On Sat, 21 Dec 2013 17:56:51 -0800, gtr > wrote:
>
> One of the reasons we love "grocery shopping" is that we have so many
> large local supermarkets that cater to various ethnicities. The closest
> and easiest access supermarkets are Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese,
> Middle-Eastern, Mexican, Persian and Eastern-European (Actually I think
> Jon's is Armenian). We go to all of these with some regularity.
>
> We also have many smaller groceries that are hard-wired to Poland,
> Russia, India, Spain, Italy and Turkey. We're 30 miles from LA where we
> can find other obscurities; German, Swedish, Brazilian, or the greatest
> cheese store on the planet. But mostly we consider those a bit out of
> reach. These thirty miles can mean from 45 min. to 1.5 hours each way.
>
> We lolligag up and down every aisle pawing over every curiousity,
> trying to figure out what they are, how it's used, how it could be used
> instead and so forth. We often say we're the only one that think a fine
> ol' weekend evening's entertainment can be had more easily at the
> supermarket than at the local movie theaters.
>
> It's a lot of fun.

That's very true.

There is a lot of variety between regular grocery stores meaning they
stock different things and they are within a very tight circle because
my city is small (49 square miles). Of course, the area I shop in
regularly is even smaller, so venturing out to shop an hour away is
amazing to me and I wouldn't do it unless I was visiting the area for
another reason. My POV might be different if I didn't have an ocean
on one side and bridges (hello - $$) to cross on two others. This area
is so compressed that I pat myself on the back for shopping 5 miles
away from my house.

That's life - and it's all about perspective.

--
Food is an important part of a balanced diet.