Up Scale Grocery Shopping

Living on the Monterey Peninsula I find my grocery shopping options restricted to small independent markets and large “Up Scale” chains. Although deals can be found the food is mostly more expensive than similar items I would buy at markets in lower income areas. So I limit my shopping in these places to goodies that are exclusive to them. However I find shopping in upscale supermarkets a great chance to observe upper-middle class and wealthier white people in one of their new natural habitats. They put in a Trader Joe’s down the street from where I work and I go there at least once a week to buy their pre-packed salads and maybe some cookies. The folks who shop at Trader Joe’s are the poster children of the new white in America.

First off simply entering the Trader Joe’s parking lot is an act of suicide if you are a pedestrian. Although people who shop at Joe’s tend to think of themselves as intelligent and socially aware this does not extend to pedestrians, city buses nor other drivers. This was observed behavior at the other Trader Joe’s over in Pacific Grove, CA, were I stopped going after my third near death experience with either a soccer mom in a over-sized SUV talking on the cell phone or a Mercedes driven by a guy in a suit who is at war with the world. So awful at driving are those who shop at Trader Joe’s that the city of Monterey has been compelled to move the Transit Center four blocks away because it has become too dangerous for the Transit system to risk the lives of their riders as they attempt to cross the street at the funky intersection. You need to understand that with the New White in America it’s only about them and their needs and while they slap Amnesty International and anti-Bush stickers on their vehicles they have no empathy for their fellow drivers or the hapless pedestrian who gets in their way.

Once inside of the market you find the same situation that you’ll find at Borders except at a much accelerated rate. Also, many of these people rarely read because they already know everything. Here you will find people who will cut you off with their shopping carts and block off huge sections with those carts as they attempt to make up their minds. It’s as if they take up station to blockade a location. The next group is mostly middle-aged female and they are what I call “Zombie-Hawks” because they movie as if they are in a trance but they also dart from section to section, their eyes fixed solely on their target. Often there are near collisions as two zombie cross paths and the new White way is visible at these moments because instead of a pleasant apology (“Oh, I’m sorry. I wasn’t watching where I was going”) the zombies will shoot each other dirty looks. The phrase “Excuse me” is absent at Trader Joe’s as it is at Borders. As I stood in front of the frozen burritos a older women just wedges up beside of me and then swings around and wedges in from the other side never once acknowledging my presence if even only to ask me to move. This has become so common that I’ve surrendered to the vulgarity of the new normal. If a 70 year old woman, who should know better, cannot even bother with basic civility then there is truly no hope.

This is NOT a knock against Trader Joe’s, their staff is friendly and courteous and their store is clean and well stocked. Trader Joe’s is a well-run store from top to bottom from my perspective.

Meanwhile the California supermarket chain, Safeway, has quietly gone upscale as well. I walked into a recently re-modeled Safeway that I had grown up with in Carmel. They’ve added a large deli and a Starbucks but they’re swapped out the old well-lit store for a darker store with “Feature” spotlighting. Isles have been sacrificed for smaller islands where certain items are featured as if they were in an art museum. Since this Safeway is at the mouth of the Carmel Valley, where the average home is $1.2 million the shoppers here put on what can only be described as a fashion show for freaks. Older women dressed like anime cowboys, wearing black legging on bodies that have long since seen better days. Other women are in outfits that are just way too over the top to wear to a supermarket.
This is the same Safeway where actress Doris Day came to shop for dog food at least twice a week back in the 1980s and she always wore blue-jeans and always drove her Jeep. The very same Safeway where Ansel Adams and Edward Weston came to shop back in the day.. Even John Travolta and his wife, Kelly Preston have been regular shoppers to this Safeway from time to time. None of those folks were ever…how should I put this? None of those people were ever assholes.

One thing I notice is that at both Trader Joe’s and that Carmel Safeway is that there is little conversation at the check-out counter between the shoppers and the cashiers. You would think that in a place that where people shop on a weekly or bi-weekly basis that there would be some basic familiar chatter. You would think this because in normal supermarkets this is a standard practice because when you see the same people regularly you begin to smile and wave at the very least and most of the time you will say hello and even learn their names. Not at Trader Joe’s and not at that Carmel Safeway. There is almost no interaction between the customers and the staff. This is probably the saddest aspect of the New White, they just can’t be bothered.