The first major difference between the Market and the other locations I’ve visited so far is the Market’s hot food corner. A microwave, coffee/hot chocolate machine, and a hot turntable housing pizza stand inside the door with places to sit. A few hot dogs and tortilla chips with nacho cheese containers were also kept warm in a compartment. However, hot food is not technically covered by FoodShare, just like tobacco and alcohol.
The Market is easily twice the size of Lucky Supermarket—triple the size of the National Avenue convenience store—and also in a very busy location. Given these factors, I was expecting a healthier ratio of foods than I had found at other locations so far.
The first shelves past the hot food area are packed with dusty canned food items. The first canned food I pick up—a fruit cocktail mixture—expired in 2007. I try another, this time a can of green beans: expired in 2009. This goes on for the next four cans I try, sometimes having to wipe off a layer of grime just to read the fading expiration date. Every thing I touch expired sometime between 2007 and 2009 and I’m not even reaching to the back of these crowded shelves.
Finally, on the third shelf into the store, I find a can of beef broth that doesn’t belong in the trash until December of 2013. Although the shelves mostly carry canned goods, a box of Lucky Charms cereal and a bag of white rice are also available.
A long row of freezer cases: Kid Cuisnie microwave dinners, pizzas, one partition of the case was devoted exclusively to Ben & Jerry's ice cream.
The refrigerator cases had a few packages of Oscar Mayer bologna and a stack of old “Lunchables”: the cheese, cracker, salami boxes, each packing 75% of an average person’s daily sodium intake.
A low refrigerated bunker in the back corner of the store housed fresher-looking deli sandwiches. Five McIntosh apples wobble in the bottom of the bunker, befriended by three dimply, puffy navel oranges—clearly rotten. At nearly three times the size of the Lucky Supermarket and in just as busy a location, if not busier, I was expecting to find the slightly higher ratio of healthy to unhealthy options.
Passing bag upon bag of cheddar popcorn, potato skins, boxes of processed breakfast foods, I made my way back to the front of the store. One bright bunch of ripe bananas sat by the register, along with one yellow onion and one brown potato.
The clerk shouts at me as I exit the store, “What were you looking for?”
“Oh, ah…nothing,” I reply, and go on my way.
