Grocery Shopping Rant

[intertext]

Now that I have been On My Own for well nigh a year, I wish to discourse at some length on a topic of some annoyance to me: to whit, the difficulty of shopping for groceries for one person. Even shopping for two is bad enough, but for one is terrible. Those of you lucky enough to reside in the UK, with access to lovely Waitroses and M&Ss and Tescos, with their gorgeous array of small tempting portions of all variety of foodstuffs for every budget may smugly avert your eyes, or read on, in sympathy for those of us in North America.

I get so tired of being unable to get single portions of things. It's fortunate that I have several four-legged friends who can share a can of tuna or sardines, but what about soup? And it seems the smaller your budget, the larger the sizes. The supermarket near me with the lowest prices is also the one where I am unable to buy less than 1 litre of milk (which I can't finish before its sell-buy date) or an unbelievable 2 litres of soy-milk!

And the absolute worst is vegetables. Forget salad. You have two options there: you can buy the loose organic mix where you can get a very small amount but it goes bad after about two days, or you can get the stuff in the plastic clamshell. The consensus from friends of mine in the same boat is that the clam shell stuff is fresher and lasts longer and you can see the sell-buy date, but still I've never yet finished a whole package before it went off. Why the HELL can't they make small clamshells? They do, in fact, because they use them to sell pre-fab caesar salad for one at exorbitant prices. But why can't they do a nice fresh baby greens mix in a half shell? Notice I'm not even talking about whole lettuces or anything like that because they're just too big and wasteful. I don't remember the last time I actually finished a cucumber. And don't get me started on bean sprouts or snow peas, which for some reason our local supermarket has stopped selling loose and only sells in packages large enough to serve a Chinese New Year's banquet. Yeah, I know, you should buy local, fresh produce. But not all of us are lucky enough to live near a produce market or have a car to get to one, or the time to shop more than once or twice a week.

To be honest, things have improved, but when I thought about it I realized that "they" seemed to think that whoever it was who was buying small portions of things was a) relatively well off and b) had fairly sophisticated tastes, that is would prefer something with sun dried tomatoes and avocado oil to Kraft dinner.
Being, in fact, both of the above, I guess I shouldn't complain (except about the vegetables), but what about my student woman or man on a very tight budget, forced to eat monotonous meals for lack of small portions? What about the blue collar man who buys bulk luncheon meat and puts it in the freezer? I still remember my university friend Michael, who bought a case-lot of tuna and ate tuna-fish sandwiches every day for almost a whole term.

There are glimmers of hope: "Single Gourmet" microwave pizza! Wonderful. Stouffers single serving lasagna is divine. (for those of us in Victoria) Thrifty's stuffed chicken breasts and the Market on Yates (but that's pretty high-end). Let this trend continue! Can it be all that difficult to cater to the single person? Are there so few of us????

Comments

Sympathies

[ellarien]

I've been catering for one most of my adult life, and it seems to get harder rather than easier. My grocery store is barely carrying small cans of fruit or single-serve cans of chicken any more, though I can still get milk by the (US) pint most of the time. I'm forever throwing out half-loaves and the tail-ends of salad bags, too.

[noveldevice.livejournal.com]

I've just given up on ever finishing a bag of salad before it goes. I probably could, theoretically, eat my way through an entire bag of salad mix before it went slimy, but theory doesn't take into account the unfortunate effect on my alimentary tract of a surfeit of cellulose.

[inaniac.livejournal.com]

I was going to say WORM FARM, then I got to your comment about a compost heap.

But seriously, I have the best fed worms this side of the equator!

[a-d-medievalist.livejournal.com]

I've pretty much given up on salad unless it's summer and I know I'll eat it, although I will buy shredded cabbage. It lasts much longer and you can use it as a base for Asian salads, etc. But mostly, I spend far too much (cheese doesn't come in small packages) or cook too much and eat it. ON a good day, I cook something that can't be mistaken for less than two full meals, and then freeze the leftovers. Where I live, one can buy boxes of kosher soups in the frozen section, two servings a box. On sale, they end up being less than a dollar each. And for veg, I tend to buy frozen, so I can cook smaller portions. Buy chicken breasts, freeze all but one ...

[superfoo.livejournal.com]

I am in agreement. Although I still live with my family, I do grocery shop for myself because I perfer not to eat meat with every meal.

It's super hard to find things that are small enough that I will consume on time. Especially things that are packable for a lunch because usually I am at work or school during meal times and our cafeteria at school rapes students with not only horrid prices but lack of choice as well.

I shouldn't complain because I don't pay rent and I do have money in constant flow because I have pretty much the best job a student could have, but it is still frustrating.

The Market on Millstream is awesome, though! I bought a lot of organic stuff there for my lunches, and I know the chicken breasts you are talking about and they are my absolute favorite things in the universe.

One thing that is good for single shoppers: expensive seafood bought in small portions (wild salmon) is so tasty and much cheaper for a lone consumer.

[a-d-medievalist.livejournal.com]

Gods I miss wild Pacific salmon. Really dark orange and rich and creamy ...

[lilyfriend.livejournal.com]

Of course... if they didn't make you buy ridiculously large quantities that always go bad, how ever would these poor people make any money?