American Shopping Blues

Normally I don’t obsess about my grocery store receipts and I’ll  save my clothes receipts only if I think  I’ll need to return something.  But lately, my eyes have been glued to my grocery store receipts.  It’s not a pretty sight.

It doesn’t help that I continue to read about the "invading European shoppers"   and how much fun and glee  they are having shopping in America.  In fact, I’ve turned off the six o’clock news just because it was another story about rising prices and the strength of the euro.

I guess it’s their turn, but geez it’s the American way to be able to buy as much cheap bologna as you want.  Bologna isn’t my family’s first meat of choice, but it’s looking kinda good right now.  Whole Foods recently decided to change their image .    Their stock price is suffering and from the looks of the aisles in the Whole Foods  where I shop occasionally, their customers are suffering too.  Note to Whole Foods:  you should carry a tofu/bologna for .99/lb!

Don’t even get me started on gas prices or I’ll flip my mini-van over with that “super-human momma strength” and start driving one of those  little electric cars that goes 25 mph (or is that a golf cart?)   

This is my karmic come-uppance.  When my family and I lived overseas, I would make an annual trip to the States  to take care of family business.  That business would include a glee-filled, gallop through The Gap, Baby Gap and every department store that stayed open after 7 pm.  I power-shopped (through my jet-lag) for 48 hours and returned home to France/Switzerland/Scotland with suitcases full of toddler items for my kids.  It was shockingly cheap compared to the prices around me.  That was when the French franc was $.70 in exchange and the British pound was worth $1.50.  Those exchange rates no longer exist, sigh.

So, I’ll continue to ride my bike around town and drive the speed limit (that’s one thing I don’t see many people doing – it saves gas people!).  And, maybe I should plant more than heirloom tomatoes and herbs in my garden – maybe I should sow some tofu seeds (or is that soy seeds?) 

Original Silicon Valley Moms blog