I was out at the grocery store today. I shop for others, so I have to go down aisles that have things I would never buy for myself; candy and cookie and potato chip and meat sections. There I often see people different than me, and it pains me to see how many sick and obviously economically distressed people exercise the most foolish of the consumerist impulses with what little money they have. But in the produce section, I saw a thing I’ve not seen in a while. Two aspects of it made my hamsters frollick.

You know the ’day old’ displays or racks? Those foodstuffs that are on the verge of being tossed away (or, donated to shelters, if it’s a better store) by the seller? I mean deeply discounted food that doesn’t look so good, and you probably shouldn’t eat unless you eat it that day, cooked thoroughly, perhaps masked with a little heavy spice or other strongly flavored foods. Normally, those racks are pushed off to the side, they don’t compete with “top shelf” displays of more expensive, fresher/better/prettier food. Today, it was out, not exactly in the center of the produce area, but Right There in your face. Not next to the loading dock walk-out door, like I’ve seen before.

Further, the food on the rack looked…really gnarly. A bit older, a bit less “fresh,” even by the standards of the ’day old’ rack. And it was produce that would’ve been cheap (however you define it) even at ’premium’ sale time. Cabbage, cauliflower, massmarket apples, that sort of thing. Nothing most people are rushing off to buy, yet also nothing exotic or particularly odd. But it looked really close to the garbage/shelter can, if you take my meaning. I wondered, “did they keep this stuff on sale even longer than normal?” It looked that bad.

The other aspect of it that struck me had to do with the consumers. The many, many consumers who reviewed, and selected from it, during my time in the produce area. It’s a big box store with a big, “open” produce area, so I was there for some time, relative to my overall in-store shopping time. All of them, and believe me I started watching closely as soon as I noticed, were old. I suppose one or two not-old people could’ve also inspected it when my back was turned, but the pattern was very clear. Little Old Bluehairs, hunched and pinched and moving slowly, carefully inspecting the dented apples and browning lettuce. And eventually, selecting one. Or more.

As all money is relative, I’ll say that this store is located in the region of this county in which property taxes are highest. It is not a “ghetto” or specifically “discount” sort of place. I know what those are like, and since I don’t live on the South Side anymore, I honor my promise to myself never to shop in one like again. In those places, I’m used to that sort of scene; there are many more ’cheap food’ displays in such ’hood stores. But in the burbs? It was a definitive moment for me, to see the habit and practice of the ’hood show up in this area store, that in previous cycles, boasted of the large selection of organic produce and upscale foodstuffs available in their ad campaigns.

I wonder, do recently made poor, formerly middle class folk come to the ’hood, when discounts suddenly become a priority? Or do the stores that sell to them merely ratchet prices and goods ’down,’ offering ’what the market will bear?’

The clerk at the checkout line noted that “we ran out of a lot this week,” and when I suggested that perhaps the purchasing dept. had been cutting it closer to stay within predetermined budget constraints, agreed with a knowing look in his eye. He even made a joke about how much I spent, (not understanding until I explained that I shopped for several households) that anyone would be happy at the total. I came 70$ under my max budget, but then again, I didn’t buy as much as I would’ve, after perusing meat prices. I think Doonesbury did a brilliant cartoon in the 70s about a consumer taking his banker to the butcher. I thought of that today.