canned goods, breads, household items and other things all have their own special place on the list. By the time she is done, she has pretty much run out of space on the sticky note, and ends up re-writing the list on a real piece of paper.
Jill makes her shopping list on Wednesdays. Shopping days are Thursdays or Fridays, always preparing in advance for the ever popular weekend events, Saturday Sammies and Sunday Brunch. You know; good menus and good shopping only leads to good meals. How can I complain?
If I had to do the shopping, I’d probably shop at the 7-11, a convenience store, I’m told. After all, isn’t shopping supposed to about convenience? Jill says that shopping at the "sev" is not a good idea.
I don’t think I’ll ever understand her system, but it has worked for her for a really long time. Jill will always be the shopper in charge of shopping at The Compound.
Every Thursday rolls around like clockwork - rain or shine - and Thursday around here is Shopping Day. Armed with the freshly prepared shopping list, Jill makes preparations for the big event. This may seem like a fairly simple undertaking, make list - go shopping - back home - done. What’s the big deal? But it is much more complex than one might imagine.
First - you’ve got to decide on which store to shop at - (and I thought I was the only one to have to make hard decisions). Perhaps the corner market - while very convenient, this store may have only a few of the things on your list, but not everything. Or the Super Duper Grocery Mart; which will probably have most of the items on your list. This is the kind of store that Jill usually does her routine, weekly shopping. But if you’re feeling brave and adventuresome you can try the biggest, baddest mother of them all. Yep, you guessed it - Costco! This place, I hear will have everything on your list and then some. On this particular Thursday, Jill was feeling adventurous and decided to go to Costco. She asked me if I could break away from my busy schedule and accompany her to the store. She insisted that this might be fun, and as you know, I don’t shop much, but I decided to tag along with her.
As we approached Costco, I was amazed by what I saw. The 100 acre parking lot should have been my first clue that this place was no ordinary, run of the mill supermarket. We eventually found a place to park, and after we had walked for 10 minutes or so, we finally arrived at the main entrance. (They should really think about a shuttle service). As we looked around for the usual shopping carts, (I prefer to call them "buggies"), I didn’t see any. They had something a little different. You get to choose between a shopping cart on steroids; or one that resembles a small flatbed truck. Jill chose the giant shopping buggy, and said "Hey, you push and I’ll pull. As we proceed on our journey, I can’t believe what I'm seeing - a jewelry store, big flat screen TV’s, computer stuff, everything electronic. We keep moving, I look around and see clothing, books, furniture - wow - they have food, meats, produce and even a bakery. "This place is ginormous" I said, as I heard a feint rumbling - some distance away - "Holy cow, they’re stocking the shelves with a forklift - unbelievable". "Hey Honey - come take a look at this - Do you think we could get this 4000 pc. Tool set?, just think of all the things I could fix". "No Dear, she replies, we didn’t bring the semi-trailer, maybe next time".
As we continue, I notice that they only sell 3 sizes of most grocery items, Extra Large, Extra Extra Large, and Enough to Feed an Army! (Can anybody really use this much stuff before it goes bad?). I notice another corner of the store, "Jill, look - they even sell tires. I’ve been looking for some new "Michelins" for the golf cart - I’ll be right back". Jill persists with her shopping duties and I catch up to her a few minutes later, "Hey Dear, she asks, can you help me with this 100 pound block of cheese?" (Now I know why she wanted me to come along!). As we proceed up and down the food and grocery aisles, we are bombarded with offers from people wearing aprons, hair nets and plastic gloves, insisting that we "sample" the latest snack food or yummy tidbit that they've been cooking up, "Sure looks good, but no thanks" I said as we try to complete our journey. As we finish our shopping, we go through the checkout line and I notice - they don’t even offer grocery bags or paper sacks. "Hey, what’s the deal?", I ask. The cashier replies, "We don’t use ‘em so we can save you money, but we can get you a shipping pallet or a produce crate if you’d like". Now how convenient is that!?
Our visit to Costco had turned out to be an all-day event. Now I know why they sell Hot Dogs and Pizza. I think this store with the, everything AND the kitchen sink concept might just catch on.
So next time you have to shop and you need a pair of pants, a book, 3 gallons of ketchup and an office chair, this might be the place for you! Who’d A Thunk It?
Maybe next time, we’ll stop at Les Schwab and see if we can buy a loaf of bread and a gallon of milk. Wouldn’t that be cool?
I got a call from a friend a couple of months ago, and we talked for a while, catching up on current events and, among other things, he told me he had just bought a used four-wheeler equipped with a snow plow to use around his home. In addition, he said it came with a small utility trailer. He told me he had no use for the trailer, and said “Hey, if you’re interested in the trailer, you can have it. But, I need you to come and get it today, and oh, by the way it has a flat tire.” I told him, “Yea, I could probably use a little trailer like that to tow behind my maintenance vehicle, (the golf cart), and do chores around The Compound.” I started to imagine all of the things I could haul around….shovels, rakes, tools…grandkids…wow, and I’ll bet they’d love it!
Later that day, I went over to his place to pick up my new yard equipment. There it was, sitting in the corner of his garage. It was a cute, little black Craftsman utility trailer with a removable tailgate, and it had a dump bed! Sweet, I thought to myself. It just had a flat tire. How hard can it be to fix a flat on this little thing? Besides, it was only FLAT on one side! “You’ve got an air compressor, don’t you?” I asked, “Let’s pump up that bad boy and I’ll take it home.”
Well, I towed the little trailer home. Actually, I just pulled it down the sidewalk and parked it in my driveway. I was pretty excited with it. I checked it over carefully and it seemed to be in pretty good shape. The tires appeared to be weathered and cracked a bit, but I checked the air pressure in both tires, squirted it off with the hose and cleaned it up a bit. Wow, I thought to myself, the flat tire seems to be holding air! Maybe the previous owner just didn’t put the air in right, or maybe it just needed some fresh new air!
I went out the next morning to check on the little trailer, and sure enough, one of the tires was flat again. It’s kind of hard to use a trailer with a flat tire, so I started looking around to find a replacement tire. It’s the size of a wheelbarrow tire, but has a wheel with a special hub to fit the trailer axle. I went to the local Home Depot store and asked if they sold tires for wheelbarrows, not the whole thing, just the tire itself. The guy said, “Nope. We only sell the replacement tire and wheel together.” “How much,” I asked. He said “they cost about $40 bucks or so.” Too much, I thought, especially if the wheel doesn’t fit the trailer axle. I asked the guy, “Do you know of anyone who might sell just the tire.” “Nope, sorry,” he said.
I got thinking about who might sell equipment stuff, you know maintenance things and other implements to be used around a yard , a ranch, or a farm, then I remembered about the IFA store. That’s Intermountain Farmers Association for you city slickers, and I was sure they would sell tires for this sort of thing. I called the local store and asked my questions, and once again was told, “No, we don’t sell wheelbarrow tires. Sorry.”
Frustrated,
