Shopping in the US
03 May 2016 | Florida Stuart
Elizabeth
I was telling one of my sisters on the phone how excited I was walking into a local grocery store here in Florida. She said I should write about it so I wouldn't forget. It felt like walking into a marine store with everything you could possibly need right there at your finger tips. Like heaven. The Publix grocery store here had blocks of parmesan cheese, cottage cheese, sour cream, diet tonic, lemons, Bounty select-a-size paper towels, wheat thins and triscuits, kalamata olives, fresh salmon...all things we couldn't find in Mexico and often not in other countries. Shopping in the Western Caribbean (and also in the ABC's) was a crap shoot as far as what you could get and not get. You just never knew and so we tended to overstock when we found things available and dream about what we couldn't find. It was always an adventure trying new foods and drinks and we did enjoy that part of cruising. But finding our favorite foods at Publix, in abundance, well that was a treat. Knowing those items will be here next time we shop, and the time after that, and not just on Thursdays when the boat comes in and not just on days when the weather is calm or the local restaurants haven't grabbed everything first...oh yes, now we're talking! During our time cruising if we found an item one week it was likely gone the next, never to return again. You might not need something but if you didn't buy it, you might not have it again for a very long time. Having items in abundance is something we should never take for granted but we also are grateful we can afford groceries no matter where we live. We wish that was true for everyone.
Although we've been in and out of the US since 2011 we were always shopping for the days we wouldnt be able to buy things and that's no longer the case. For example, when we were in the US two years ago and waiting to cross over to the Bahamas, we stocked up on beer and diet tonic and wine because if you can get things there, they are very expensive. Now the pressure is off. We didn't buy much the other day because we were walking from the marina without a hand truck but we've rented a car for this weekend and will return. Also on our list for the rental car, West Marine, Walmart, Home Depot, Verizon, our bank, the propane refill station and the butcher who will freeze items for pick up before we leave Stuart. We are back in the world of plenty and right now, it's making us smile. Ed adds to this that at the grocery stores in the US, not only do they speak English but the people bagging the groceries actually do it well. In Mexico the bag people were absolutely horrible, eggs on the bottom of bags, fresh produce in with meats and poultry, refrigerated items in non-refrigerated bags and other items in the cold bags, bread thrown in with cans. You get the picture. Since they don't speak any English and our Spanish is abysmal, you can't ask them to do it differently and for whatever reason, you can't show them either. It really is best to do it yourself but you can't ask them to back off without being rude or misunderstood and then they don't make a tip which they depend on so we would generally let them have at it and then repack everything once we left the store. All of these experiences make for a rich and vibrant cruising life but I think we must be ready for things to be a little easier in that regard. We still have to shop for our food and figure things out about what we can store, what we need etc. but just knowing we can return to the store makes us feel relieved. It's strange but it's the little things at this early point in our transition.