Shopping two ways

November 30 2015

SHOPPING........the usual process for a bulk shop is to order from a wholesaler who puts your order on a pallet on a refrigerated road train. The road train comes every Wednesday fortnight via various communities on the way so leaves Alice Springs early Monday morning.

That means that my order has to be placed by the Wednesday before, to allow for sourcing, packaging and delivery to the transport company.

I have recently ordered fresh pre packed salads, avocado, asparagus, brocolini, cherry tomatoes, apples, oranges, pears and mangos - all sourced from either Perth, Adelaide or Alice.

Ordering for one and keeping it fresh is tricky so lots of thought involved.

I have also ordered some meat that is individually portioned and vac sealed frozen for freshness.

Sooooooo looking forward to a meal of tandoori lamb cutlets and green salad which those who know me well know that to be my all-time favourite meal - after Linda Mcdonald s gnocchi and cheese scones.

 

The truck takes several hours to unload and on that day I will drive to work so that I can drive my pallet home and get it into the fridge ASAP.

 SHOPPING in the local store is a whole other matter.

Timing is crucial. I usually only shop there once a week on a Friday.

I get a weekly treat of a cookies and cream magnum ice-cream to eat on my way home.

BUT even in the air-conditioned shop the magnum starts to melt very quickly.

Normally I would start to eat it while waiting in the checkout, then present the wrapper to pay for it but the shop managers prefer you don't do that because then the kids copy which creates an issue of stealing.

So I time my ice cream shop with precision.

Any junk food is not sold before 2:30PM (after school) so at exactly 2:31 I am at the ice-cream cabinet and at 2:32 I am at the checkout ready to pay and at 2:33 I am out the door eating my ice-cream.

Any earlier I cannot buy and any later I cannot enjoy because it is melting into nothingness because of the queues of kids stocking up before they go to the pool.

 I will never whinge about shopping at Coles again - unless it is the 2 days prior to Xmas at Casey central whilst still doing renovations and it takes me 45 minutes just to get out of the bottle neck car park as it did last year