Photo Friday: Grocery Shopping with Edith

A local grocery store has carts just her size.

Lucky's, Jan. 15, 2017

Grocery Shopping with Two

April 8, 2016

Now that I've gotten the hang of it, I kind of like getting groceries with both of the kids. In fact, I think I enjoy grocery shopping more now that I did pre-children.

It helps tremendously that Aldi has shopping carts that fit two kids. Edith prefers to walk rather than ride in the cart, but that typically won't last the entire trip. So the two of them sit together and largely entertain each other.

The biggest hit lately has been the mirror at the top of the meat section. I didn't even notice it until I glanced up to see what had entranced them so. Last week they found the mirror at Kroger too, so it's a certified crowd-pleaser.

When the weather is nice, we walk to the Kroger at the edge of our neighborhood. Atticus stays in the stroller -- perfect, since I can load up the bottom with our buys. Edith sticks by me pretty well and is an expert at looking for free samples!

New York Grocery Flashback

On Saturday I had a strange sensation of being back in Brooklyn.

The calendar still said January, but the thermometer was at about 50 degrees. I needed an ingredient -- to make a Brooklyn Blackout Cake, as chance would have it -- so Edith and I decided to walk to the grocery store. I think I had three things on my grocery list, so I brought one reusable bag.

Of course, those three items quickly became 18. Macaroni was 50 cents a box! Cans of pure pumpkin, too! My bag quickly filled, and I needed two more.

And so, just like in New York, I was left carrying home way too many heavy, awkward groceries several blocks without the use of a car. Only this time I was trying to track a toddler too.

I balanced the bags as best I could, although there's only so much you can do when you have a gallon of orange juice in the mix. Of course we made it home, and my sore hands were only slightly worse for the wear.

Yeah, it was inconvenient, but a first-world problem for sure. Besides, it's nice to know that I still have the touch -- and can accurately gauge just how many groceries my poor little arms can handle.

The Joy of Grocery Shopping

I already knew that grocery shopping was easier in Ohio than in New York. What I wasn't expecting was how much more I would enjoy it.

I've never liked getting groceries. I hated it even as a kid -- the refrigerator aisle was way too cold, I thought. As I grew older and was forced to buy my own groceries, I saw it as a chore to be completed as fast as possible. Make list, grab items, find shortest check-out line. In and out.

In New York, of course, grocery shopping was different by necessity. We often walked to the store, carrying back only the groceries we could carry in our own hands. And the store we typically visited was small. Few items, little selection. In one way this was good -- no choices meant no time pouring over what to buy. But the aisles were slim. Heaven forbid my stroller and I meet someone in the aisle coming toward us.

Now, back in Ohio, I fully appreciate the wide aisles, large selection and low prices. But what has really made grocery shopping more enjoyable is taking Edith. She sits up in the cart, fully taking in everything and everyone around her. I show her how to choose the best bananas, she waves to the other shoppers. It's fun.

I still wouldn't call grocery shopping the highlight of my week. And I still make a list, grab the items and find the shortest check-out line. I think the difference is that my long-detested chore is now a learning lesson for Edith. That's turning lemons into lemonade.

New Yorkers Know How to Bag Groceries

Everybody has a story like this:

The bagger at the grocery store put four cans of black beans on top of your loaf of bread. Or bruised your apples with a jar of applesauce. Or broke an egg with a clumsily placed ice cream carton.

I've never had that happen in New York, which has led me to a theory. New York City simply breeds better baggers.

My better bagger theory continues. They're bred out of necessity.

In Ohio, upstate New York or anywhere that customers commonly have a set of wheels at their disposal, groceries go from cart to trunk to grocery table. The handles on those cheap plastic baggies are used for a minute or two at most. Even if the black beans are bagged with the bread, you can just rearrange it in the car.

No such luxury in New York City. Those bags have to hold up to a 10 minute walk. Baggers here have it down to a science. The bags are never so full that they rip on the trip home. And just as important, they're never too empty. It's annoying to loop six handles through each hand when I leave the grocery store and then again after I sit them down on the floor to unlock the apartment door. Each bag better have in it more than just a stick of butter.

The expertise of New York baggers came home to me a couple of months ago. I stopped at Rite Aid to pick up a bale of toilet paper. It was so big and soft that it would have been right at home in a hayride.The bale allows me to go a long time between purchases, but it's generally really annoying to carry home. This time, however, the bagger stuffed it into a standard plastic bag while rolling a second plastic bag into a snake. She tied each end of the snake to the handles of the bag holding the toilet paper, thereby fashioning another handle for the bag. Kind of like a big toilet-paper-only purse.

I actually complimented her on her bagging skills.

Maybe Bodegas Aren't So Bad After All

I was at a bodega last week picking up exactly $4.26-worth of bananas and milk. I opened my pocketbook, and there it was. Nothing.

Not exactly nothing, but sure not enough. I had a dollar bill and a handful of coins. I could feel my face flush as I asked if the bodega took credit cards. I already knew the answer: Nope.

"I'll be right back," I told the man behind the counter. I've become friendly with him after two years of weekly banana purchases.

I turned, leaving my food on the counter. He motioned me back, telling me to take my groceries and just drop off the money the next day.

As much as I rave about the wonders of Kroger and Meijer, would a cashier there do that for me? Yeah, right. Even still, I rushed the block-and-a-half home, grabbed a crisp $5 bill from Paul and ran back. When I insisted that he keep the change, he was just as adamant that I take the coins.

I was embarrassed by the entire episode, but it did leave me with a warm, fuzzy feeling inside. You see, last fall I didn't see this man at the bodega for about two months. When he returned, I asked him where he'd been all that time. Visiting family in Yemen, he said. A few weeks later was the attempted Christmas Day bombing and a renewed focus on his country.

When Paul took on the banana responsibilities for a week or two in January, I was vaguely afraid that my Yemeni acquaintance would think I had shunned his bodega because of this. I doubt he lost much business; most of his customers seem to be from the Middle East.

I hope I would never judge a whole country's citizens based on a few errant individuals. God knows America has plenty of its own, and I would hate to be typecast based on some of the loons in our prison system. Still, the episode made me think about how it's so easy to fit people into a box-- especially when we don't know them. How would I feel about people from Yemen if I didn't know this man?

It also made me think about how I maybe should check my purse before I try to buy something. Just a thought.

Ohio vs. New York: The Way We Speak

Say these two words out loud:

1) Grocery

2) Coupon

I've recently begun to pronounce them differently, and I wonder if there's an Ohio-New York difference.

In Ohio:
GROW-shree
CUE-pon

In New York:
GROW-sir-ee
COO-pon

When I was in Defiance at Christmastime, I caught myself saying them the "New York" way and something immediately felt off. The words just didn't belong.

I certainly haven't picked up all New Yorkisms. No "fuggedaboutit." No "not for nuthin'." And certainly no "Jersey Shore" accent.

And I just as certainly haven't lost my Ohio-isms. I got called out in the lunchroom at work for referring to a carbonated beverage as "pop." And I still use "bag" and "sack" interchangeably.

GROW-shree bag, GROW-sir-ee sack, it's all the same to me.

A Grocery Store That Makes Me Weep

I almost started crying in Kroger.

I was in Columbus, making my now-annual trip to a "real" grocery store. We drive to Ohio every Christmas, and I then proceed to cram every last inch of the trunk and back seat with cheap chips, chocolate and other snacks. And I never knew 'til I moved away that Kroger really does sell the best salsa.

I nearly gasped when I walked through the doors. The space! The selection! I wasn't fighting for a place to rest my cart. In fact, two carts could actually pass each other in the same aisle.

Yes, I've written about this before, but it never fails to amaze me. I was staring at the unbelievable number of cake mixes and frosting containers and wanted to burst into tears at the sheer beauty.

Alas, now I must wait 51 more weeks. Until then, I have $65 worth of Kroger oats, graham crackers, peanut butter, cookies and a few other things to hold me over.

Buying Bananas in Bay Ridge

My favorite delivery truck in Bay Ridge: "We Go BANANAS ... for you."

I eat five bananas a week. Sometimes more.

It's not my favorite food. It's not even my favorite fruit. Bananas are just so convenient. They come in their own wrapper, and they don't need washed. And they pair extremely well with the only other thing I eat as often: peanut butter.

I've often complained about my neighborhood's grocery stores, but we rarely go there to buy fruit, vegetables, milk or eggs. They all come from the bodegas on our street. I like how convenient the bodegas are-- I'm usually in and out in just a couple of minutes if there's no line. There's at least a half-dozen within a few blocks, and Paul and I each have our favorite.

Mine is about two blocks away, and I stop there once or twice a week after work on my walk back from the subway. I sometimes buy a bag of couscous, some apricots or a butternut squash. But the vast majority of the time I walk out only with a bag of bananas-- the greener the better.

The man most often at the cash register and I have long exchanged a few friendly words when I check out. He gave up trying to convince me to exchange my bananas for another fruit once in awhile. Now he sometimes playfully calls out to the other workers to raise the price of bananas when he sees me walk in. I tell him that's ok. I'd still buy them-- they're the best in the neighborhood.

And they really are. The neighborhood bodegas are all only a few feet from one another, but the quality varies widely. In fact, we don't buy produce at the nearest bodega, directly across the street.

I'm especially surprised that the bananas are so rotten at some bodegas since I suspect they all come from the same place. Seeing the banana truck unloading at one of the local bodegas always puts me in a good mood when I'm walking to the subway in the morning.

I just noticed the big image on the front of the truck this week.
I think I was late for my train because I had to take a photo.

What My Grocery Store Has That Yours Does Not

Statue of Liberty:
View a Few Steps Away From My Favorite Grocery Store

I detest grocery shopping with a passion.

The crowds. The lines. The difficulty of finding just one can of green enchilada sauce.

But getting groceries is a little easier when it comes with a great view. Of the Statue of Liberty.

Two years ago, my weekly trip to the Kroger in Galloway, Ohio, also came with a great view. Of a car wash and a gas station.

Admittedly, I don't often visit Fairway, the grocery store in Red Hook, Brooklyn, that offers the terrific view from its parking lot. It's a car trip away, and we've gotten used to buying our groceries from the mediocre neighborhood stores.

But every few months we'll rev up the engine and head to Fairway for Whole Foods variety at Kmart prices. Unlike the tiny Bay Ridge grocery stores, Fairway actually has -- gasp!-- selection. And room to move your carts. But still no green enchilada sauce.

The store also has a cafe with outdoor seating overlooking the bay, which is supposed to be lovely on sunny days. The sky was overcast on Sunday, however, so we skipped the cafe in favor of a short walk along the water after we unloaded about a dozen bags into our car trunk.

Maybe I'm still more of a tourist than a resident, but I'm just not yet tired of that view.

Getting groceries

One of the most frustrating parts of living in New York City is getting groceries.

The grocery store we frequent now is so small that you could probably fit about 100 into the average Kroger Marketplace. The selection is small, and the aisles are even smaller. Carts are a huge pain because of the tiny space and large crowds; it's easier (albeit heavier) to carry a basket.

We go to Associated about once a week and buy only what the two of us can carry back to our apartment. We walk there-- it's about a 10 minute stroll, and there's no parking lot anyway. We get grocery ads only sporadically, so I usually take a look at a flier as soon as I enter the store and quickly memorize the prices. Associated has good sales-- you just have to make sure the cashier charges you the correct amount. Every time but once they've overcharged us on at least one product. Luckily Mom trained me to watch the scanner, so I catch most of the mistakes.

About once every month or six weeks we go to Foodtown, about 14 blocks away. It has a parking lot, so that's where we stock up on cat food and litter. The store itself is larger, but the aisles are just as narrow. It's so busy on Sundays that we've had to wait in line for a shopping cart.

The selection still amazes me. Many of the stores don't carry large tubs of flavored yogurt, but you can choose from multiple styles of rice or ricotta cheese. I know it's because of the neighborhood's demographics, but it's still frustrating.

Luckily we can get the necessities (fruits, vegetables, milk and eggs) across the street. I always have onion nan on hand from the Greek grocer on the corner, and I just found a health food store nearby that sells yummy blueberry granola. I just miss being able to go to ONE store to get everything I need.

One month down

Today is our one month anniversary in New York, and I celebrated in a memorable fashion-- I accepted a job and became a New York resident.

I start work Monday as a proofreader/writer for a language translating business in downtown Manhattan, near the World Trade Center site. I became a NY resident by finally getting a driver's license here. I have only a temporary license now-- the real one is sent in the mail, so I'm not sure how my photo turned out.

My mini celebration continued with some shopping in Park Slope and a piece of Oreo cheesecake at a Bay Ridge bakery.

I also stopped at a grocery store a couple of blocks away that I had never yet visited. And this might be the highlight of the day-- they have the small flour tortillas I've been searching for! Now I can go back to making quesadillas without rationing my dwindling supply.

Taking off the rose-colored glasses

I love our apartment and I love living in New York, but it's not all sunshine and lollipops. Here's a few things bothering me so far:

1: The noise. Our apartment is on a busy road above a bar, so that means traffic at all hours and people talking (and screaming) until the wee hours many nights. Drunk patrons in yelling matches are not at all uncommon.
On the plus side: Living on a busy street means there's a lot of stores and restaurants nearby, the sidewalks are well-lit and I never feel unsafe walking back from the subway.

2: Walking outside in bad weather. I got my first taste of that last weekend, and how I longed for a car and garage! As I found out Saturday, my boots aren't exactly rainproof. Luckily, boots with cute designs on them seem to be quite popular, so I think I'll be getting myself a pair.
On the plus side: We spent a lot of money on gas in Ohio. We're spending a lot less here on transportation, even with monthly subway passes for both of us.

3: Not having a thermostat. I didn't anticipate this one. The landlord controls the heat throughout the building. He turned it on yesterday and it was about 90 degrees throughout the building. Everyone here had all their windows open. Luckily it's off today. I always thought nyc apartments were supposed to be cold.
On the plus side: It should be nice and cozy this winter, and I don't have to pay for the heat.

4: Grocery selection. Who would have thought 6-inch flour tortillas would be so hard to find? These were a staple of my diet in Columbus. Now I'm rationing all I have left from the move. A few other faves are expensive, hard to find or both. For example, a small jar of peanut butter is about $2.50, and I can only find graham crackers in one shop (a drug store), and they're $4 a box. I guess we'll be putting all the money we saved on groceries into food.
On the plus side: A Greek grocer less than a block away has pitas in all different flavors at reasonable prices, and the larger grocery store in our neighborhood has several varieties of couscous. Also, the fruit and veggie grocer across the street is quite convenient.