Yes, We Have No ________ (or What I Didn't Find at Loblaws)

I went grocery shopping this evening at The Real Canadian Superstore, which is basically a glorified Loblaws. I actually do most of my regular food shopping there, and I think it's great. It's a huge supermarket, with excellent prepared food and deli sections, but the bakery is kind of average. It also has a full pharmacy section, a photo lab and electronics store. They also sell clothes, consumer products and furniture. And they have a little enclave where you can sign up for President's Choice Financial Services. There are usually plenty of product samples being served up. It's kind of like a small Costco, but without the membership fee and a much smaller selection of bulk items. The prices are definitely lower than at the other Loblaws stores. It's actually a fun place to shop. Except when you go there at 9pm and it closes at 10.

I went for a few specific items, some of which were on sale. First, I looked for the 1lb containers of fresh Ontario cherries that are selling for $1.49 this week. The display was still half full, but the cherries they had looked awful. I was hoping to get two or three of them, but I ended up taking the only half-decent box I could find, because I didn't want to leave empty handed. Little did I know how close I would come to that.

Next on my list was blueberries for $1.99/pint. Only three boxes were left, open, all looking slightly decomposed.

Then, I wanted to get some corn that was selling at 12/$1.99. The stock person had just brought out a bunch of crates of corn to put into the bin, and a mob of people descended on it like black crows. God as my witness, I couldn't get within ten metres of that corn. By the time the crowd subsided, there was nothing left but a massive pile of husks. A few ambitious shoppers were scavenging through the carnage to see if there might be any salvageable pickings left, but I didn't bother. When informed by the store employee that the day's supply had been exhausted, I walked away dejected.

I normally pick up a couple of bags of salad, since I go through a bag every couple of days. But I couldn't find any that expired beyond July 25. I took one.

I couldn't find any whole wheat bagels - except the ones with raisins.

I wanted to buy some chocolate frozen yogurt. They had every flavour except chocolate.

But they did have the Kraft Calorie-Reuced Zesty Italian salad dressing I wanted. They also had some really good looking beef ribs for just $1.99/lb, but they only came in these massive slabs that I couldn't consume any time before Hale-Bopp's return and certainly couldn't fit in my freezer.

I ended up leaving the store with a bag of salad, a box of cherries, two green bananas and a bottle of salad dressing. Pathetic. I think I'll go back bright and early Saturday morning and be first in the store. Apparently the early crows get the corn.