I went to the Safeway which is close to my work, for the first time this evening. I had thought about going to the shops after my day out yesterday and upon entry of my QFC turned my back and walked out because the price of butter had gone up more than 85c in one week, and it made me think that it was time for me to go elsewhere. Ironically a woman stopped me on my way out and asked if I was willing to participate in a quick customer satisfaction questionnaire.
So the Safeway experience was more than I had bargained for. Yes I saved money, actually quite a bit. However, the whole experience was quite daunting and quite depressing. What I gained in one hand I lost in the other. 0/0.
There is a different psychology in there, pokey, over heated, barrage of audio nonsense, over zealous use of cleaner, and the most aggressive spot lighting I have ever seen in anything other then an amusement fair. Starchy, under saturated, low fiber rich in monosodium glutamate.
Homeless, poor, overweight, unkempt, uncared-for, unkind, lost, lonely and unloved people. Men who have the divorced look, lonely men, poor men, sad men, sad women, over prescribed, under appreciated statements of a society on the edge of fucked. Its that horrible taste you cant seem to get out of your mouth despite your very best efforts, until eventually it dissolves away in a shot whiskey or if your lucky a glass of house red.
What is most disturbing, is the fact that this a legion of people, an entire generations load of human detritus. And we who transcend it are responsible for it as much as those who have transcended us.
In stark contrast to this I spent the afternoon walking around the University Village, an outdoor mall catered with upper-middle-class, social climbing, aspirations to grandeur, nouveau-riche, wannabe couture shopping, lavishly embroidered with a swathe of stay at home wives and Ugg-Boot wearing teens. Save for the fact their own levels of personal hygiene may be somewhat, considerably more, obviously, detectably, improved. That and the lack of raised voices, there is not much of a difference between the Safeway crew and the Universally Villaged.
Yes. I think you and I are equally affected by our environments- depressing environments cause us distress and anxiety. I’ve never learned how to effectively detach from the things around me that I perceive as negative. Maybe this is something you and I can work on together.
I think so niffer, I think so.