The big 2 grocery stores have really been grating on me lately. It feels like every time I go in to shop a product that was on my shopping list has now been replaced by a store brand version, or they make finding the product I used to buy 'difficult' to find. Once you start looking for it, it really is sad to notice the tactics that stores are using to 'encourage' you to buy their brand only...one day I literally had to kneel on the floor to find the ham I usually buy as they have made all the shelves chest height and only put their brands on the top two...grrrrrrr! Anyway, I have sent off a few emails to the stores and got a lovely written reply about 'just doing what the customer wants' and other similar statements I couldn't really believe.
It all got a little depressing until about four weeks ago a local farmers market started up in the suburb next to mine...literally five minutes down the road, and it is on a Saturday! Day one was wet, rainy and cold, but I was determined to go and found some beautiful products and loved hearing 'we picked it yesterday' or 'our farm is not far from here'. So my new saturday morning ritual is to get up early and go to our farmers market (with my shopping list in hand), and as a bonus I usually find a beautiful warm treat to bring home to my beautiful sleeping boys.
