Remember the opening credits of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”? Mary, in the supermarket, throws some bacon into her cart with a resigned roll of her eyes. It was the ‘70s, after all, and inflation was the word of the day.
Well, that could have been me yesterday at Gristede’s, my local supermarket. Groceries in Manhattan have never been cheap, but geez, these days they just seem out of hand. I spent $40 on 11 items.
My Kellogg’s Raisin Bran is the main offender, at $6.29 for a 25-ounce box. (I eat raisin bran every morning, rain or shine, so I bought two. I definitely need to find an underworld supplier for my cereal habit.)
But everything else was crazy, too. My coffee, Yuban, one of the cheapest brands on the shelf, was $4.99. A can of Progresso soup was $2.79. Two pears were $2.05. The cheapest thing I bought was a bag of carrots, for $1.49.
People who don’t live in New York always think it’s crazy that we eat out so much. But you really can get a decent meal out and about for not much more than it costs to cook at home!
i always have the same breakfast too. i don't really know why. i have a pretty big and healthy breakfast to gear myself up for the physicality of the day. i'm still a growing lad i reckon!
ReplyDelete;0)
I always have the same breakfast, too! I thought it was cuz I'm too lazy to get creative at that time of day, but since I'm in such good company, now I'm going to think better of it.
ReplyDeleteIn fact I'm feeling too lazy right now to give a big tirade about how good food should cost a lot of money ... like you, I spend a lot of money on food, but the reason I pay so much is because I go to Whole Foods, a really good company that sells really high quality food. You are what you eat.
Great pic! It's so multi-dimensional.
i thought everything in america was cheap.
ReplyDeletehmmm, will need to save my pennies for April!
( :-D )
Tis the bane of an urban existence! Though Seattle isn't quite as bad as NYC, it's still expensive ($6+ for a box of cereal is INSANE though - I think that same box is about $4.75 here). A good friend just moved to NYC from Seattle, and was lucky enough to have his company keep him and let him transfer there - so he kept his job and very decent salary. I think he's thinking he'll live his same semi-extravagant life in NYC, and I've been trying to tell him his salary is actually $20,000 a year less in NYC than it was in Seattle, due to the increased cost of living.
ReplyDeleteGeez, over 6 bucks for cereal! Highway robbery! I bet the produce wasn't even organic! I can see why folks eat out in NYC, just like in Tokyo.
ReplyDeleteI had to smile thinking back to Mary Tyler Moore ;)
Steve, I could go to the Costco and buy several of their double size boxes to mail to you. I'm not sure if the shipping would eat up the savings.
ReplyDeleteI thought for a moment when reading this of The Price is Right but can you imagine going on that show? You would be over guessing on everything based on your experience.
ReplyDeleteI get a banana from the street vendors every morining and they are usually 25 cents. Today they were up to 35 cents and I pulled a MTM myself.