Dinner shopping, etc.

This one is a mild, pseudo rant on what amounts to my daily shopping.

Because of my schedule (or lack of, these days), I pretty much do all the food shopping and cooking.

There are three main supermarkets within a ten to fifteen-minute bike ride from here. I generally go to all three of them (at least once) to shop for any one given day's shopping. Why? Partly because I'm stubborn and vindictive. I refuse to give in to any company insulting my intelligence or willingness to go elsewhere (within reason), even if it amounts to just a few cents (yen) here and there.

One small case in point: My favorite vegetable juice is ¥298/liter at one store and ¥354/liter at a store you can practically see from there. The sneakiness lies in that the more expensive store is much cheaper than the second for other items. Generally speaking, one is best for produce (and occasionally seafood), one for dry and canned goods (etc.) and one for variety (however all of this seems to randomly shuffle from time to time). I can get a can of diced tomatoes for ¥100 from one store and the exact same can at the other two for something around ¥168. These aren't sale prices, just everyday pricing.

On the one hand, these are trivial amounts of money (though I imagine they would add up over the course of a year). On the other hand, taken as a percentage, some of these things can show a 35-40% difference in price between stores you can walk to and from in less than five minutes. I guess if you shopped at just one of the stores it'd all equal out in the end, but what fun would that be?

My petty and vindictive side comes out when I'm in a bad mood and not in a hurry. I've been known to ask any staff nearby, "Is this spinach really ¥259? Wow, look at this (reaching into my bag and pulling out a bigger bunch that looks nicer). I just got this at Cerca for ¥198". Then I walk away muttering loud enough to be heard about how expensive this place is. I've done this at all three stores on different items. I can't do it often, because they would catch on, but my Japanese is just good enough to manage all that.

Another thing that bites my butt is the fact that some (if not all) stores selling food use the old "bait and switch" scam. The most common example would be with a thing like chips (crisps) sold in convenience stores. A new flavor (flavour...okay, now I'm getting carried away!) by some big international company like Frito-Lay is introduced. As soon as a market is developed, It is taken off the shelves and replaced by a much poorer quality knock-off from whatever Japanese company is associated with, or has the most leverage with the store. In my case, I wouldn't care, except that it runs through the whole gambit of products in all the stores. One of the places near here used to sell this excellent Thai curry preparation ensemble (imported from Thailand). I loved it, and I wasn't the only one. The stock seemed to move fairly well. One day I went in (to buy just that, wouldn't you know), only to discover that it was no longer stocked and that it had been replaced by a Japanese brand that was not only (very likely) hideous judging from the brand and just eyeballing the packaging, but was so full of chemicals that I couldn't even try it to give myself the satisfaction of knowing I was right about the quality and taste. To add insult to injury, it was like 50% more expensive than the imported stuff.

One night I was really pissed at what used to be my favorite store for all the imported stuff they carry. They have been through some kind of management change and have whittled down their selection of imported items to almost nothing. I requested to talk to the stock manager and told him how much I USED to like their imported foods section and how disappointed I was with the changes. I didn't like the answer and challenged him to show me how the current selection in say the Italian foods section differed from a 7-11. The only two things he could come up with were volume (amount, not variety), and price.

They all hate me (not that that bothers me!). And there's about zero chance that I'll affect any change whatsoever. This is a country that is just filled with people whose entire attitude on this kind of thing is, "Shikataga nai". This translates to, "It can't be helped." but more loosely means, "There's nothing you can do about it, so why worry?". Still, the occasional lashing out does make me feel a little better from time to time.

Side Note: I'm not really singling out Japan, I'm sure this happens in lots of countries, but there really are times I feel like I'm living in a vast herd of sheep. I single out Japan because I live here, I'd probably be beat-up or arrested (or both) if I lived in the States and publicly aired my rants there. (there is a plus side to: "Shikataganai"!).

We live near a tourist spot. Because of this the "shotengi" is pretty much tourist-oriented. There aren't really all that many small family-owned shops for food and the like around here. Our next place will likely be closer to the downtown area (not that we have any plans to move in the near future). Then maybe I'll be able to get more organic stuff (and no doubt long for the days when grocery shopping was so inexpensive).

Did I start this out by saying it would be a mild, pseudo rant?

As if that were possible when I start on a rant!