Today I went shopping to buy stuff for a dinner party we are having with our neighbours. This was made vastly easier now that we have a car. I went down to our local Target, sorry, I mean Super Target. I have been to Super Target a few times but I hadn’t really investigated fully what it had to offer. It might sound like it would be fairly easy to 'investigate what it has to offer' but you don't realize how big it is! So, whilst there, I decided it was time I had a really good look around. Unlike Australia Targets this Target sells food and alcohol. When I say it sells alcohol I don’t mean it has a bottle shop, I mean you can buy alcohol in the aisles. I did know this and have been taking full advantage of it. It also has a Starbucks (dear Starbucks, your coffee tastes like crap) and also a Chemist. Today I discovered it has an Optometrist, music and video store and also sells camping and hardware. Insane.
Whilst I am sort of on the topic of crap food, American yoghurt is vile. I don’t think Beren will ever read this blog, and most people who read it don’t know who Beren is, but Beren, being Victorian, used to have unkind words to say about the quality of Western Australian yoghurt. Well Beren, WA yoghurt is gold medal material compared with the American stuff. Sal and I have bought a yoghurt maker, seriously.
And packaging, don’t get me started on packaging! Everything is packaged so carefully I wonder if they think we will be shipping into space or something. Look at the following pictures. What we have is a packet of soap, which is packaged, and then each bar of soap is also packaged. Next, a load of bread sold to us in a paper bag, we open the bag to discover the loaf is also packaged in a plastic bag. Finally, we bought toilet paper, all the rolls were packaged up, and when we opened the package we found a second layer of wrapping (I don’t think I’ve ever used the word package so many times in a paragraph before). It isn’t just soap, bread and bog rolls though, it is everything!
And, just for the hell of it, here is a picture of Durhams only skyscraper.
3 comments:
I don't know what to say about the bread, but the extra packaging on the soap & tp is because you are buying such huge quantities...if you bought quanties such as are offered at Aussie shops there would be no need for the outer packaging.
Secondly I LOVE American Target, but if you are going to whine about it remember that the beauty of the the US is that you have other options, including apparently a Coop http://www.durhamfoodcoop.org/ which your friends at the community garden probably already told you about. Lori
It DOES look like the Bunbury milkcarton! I had the same thought!
The bread and soap aren't in huge quantities! Although the loo paper was, I'll grant you that.
The fact that you guessed the community garden people have already told me about the Durham Coop is frankly scary.
We haven't been to the coop yet but I want to, it isn't that far from our house.
Hey guys. So great to get updates on your life through your blog. Was thinking it would be good if you post up some pics of your home and street scape.
I love target (tar-jay). I've been disappointed with the Perth stores (I cant imgine how disappointed Lori is!). Canberra has a much better store. The SUPER store sounds so cool. I want to visit the US just to experience a day in a Tar-jay super store. I'd probably get over it pretty quickly tho and opt - as you are planning - for the earthiness of the co-op shopping experience.
In response to the packaging! It's an integral part of the capitalist economy. Increased pacakaging leads to economic growth. The fact that it has no real value, and unvalued external costs to the environment, is beside the point. grumble grumble. But there's lots of really exciting things happening in W.A on the waste front. The W.A government is working on a 'zero waste' strategy, which includes options for reducing waste generation at the source - i.e packaging.
xxHelena
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