fossildoc
03-28-2008, 02:21 AM
The largest supermarket on the island, whose name begins with "L" and contains the phrase "& son", is near school and is frequented by students because its prices are lower than other, smaller, stores.
This store has capitulated to the power of cooperative buying in cahoots with the other supermarkets which stock their shelves with expired foods. I left one of these other stores in disgust because every single item which had an expiration date had expired. Every cracker, every cookie, every jar of peanut butter, everything you can think of, was out of date. In that store, they are so cheap that they don't keep their ice cream freezer cold enough, such that you can shake a gallon container of ice cream and hear it slosh around.
I hadn't experienced that in the L store, which is another reason why I shopped there. Until today, that is. They've joined forces with the others to buy bargeloads of stale everything, and it tastes terrible. I had to throw away a bag of pretzels today because the smell alone was so offensive. I bought it from a newly erected display which was taller than I am; it looked fresh, but tasted otherwise.
I'm also devouring an out-of-date box of Fig Newtons I bought today; I know they haven't been on the shelf for long because that product is hardly ever available. Throwing away pretzels is one thing, but it will take a lot more than Fig Newtons that crumble like potato chips to get me to throw them away.
A few months ago there was a period of about three weeks when a fresh egg could not be bought anywhere on the island. This despite the huge chicken coop next to my apartment complex. I inquired about this at Customer Disservice in the L store; they told me that fresh eggs come in by barge from the United States, and there was a problem with the barges. There's an egg-laying chicken on every corner here, and it costs a lot to lease barge space, so I'm wondering if there's something wrong with the imported eggs.
I began to ponder the strange phenomenon that I could not successfully make soft-boiled eggs because the shells always broke when I lowered them into the water. I asked a friend in the states, who is a billionaire egg wholesaler, why this happened, and why the shells always seemed so thin when I broke them with a fork to make fried eggs. He said that those symptoms reflect a lack of calcium in the chicken feed, something which is remedied by mixing crushed clam shells with the feed. But crushed clam shells are expensive, and ultimately raises the cost of the eggs. So now the dots connect; well-fed chickens make eggs which meet USDA standards, but the cheap eggs of undernourished chickens cannot be sold in the U.S. They are ok for export, though, even at barge prices, and so they wind up in Aruba, along with all the expired foods that must be removed from U.S. supermarket shelves.
These practices are consistent with the general lack of standards in everything from food to housing construction, to road building in which the wrong formula is used on road surfaces leading to high accident rates every time a drop of water hits the ground, and to wholesale failure of the government to inspect and shut down unsanitary restaurants which leads to regular bouts of food poisoning among the student body.
I urge students who shop in the L store to corner Mrs. L -- who can often be found in the aisles -- and demand they she clean up her operation and stop cheating shoppers out of wholesome food.
This store has capitulated to the power of cooperative buying in cahoots with the other supermarkets which stock their shelves with expired foods. I left one of these other stores in disgust because every single item which had an expiration date had expired. Every cracker, every cookie, every jar of peanut butter, everything you can think of, was out of date. In that store, they are so cheap that they don't keep their ice cream freezer cold enough, such that you can shake a gallon container of ice cream and hear it slosh around.
I hadn't experienced that in the L store, which is another reason why I shopped there. Until today, that is. They've joined forces with the others to buy bargeloads of stale everything, and it tastes terrible. I had to throw away a bag of pretzels today because the smell alone was so offensive. I bought it from a newly erected display which was taller than I am; it looked fresh, but tasted otherwise.
I'm also devouring an out-of-date box of Fig Newtons I bought today; I know they haven't been on the shelf for long because that product is hardly ever available. Throwing away pretzels is one thing, but it will take a lot more than Fig Newtons that crumble like potato chips to get me to throw them away.
A few months ago there was a period of about three weeks when a fresh egg could not be bought anywhere on the island. This despite the huge chicken coop next to my apartment complex. I inquired about this at Customer Disservice in the L store; they told me that fresh eggs come in by barge from the United States, and there was a problem with the barges. There's an egg-laying chicken on every corner here, and it costs a lot to lease barge space, so I'm wondering if there's something wrong with the imported eggs.
I began to ponder the strange phenomenon that I could not successfully make soft-boiled eggs because the shells always broke when I lowered them into the water. I asked a friend in the states, who is a billionaire egg wholesaler, why this happened, and why the shells always seemed so thin when I broke them with a fork to make fried eggs. He said that those symptoms reflect a lack of calcium in the chicken feed, something which is remedied by mixing crushed clam shells with the feed. But crushed clam shells are expensive, and ultimately raises the cost of the eggs. So now the dots connect; well-fed chickens make eggs which meet USDA standards, but the cheap eggs of undernourished chickens cannot be sold in the U.S. They are ok for export, though, even at barge prices, and so they wind up in Aruba, along with all the expired foods that must be removed from U.S. supermarket shelves.
These practices are consistent with the general lack of standards in everything from food to housing construction, to road building in which the wrong formula is used on road surfaces leading to high accident rates every time a drop of water hits the ground, and to wholesale failure of the government to inspect and shut down unsanitary restaurants which leads to regular bouts of food poisoning among the student body.
I urge students who shop in the L store to corner Mrs. L -- who can often be found in the aisles -- and demand they she clean up her operation and stop cheating shoppers out of wholesome food.