Today I went for lunch with my sister-in-law (different one than last week) and my mother-in-law, which was a really nice time (and good food). This was perfect for me because I planned on going to a supermarket today to pick up some odds and ends, and I was right near New World Rototuna, so no extra traffic navigation. And I discovered a few things.
I’ve always thought New World Rototuna was nice, a little more “upmarket” than the one in Te Rapa (different owners, and Rototuna is newer), but I still like Te Rapa New World better—it feels friendlier, for lack of a better word, and it’s usually better stocked, overall. When it opened, Nigel thought the Te Rapa New World was the nicest supermarket in New Zealand (seriously!), though I think he would’ve liked the Borman Road Countdown, though possibly not as much. Supermarkets, of course, are as much a matter of personal taste as anything else in life.
The shop had one thing I’ve never seen at a mainstream supermarket before: A refill station for ecostore products like dish soap, hand soap, that sort of thing. There’s a chain of small, locally-owned shops called “Bin-Inn”, which is known mainly for selling things in bulk, like flour, rice, yeast, etc., and they also sell (among other liquids) ecostore products, all of which I’d seen. This is simply the first time I’ve personally seen such a refill station in a mainstream supermarket (back in 2019, I talked about some refill options in an “Internet Wading” post (first topic in the post).
Such refills may (theoretically) be priced lower than pre-packaged products are, but the prices aren’t necessarily lower, but it's easy to check pre-packaged products on the shelves near the refill station. However, the biggest reason for using refill stations isn’t prices, it’s to eliminate packaging: Re-using packaging is far better for the environment than constantly buying new packaging, recycling it, and repeating the cycle endlessly.
To say I’m intrigued by this is a bit of an understatement. I feel a mini-investigation (and blog post) coming on.
As I walked through the supermarket, one thing I kept thinking was, “oh my dog the prices are high!” I only bought what I needed—or things I’ll need soon that were on special—but no luxuries or treats (apart from some wine and a frozen pizza). Even that restrained haul was easily 15% higher overall than a similar shop would’ve been, say, last year at this time, and that was with all the “supply chain disruptions” the two supermarket companies blamed rising prices and shortages on at that time. I did note, though, that some things were only up a small amount (mainly NZ-made stuff), and some stuff was up like 25% or more (that was stuff I didn’t buy, of course). C‘est la vie.
The soaring supermarket prices have had an accidental benefit for me: I’ve been getting good at making my food dollars go much farther, and I now generally only need to cook every other day (meaning I also I have leftovers every other day), and I have pretty much zero food waste. Sooooo, that’s good, right? I keep telling myself that.
At any rate, it was a good outing, one in which I had a good time, discovered things I didn’t know, and accomplished an errand. But the best part, I gotta admit, was how happy Leo was to see me when I got home. That always makes me smile.
No comments:
Post a Comment