Funny story on the news the other day. Woman goes to a Walmart somewhere in Alberta. Buys lobster pate. Goes home and eats it. Gets sick. Looks at can to find the lobster expired a few months prior. Gets mad at Walmart. Goes to radio station. We get all up in arms about big corporations.
Here’s my problem with this story. What would possess a person to buy something like lobster at a place such as Walmart? In fact why does anyone buy any sort of food item at Walmart? One reason: It is cheap. Can you blame corporations for giving us what we want? Maybe instead of looking at the price we should be looking at the expiration labels!
Go to the Farmer’s Market and compare. A bag of carrots there costs twice as much as it does at Superstore. They are somewhat dirty, a little crooked, but boy do they taste good! The ones at Superstore are nice bright orange, clean, and straight enough to fit in a plastic bag. Make sure you peel them though.
Now I’m not saying that there is not a place for cheap food. Low income families of course need it. Maybe you are having a big party and feeding hundreds. However, I (like a majority of people I know) make a pretty good wage at the jobs we do in Grande Prairie. Our wages are very good in comparison to someone pouring coffee at Mcdonald’s. So why do so many of us line up in Costco on a Saturday trying to save a few bucks on steak propping up a big company from the US? Blackman’s butchers in Grande Prairie sells a pretty good steak. Maybe it costs a little more but most people when asked where they bought that steak will proudly declare: “Blackman’s” or “At the Farmer’s Market” as opposed to “Walmart, you know you can get 3 steaks for five dollars?” Really? Yeah, I can tell.
Ever notice how much time we spend looking for a good deal? Cheap TV’s, cheap cars, cheap houses….cheap food. Usually we are looking to save a few bucks on things so we have a little more to spare for the important things. All cheap things come with a price: jobs going offshore being one of the main ones. The disappearance of family farms being another example.
So the question is, if what we put in our mouths is not important enough for us to spend good money on, what the hell are we saving our money for?
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A few weeks ago I posted a review of a local book called