Broils for price of one,” she said, “so you saved ten dollars there. And you saved ten dollars on all your other groceries, so altogether you saved 20 dollars,” she said so proudly and happily and encouragingly to me.
O I remember the other thing I bought at Discount Foods. At Sunflower, a pound of freshly ground coffee is 6 dollars. And Discount Foods had a six pound bag of coffee beans, which you could ground there, for 8 dollars. Of course no one knew how to use the grinder and neither did I. It took a team effort to accomplish it.
I could happily shop at Discount Foods on a more regular basis. But Andrew doesn’t have to worry, Bill hates going there, so we only wind up there 4 times a year. And now that pool summer schedule is over, and we won’t be near Fry’s anymore on Fridays, Sunflower will go back to being my regular supermarket.
It is so close and so convenient and the food is so high quality, and I love them and they love me. And Bill doesn’t mind driving me there, because next door is Factory 2 U, and he always hopes there will be T shirt for one of the sports teams he likes....
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