So… I'm trying to find out what the deal is behind these
chain natural/organic food markets. I
mean, besides the fact that they're known on the sly as something like Entire
Paycheck Markets.
Here's the rest of the story. I have to go to the market this morning to
get cake mix and frosting and candles. I
forget the candles because I'm an idiot.
I am expecting just me and the youngest for his birthday dinner, and
we're planning on getting calzone.
Later I get a text that my daughter and her significant
other will be coming for dinner. I
decide I should add a salad to the deal.
I have lettuce and one tomato, so I decide to go to the store again. Not wanting to be seen in the same market
twice on one day, I decide to avoid the big chain supermarket and go to the
chain natural/organic market. After all,
they're supposed to have superior vegetables and fruits, right? That's what I've been led to believe, anyway.
I walk into Entire Paycheck Market, all set to pay a little
more for veggies. I've been in here
several times before and found their prices to be almost competitive but still very
palatable. Instead, what I find today is
nothing short of highway robbery: $3 for
a small package of lettuce, $2 for a cucumber, $11 a pound for fresh mozzarella,
and on and on. I might as well just
order the salad from the restaurant along with the calzone because it's going
to cost me $20 just in vegetables by the time I'm done. I don't even dare look at the price of the
tomatoes lest I have a stroke.
I return the basket, still with empty plastic produce bags
inside, to the rack and walk out of the store.
I drive about 300 yards down the street and go to the big bad
consumer-driven supermarket, instead, the same one I was in this morning. I get cukes, tomatoes, mozzarella, and feta
cheese for a little over $8. Oh, yah yah
yah GMO yah yah yah. But at least I
still have some money in my pocket. I
arrive home triumphant.
Until I remember that I forgot the birthday candles. Again.
I told my son he's getting whatever candles are left in the birthday
tin. I don't even care what the numbers
are. I cannot be seen a third time in
the same day in the same grocery store.
I start wondering just how much better is the produce at Entire Paycheck Market? Is it really a superior product? What exactly is the significance of natural
vs. organic? Obviously organic has
certain restrictions on the product and some of the growing procedures, but
there is no restriction on the fertilizer used.
The animals that produce the waste that becomes some organic fertilizer
-- some of these are animals GMO-fed. Does
that mean the toxins are in the ground?
Even manufacturers of "organic fertilizer" admit that there is
no way to know nor prove nor regulate if the ingredients and process are
completely "organic."
Here's my biggest problem, though. If the organic farmers aren't spending money
on all the chemical additives and all that soil enhancing nutrient stuff,
shouldn't their costs be less? Shouldn't
the organic produce market be more competitive, or are the people involved in
the organic chain jacking up prices because we're all scared to eat supermarket
produce? Is it just hysteria price
gouging?
Let's talk natural produce.
Do you know what natural means?
It means it was grown. That's
all. That's it. Nothing else.
No special regulations, no ban on GMO's, no special growing or
certification requirements apply.
Natural is the same thing as picking up any other piece of produce that
wasn't created in a lab or on a manufacturing line. So how is it remotely
honest to charge more for something "natural" when the designation is
simply universal? This seems like a bait
and switch.
So I start wondering if maybe this organic market that is
now a chain itself (though it seemed to rail against the chain stores of its
time) has some sort of great historical significance that makes them a company
worth paying extra for, like perhaps they may be great humanitarians. What I discover is that the people who
started the company originally lived in their store after being evicted for
keeping large quantities of food in their house. When they moved to the market, they showered
in the store's industrial Hobart dishwasher using an extension hose.
Um. Gross. Abso-fucking-lutely dis-fucking-gusting. Skin cells, fecal cells, urine cells, hair
cells, ear wax cells …. All mingling with the food products. Maybe I'm the only one shocked and revolted
by that. I suppose you can argue that
the founders truly were au natural with their products, which makes them at
least whole-heartedly committed to the truly organic, natural experience, I
guess.
I understand that this chain's mission is to help others, to
charge high prices to cover their bottom line plus all the outreach they
do. That's wonderful! But I would rather pay $2 for lettuce and
maybe $1 for a cucumber, then maybe drop $1 in their mission/outreach
contribution bowl. This just seems too
much like taxes to me. I'm forced to
give, but I don't really know if my giving is actually getting to where it
claims to go.
Okay, okay, so this whole blog entry is really just me
bitching about high prices at one chain that claims its produce and products
are superior. But honestly, even organic
doesn't necessarily mean pure. Natural just means it came to the store via the
normal routes: grown out of some kind of soil-like material. I suppose I'm confused by the syntax, and
that's where my fascination comes in. It's
like saying there's a huge difference between a lie and a fib.
Can I shop somewhere else?
Sure, and that's ultimately what I do.
I don't make a huge deal out of it.
I don't throw the basket across the store and scream, "What the
hell are these prices?!" even though I want to. I'll just take my business elsewhere. But I'm certainly allowed to bitch about it,
and since this is my blog, well, damnit, I think anyone who falls for the
natural and organic bullshit is just fooling himself. It's all the same. It really, truly is.
It's kind of like screaming that one political party is
better than the other. They're all
stuffed with nonsense and sprung right up from huge piles of (bull)shit, just
like food. The only difference is that
we devour the food; our government is going to devour us. Maybe that's the natural process of things.
If you want to debate this further, you'll have to check in
later. I'm going to go hose off in my
dishwasher now. I hear it's the rage of
all the organics out there, or at least the ones making a decent buck off it.
That's my bite off the apple. I think I'll chew on it for a while.
