Buying the Staples

We realized the other evening that we had absolutely no food in our apartment and would not if we didn't purchase it before Chinese New Year. Although the thought of going to the grocery was not particularly appealing our common sense prevailed and off we went.

Going to the grocery store (market) is not like going to Schnucks or Safeway. The markets are located in the lower level of malls and the malls are incredible. Not like West County or Galleria more like Plaza Frontenac, but nicer. Prada, Gucci, Versace, Chanel no Macy's or Penney's I assure you. The higher the level the nicer the stores. I've never even ventured above level two. Why bother? I'm not spending a week's salary on a purse.

We went to a market called Great in the lower level of Pacific Place in search of the basics. We told each other that we would just buy the staple items we needed to survive: coffee, bread, fruit and a few other things. As we entered we grabbed a shopping cart. It was the same size as the kiddy ones at Schnucks, but with 2 baskets one above the other. How very cute! I pushed.

Down the aisles we went in search of those basics. The aisles were marked: Korean, Japanese, Thai and so on. Well it's very interesting what ended up in our baskets. Rusty's basket had cereal, blueberry jelly and beer while mine had peanut butter, brie cheese and vodka. What exactly that says about us I'm not sure, but we were certainly laughing while we waited to check out.

We were very pleased with ourselves having figured out how to shop for food so now all we had to do was pay and have the items delivered to our apartment. Wrong! No deliveries for five days! What to do with all those groceries? Carry them up the escalator, down the street, through the mall, up the elevator to the hotel and out to the taxi stand to take them home. Then up the elevator to our apartment and put them all away. Maybe I really didn't need that vodka.