Читать книгу A Compound Life - Gary Sr. McGee - Страница 7

Every Wednesday Jill anxiously awaits the delivery of the U.S. Mail. We get tons of flyers and junk mail all the time, but on Wednesday, the much desired and sought after "shopper’s bible" or grocery store circulars arrive. Jill quickly looks through the stack of flyers, - Smith’s, Dan’s, Ream's, Albertson’s, Harmon’s - yep, they’re all here, she says with delight, or a sigh of relief. I’m not sure which. She places the flyers on the kitchen counter and throws away the rest of the junk mail, er, I mean puts them in the recycle bin. I don’t do much shopping, but looking through all the grocery store ads seems like a lot of work. Are two flyers enough? - is five too many? I don’t know, but Jill usually settles on her three favorite stores. She creates her weekly menus as she scours the ads, comparing prices, one store to another, always looking for the best deals. She makes notes on the flyers and always checks the flyers expiration dates. (There is nothing more embarrassing than telling the checker the price rang up wrong, only to be told that the low price you were expecting expired yesterday).

Once Jill is satisfied with her findings, she proceeds to create "The Shopping List". She grabs her glasses and goes to the drawer and gets a small piece of paper, usually a blue or pink sticky note. I think this little paper thing is a time honored tradition, handed down from generation to generation. (I’m actually a yellow legal pad kind of guy myself, but she seems to like the sticky notes).

She begins to write down the selected items, not in a simple list form, one item below another, but in a special way. She lists meats in the top left corner of the note, dairy in the bottom right, veggies and produce - dead center, canned goods, breads, household items and other things all have their own special place on the list. By the time she is done, she has pretty much run out of space on the sticky note, and ends up re-writing the list on a real piece of paper.

Jill makes her shopping list on Wednesdays. Shopping days are Thursdays or Fridays, always preparing in advance for the ever popular weekend events, Saturday Sammies and Sunday Brunch. You know; good menus and good shopping only leads to good meals. How can I complain?

If I had to do the shopping, I’d probably shop at the 7-11, a convenience store, I’m told. After all, isn’t shopping supposed to about convenience? Jill says that shopping at the "sev" is not a good idea.

I don’t think I’ll ever understand her system, but it has worked for her for a really long time. Jill will always be the shopper in charge of shopping at The Compound.