Apr 23rd, 2022 Saturday Sunny and unseasonably warm
“Shopping is like hunting.”
Many years ago, I read this quote from a Japanese manga. “What an exaggeration!” I thought. Hunting requires a lot of skills, AND quite a bit of luck. If your prey decided not to show up for the day for whatever reason, you could be waiting in front of your trap forever and still go home empty-handed. In contrast, shopping in a grocery store should be largely planned, with a detailed shopping list as guidance and weekly special flyers as pointers. If the grocery store has good online price information, it is even possible to pre-calculate how much you would spend on that shopping trip before you head out.
At least, that was my impression just a few years ago.
Then the pandemic hit. All of a sudden the daily “luxuries” that we have been taking for granted start to disappear, or become sporadic and unpredictable. The worldwide supply chain disruption means the same products that we are used to seeing in the store may not be there, or their prices could skyrocket to the extent that many people do not feel comfortable buying them anymore (e.g. I reduced the frequency of buying fresh shiitake mushrooms when their prices doubled, and I had to give up on enoki completely for a while since their prices more than quadrupled, if they were even in stock). At the same time, while many stores offered online shopping, the prices and availability of products are not always the exact reflection of what you may find in the store. By and by, even though I still have my shopping list ready before a trip to the grocery store, I had to learn to be more flexible on the spot and accept alternatives and higher prices to get my mission complete.
That was when the above quote rang a bell in me. Shopping is, indeed, like hunting.
Come to think of it, shopping has been like hunting for the most of human history. The modern luxury that we enjoyed prior to the pandemic – constant and reliable supply of foods from all over the world, at very predictable costs, any time of the year – has only existed for a few decades, in a small selective group of countries/cities. My parents were very used to visiting farmers’ markets and adjust their meal plans according to what they see as great deal of the day (not just the price, but also the quality – seasonal produce is the best!). They did not have the expectation that a shopping trip SHOULD go as planned. If my mom found a surprise deal in the market, she got super excited. If not, well, she shrugged her shoulders and say, “maybe next time.” She never became upset because she could not get what she wanted, since she did not have that expectation to begin with.
I wonder, whether that is the right mindset for shopping. After all, what we eat for dinner depends on what nature has produced. Humans, as a species, have attempted to take control over this matter through agriculture, preservation, and transportation, but there might be a limit. The lifestyle in which all products are available and accessible year round everywhere in the world does not seem sustainable for the planet. Instead, if we try to be more realistic about grocery shopping, and think of it as a “hunting” trip, we may be more open-minded when we enter the store, and failure to find something on our shopping list could become an opportunity of trying something new – it may not work out the same, but it is fun nevertheless (I once bought taros when I could not find kohlrabi. No, they are neither the same nor considered as substitutes for any dish as far as my knowledge goes, so the kohlrabi soup I wanted to cook got swapped out for taro fries – I like them even better!) 😛
I also wonder, what is Lyn thinking when she goes “hunting” (she is an indoor cat, so her foray is largely a patrol of the house and maybe “playing with” some bugs)? Who knows, she has never secured any prey that I know, unless you count her mouse-y or fish-y toys. That is perfectly fine with me 😉