If you had just $35.00 to buy groceries for yourself for the week at Walmart, what would you buy? by Kyle Phoenix

 

I worked at Walmart briefly, for about 6 months, while taking care of a terminal parent—-it gave me something to do in a foreign city other than sit at the hospital bedside and I was able to float my expenses without relying on savings. It was actually kind of fun to be at a job that was solely a distraction.

Your ID card is also attached to an account, so you could theoretically (most did) have your paycheck direct deposited to your card. I didn’t like that idea so I had it sent to my normal checking account and I didn’t like the idea of work/shop in the same place so I would go to Food Lion about 80% of the time.

But on my breaks, i would stroll around and see what was possible.

Chicken packets—-generally a cut up chicken for $8 to 10 dollars for several pounds.

Beef strips/steak $10—-I became obsessed with making the perfect Mongolian beef (there was not much else to do but cook and write there. lol)

Rice, beans, frozen veggies—generally $1 or $2 per packet/pound. (which gets chili and soups once or thrice a month)

Fresh vegetables were cheap—-average $1–2 per pound—-broccoli, kale, green beans, carrots, tomatoes, onions.

Pasta—$1 per pound for a box or packet.

Pasta Sauce $3 per jar.

I generally look at 2–3 meals from one cooking of $5–10 (high end by myself) a day—- dinner, lunch, dinner or dinner/lunch. Sometimes I keep working a soup or stew or meat pasta sauce just adding more meat/veggies to it and getting several days of meals out of it.

I mainly just fed myself and really didn’t have much to do so the trip to Food Lion or work were kind of the highlights of my days so I stuck to the above budget—-maybe closer to $50. One thing I did that is common down in Charlotte is I donated plasma—-many people do it for gas money, but I was unsure of how long I’d be there so I decided a car would become more of a bill than a freedom tool—-I became a bus expert. The bus stopped literally 30 feet from the front door/lawn and directly across the 4 lane road coming back—-Walmart was its’ last stop and mid-downtown and full downtown was along the route—-90 cents each way to Walmart and 70 cents more to downtown or to transfer to the bus to the hospital.

Food Lion was 8 country blocks from the house (about half a mile).

WalMart had lots of sales I remember or large quantities of food—-meats, frozen vegetables, etc.—-I’m not big on processed foods, I cook everything from scratch so sodas and juices and snacks were my big purchases daily to take home as there was no easy “corner store”, the closest was a 24 gas station across from Food Lion.

I did buy DVDs from Walmart, $5 or so. (used for $1 a piece from a nearby pawn shop. I think I sold some back, cleaned out my collection.)

What I’m thinking about, comparing then to living now in NYC, where I average about $100 myself/per person on groceries—I just got some yesterday—-is that my grocery costs were lower because everything surrounding it was lower, the cost of living from there to NYC is maybe 2/3s.

I could use the plasma money (about average $50 twice week, about 3 hours total time spent) on more food. I remember that about once a month I did a big stock up—-which might be the key to $35 or $50 a week at Walmart from there and Food Lion—-$150 or more—-of rice, meats, etc.. Walmart is best for bulk but not for weekly shopping I found because the food section——(1/4 of the store and then I, in my walking sojourns miles in each road direction, found that there are now Walmart supermarkets—-both places my discount card/ID working so I got 10–30% off of stuff, which was generally when I relented and shopped there. We also had a freezer in the house so I could load up and just need meats and fresh fruits and vegetables through the month) is geared towards massive shopping loads—-when visiting I’d stocked up my parents house with about $400 worth of groceries and sundries every couple of months. The oversized carts and buying in mass bulk seemed to be the idea. I went to Costco once and it was like land of the insane because everything was buy a 12, 24, 50 pack from food to toiletries and the joint was packed. It was like the addiction—-the dopamine rush was from the portion sixes (I remember even the baked pies were huge) and yes, it was populated by at least 75% fat people pushing ginormous carts.

My being there specifically to aid in the terminal issues of a diabetic, high blood pressure, leg amputated, 5 way bypass, no core strength obese parent kind of inured me to eating healthier and less Southern abundance.

$25 Bucks a Week for 1 Adult

The tightest I’ve ever done in NYC was after a job lay off, the next position to start at the end of a summer, I got Unemployment (I didn’t know/understand it’s existence for years) but it was reduced to $25 a week for like 10 weeks. I had savings and it was just me so I decided to experiment with just that $25 for food—-I did lots of pork roasts, rice, fresh vegetables.

I’m thinking about budgets and food expenses, now through regions of the country for myself—-I think I did about $50 a week on average in Buffalo, undergraduate, I bought two mini fridges, cooked illegally (on a full 4 set of hot plates in the dorms—-and one time served a delicious curry chicken to RAs and Public Safety in my double room. lol I was super careful with the hot plates and microwave). Eventually living on my own I did about $75 a week, often having steaks, lobsters and such but again Buffalo is cheaper than NYC and I was just one person and have been shopping and cooking for myself and a family since I was a child. (I’m doing math in my head, sometimes to the penny as I shop.

I was just in Target, my 2nd time being there—-I walked from one side of Manhattan to the other for it as an adventure and the self checkout was closed so we lined up for cashiers and the lady ahead of me—-blonde and obese, tattoos, scratching like crack had been a part of her diet—-I cart snooped—-yup, lots of processed foods and clothing—-(Target combining a supermarket and home/department store too, like the Wal-Mart I worked at—-which made it impossible for customers and employees to get out without buying something. I was pretty good, maybe spending 10% of my 6 months worth of pay there)—-in her green fluorescent sweatpants—-yes, it was a scene——she announced loudly she had $93—-no, wait—-$94 dollars!—-and Raya, the cashier, said okay—-it came to $86. But it occurred to me that the customer couldn’t do the math and that I had done the math and as a teacher I see one snowball sort of explaining the avalanche of mess she appeared to be.)

My point of my cart snooping and judgment was that I was thinking about some video I saw and it talked about dopamine hits for women from shopping—-and I looked around and sure as glitter—-it was me and like 50 women shoppers. And, I was thinking as a man, I was just wanted to get the flibbity gibbidity out of there, a store, every store. 2 pillows, two juices, Rao’s Spicy Arrabiata sauce (on sale for $5.99, usually 8.99, 9.99===-it is the best, I should’ve bought 2!

Yes, I actually went there for a mini-bookcase but the walk tuckered me out that I didn’t feel like carrying it onto a bus or train. lol Next week.)

My deep thought in here that men and women react differently to shopping—-so I could maybe do a just the basics for $25 to $35 a week indefinitely—-I don’t get a dopamine dose from shopping. I have no doubt that stores, Walmart and others, I saw the design and propaganda—-know this—- so getting out of Walmart with $35, is a challenge.

What If We Helped Everyone?

This question got me thinking about SNAP benefits that students have been on, and twice at Columbia University, we were encouraged having legal student status to walk 3 blocks to the Social Services office and get this one shot SNAP deal—-which was $200 each time.

I’ve always thought about, when I used SNAP, those two times, and saw others over the years, could it be margined digitally so that say of the $200—-$50—— could only be spent on non-essentials—-soda, cookies cakes, etc. and the rest on produce and meats?

Often I’ve seen in line and when at Walmart, that people spend so much on processed foods—-bright sugary cereals, frozen foods like Hot Pockets, pizza rolls, etc.—-Yes, I cart watch and secretly judge——and I think about obesity rates.

I’ve thought for years that we should have a Universal Basic Income but it was more delineated—-say that $200 in SNAP for every American over 18 or even more—-or say $300 for every employed American but with the digital limits. I know lots of my co-workers at Walmart got some sort of aid/services but the question became how could they be supplemented and how much was really going towards non-nutritious food by habit?

It’s an interesting question that leads into obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, etc.—-which is what was killing my parents—-mainly because there was no regulator to them and food. Perhaps SSD was akin to SNAP so they weren’t as conscious as I have been because every food purchase for me has been in cash 99.5% of my adult life, ever since 16–18 when I started large monies contributing to the household.

If Folks Had Lived Even Longer

I was going to start gardening in the backyard in Charlotte. The husband of the patient next to my mother talked about his huge garden of greens, turnips, lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, etc. and that he would teach me how to do it too and I seriously thought about doing it the following year. There was a half acre of land or so behind the house—-I could’ve started a roadside store! lol

Could the thought experiment of $35 a week, times roughly 4.5x, to $150 a month supplement for all single Americans work?

What if in the city we had like window gardens, maybe a meter wide, set in multiple windows 3 or 4?

Thinking, thinking, thinking………

#KylePhoenix

#TheKylePhoenixShow

What's something that only rich people would buy from a grocery store? by Kyle Phoenix

By Social Class we tend to consume food differently and therefore invest in food differently. I didn’t notice this until I went back to school, Columbia University and decided to maximize my time, a decade or so ago while attending classes and teaching—-to not cook. I had lowered all of my expenses to the bare minimum to afford the school, and was just entering into working for them/teaching. But interestingly enough I was also designing programs and studying poverty so I began to parallel my life to my eventual studies—-seeing my experiences through research and textbooks and theories. I was doing this to teach better, I was teaching a wide variety of students—-underprivileged, Middle Class and Privileged.

Columbia University’s entrance is on 116th, West Side Market is on 110th, so I decided that as much as possible I would take advantage of their prepared foods section and avoid cooking (which I enjoy) and shopping to give me more time to focus on teaching/classes.

Every prepped food, hot and cold you can think of—-all the way through roasted chicken, quiche, Angus beef, seafood—-everything is available. You can even get full meals—meat, vegetable, starch for about $10. Of course though it’s a filling portion what one is paying for is the labor to prep the food. But what I was also paying for—-my budget about $100 a week for myself, was convenience—-they're open 24 hours a day and a near unlimited variety. And to some degree healthier choices and foods.

In a Poverty Context-Food

It’s about abundance and fast energy, done cheaply. How I check mark this is colorful boxes and bags. processed food. If it’s bright and there’s an animal dancing on it or some really overly happy looking people—-it’s designed to be attractive over nutritious. Cereals, juices, sugary foods, easily cooked-reheated foods, frozen pizzas, contained foods—-like pot pies, etc..

Sometimes I honestly stand in line and I sight judge Social Class of those ahead of me—-especially when I’m not at a higher end super market like West Side, Whole Foods or D’Agostinos here in NYC. C-Town is Middle Class/Poverty, there used to be Pathmark, Shop & Stop. Those stores are about abundance—-Buy 5, Get 2 Free. Huge coupon circulars (you know I don’t think I’ve ever seen a West Side Market or Whole Foods food circular—-there are catering menus but direct sales are rare. Like things that are affluent—-you go in able to afford whatever the price/total outcome is. It’s not a budget conscious/supporting store (s).)

Middle Class-Context

Again, abundance, sales. I went to a Costco once in Charlotte and it was literally Middle Class insanity. Why would you need 24 rolls of toilet tissue—-in one trip? Paper towels? Cases of detergent? I could see if you had a large family, like double digit kids but most people buying huge abundance are buying to get that rush.

Which is what a lot of the research talks about for people in Poverty/Middle Class. That dopamine rush from shopping. Most of those people aren’t regularly getting the dopamine rush from accomplishment (aside from exercise, sex, etc.) so they get it from shopping, acquisition and then satiation from high fats, high sugar, intense foods.

Rich/Wealthy-Food Context

Food is about quality, nutrition and presentation. Those prepped meals from West Side Market come in containers that are similar in shape to a serving dish. The chefs wear chef hats and it’s presented in these huge beautiful cases of lined up, well prepared foods. The same with some Whole Foods (there’s an expansion push to integrate it into other neighborhoods, more Middle Class—-I’ve noted in Newark, NJ, so it’s like a mesh between a Middle Class/Rich supermarket—-more sales, more tags about sales—-but close to the same in expense.)

There are deliberate butcher, seafood, deli meats/cheeses, hot and cold buffets, prepped foods and bakery sections. Even in the smaller store on 110th, they cram a lot in there—-they build up.

They also have an abundance of packaged fruits and yogurts and granola—-think of it along the lines of restaurant—-what do you want? It’s packaged there for breakfast, lunch, dinner snack. There’s still some garish foods—-cereals, etc. but it tends to be next to higher end/foreign choices that are healthier, more specific.

My new addiction, in the past year or so is Rao’s (a famous restaurant herein NYC that I’ve been too as a child/teen/adult, they now package their sauces. I noticed it during COVID lockdown—-West Side Market the easiest place to shop “normally” (no lines, no waiting—-you “pay” for convenience, remember? I saw waiting lines at other stores.) I saw a pyramid of Rao’s recognized the name and the price for a jar of sauce was $8.99 or $9.99. But it’s Rao’s. So I bought the spicy arrabiata……and it’s amaze-balls. I haven’t bought another brand of sauce since. The cheapest I’ve ever gotten it was $5.99, a sale at Target and I bought 2 jars——only the third time I think I've been to a Target—-I was there for a folding table. As someone who cooks sauces from scratch it is the best—-I read this whole article on sauce quality—-it was in the Top 3—-and Ragu and Prego. my casual go to’s before, I realized were laden with salt and sugar. Which is why I would always zhuzh it up with fresh tomatoes and peppers and mushrooms and onions. Tasting Rao’s I could taste all of the vegetables and subtle seasoning—-it was like it had be specifically cooked for that jar. It is mass produced and is amazing.

I also noticed in changing my shopping habits, earning more, buying different, I buy fresher foods so I actually go to the supermarket more. I don’t buy for 10–15 meals, do huge cook ups and such. If I’m having company or throwing a dinner party then I might do a $500 shop, aiming for abundance. But for myself generally, I go to the supermarket twice a week—-once to maybe C-Town and once to Whole Foods or West Side. i get different things at different places. More of my meats and veggies at the higher end stores, more staples and general supplies (rice, etc.) at the lower end stores.

I also don’t load up my fridge with an eye towards time. Everything in my fridge now is fruits, vegetables, two containers of cooked rice to add for dinners/take for lunch, and lots of odd condiments (that’s another thing West Side is good for.) I treat myself to a new sauce or condiment every trip. This week was a sriracha sauce I’d never tried, last week was a $5 ginger/orange salad dressing, the week before that was a sweet garlic cooking marinade, this week was pureed ginger, the week before a butter chicken marinade—-I’m always looking to “try” something new or interesting,

For $100 What do I generally get:

• A few pounds of chicken-$10
• A Ribeye steak or two-$15 to $25
• 2 large pork chops-$10
• Fruit-pears, apples, grapes, grapefruit-$10
• Vegetables-spinach, kale, Romaine lettuce, tomatoes, shredded carrots, scallions, onions, red & green peppers, mushrooms-$25
• Cheese-$7
• 15 to 21 Grain bread-$5
• Sauces-$15
• Ice Cream/treat-$10
• Rice, pasta, potatoes-$10
• Juices, soda-$20

That’s my general shopping list with maybe $30 or so added on the weekend or on the spot day lunches, taking me to $100-$125 on average a week. By that I mean I have been able to do it lower to $50 a week, if I were to budget focus, at say a C-Town but the above is West Side/Whole Foods and I often marvel at it’s a one basket/one tote bag trip.

But the point is that everything in my fridge is about 3–5 days into perishable. I did a pound and a half of peeled, deveined, detailed shrimp last week from West Side, a strip of fresh salmon, a rib eye (I generally get my rib eyes from the Whole Foods butcher) but I buy casual chicken—-which somehow makes it to the weekend cooking from places like C Town for quantity (I’m trying to change my chicken-weekend orientation); I also buy these humongous pork chops from West Side. Whole Foods is good for sausage, in or out of casings, specially seasoned raw chicken, roasts, and huge pork butts/slabs, beef slabs—-I have them cut it up into 6 cubes and cook a cube or two for dinners.

1. One, in comparison to some adult students, I realized I was eating “rich” when I looked at my budget of about $100 a week, maybe twice a month as much as $150, in comparison to one person. I have adult students who receive Food Stamps and the allotment for the single adult is about $150 a month. Sometimes when someone is aware of my food shopping in passing or from class or from my take to work meals, they comment on the quality of my food, it’s prep, it’s complexity…and I invariably see them, their experience of Middle Class and Poverty deeper.
2. Two, I was coincidentally on a bus taking me to uptown Manhattan (home) with my older cousin a few years ago—she lived in the Bronx—-and when we got off a few blocks from my place on 168th and Broadway I mentioned I was heading up the block to Gristedes to shop——and she said “Oh, that siddity store, it’s so expensive.”) It had never occurred to me that it was expensive. But going to dinner at her house once she had cooked literally a farm——for three of us—-me, her son, herself——of so much food because Poverty Food is about abundance. (Did you have enough? Do you want more?) Both her and her son were big folk, technically what we would determine obese. And I’m big—-I realized from a mix of two social class levels of food intake and sedentary jobs, AND more resources to enjoy food. Again, and this is why so many people, Americans, 2/3s are so obese——food as pleasure. I took a nutrition class as part of a teacher training and the nutritionist discussed with each of us our eating habits——and she talked to me about being injured when I used to jog 11 miles a day, earning more money after college, and doing more sedentary work—-I gained weight. But other coworkers had grown up in poverty. My prescription was to be conscious of how I eat, what I eat and exercise as well as I can without further injury, but that it wasn’t the same as poverty eating. I don’t use a lot of lards, cheap oils for cooking (I used refined olive oil and butter), eat a lot of processed foods—-near none actually—-and I’m like a medium snacker——I’m the weird guy buying a single slice of cake or taking weeks to eat a mini-whole cake.
3. Third, I mentioned to a coworker that I regularly do a “load up” of foods from Fresh Direct—-say $300–450 an order, every 6 weeks. I’d started this after hurting my knee and living in a fabulous, but five flight, walk up, in Manhattan (the sacrifices we make for Manhattan.) So food delivery, easily done online was heaven sent. She remarked that Fresh Direct was so much more expensive than the supermarket. I said I didn’t think so. (Two caveats in here—-my cousin and coworker were both Black women from lower Middle Class/Poverty and I was comparing Fresh Direct to Gristedes, D’Agostinos, West Side Market). Because of lower overhead—-just warehouse packing and delivery (I actually had an adult student who worked at the facility in Long Island City) it is cheaper—-to my Middle Class/Upper Class budget.
4. Fourth, my personal food budget is both from me and historical, because I love to cook and experiment and have a near infinite palette, is much higher. I'm buying mussels and seafood and lobsters and steaks for myself or to cook for others—-I keep staring at the oxtails, torn between the price, small portions, and wanting to cook it for someone AND myself. I’m also always trying out new items, buying quiches (my mother used to make them and croissants from scratch! for my father—-which is how I knew she loved him. None of the other husbands got that. One was a professional chef and the other she bullied in to cooking. She taught me how to cook along with my grandmother and stepfather-chef and that’s how I earned my allowance from 7 on. Having dinner ready and doing the food shopping. Eventually she even would pay me to cook for huge AA events—-like 75 people at a time.) My stepfather would bring home huge bags of shrimp and 20–30 T-Bone steaks a month and I’d gleefully make them for lunch when I came in from school. I grew up with a privileged abundance of food at home and regularly being taken out to restaurants. The biggest incident when I ordered the lobster bisque and it was salty, but I didn’t understand it shouldn’t be so salty, my mother tasted it, and went off on the restaurant. I offer all of that to explain my broad palette and therefore higher class purchasing. (There was a whole period where I was all about pate and caviars—-I get a notion and have to try it out, a hundred ways, nearly every day for a month or two, then I’m done. Like I have to “master” it, how to eat and prepare it. There was the great Mongolian Beef War—-months of variants of cooking it once or twice a week until I got it right, in Charlotte in 2014! lol)

In sum, that’s how one eats differently, graduates one’s palette for foods, which is Social Class based, (I only dislike one or two things—-yogurt (I have milk terrors of it being spoiled), olives, feta cheese, I used to dislike eggplant but we’ve arrived at a nice amenable truce), my having crossed several Social Classes.

It comes from family/origin class orientation to food (we went out a lot to 4 Star restaurants and Terry, the stepfather chef, was amazeballs with what he could prepare) and then how over time I’ve never scrimped on my food budget—-even in undergraduate at 21, standing up to the university and claiming I was an orthodox Muslim to have them not take the $1400 a semester for their “meal plan” and instead refund it to me as cash——yes, for three months I was eating shrimp and lobster and steaks, all prepped in the dormitory kitchen (and then eventually (illegally) in my dorm room on 4 hot plates, two microwaves and a toaster oven——serving feast to RAs and Public Safety officers. lol)

I like good food, quality food and I’ve by contrivance or by earning, always been able to afford that aesthetic.

Do I think some things are outrageously expensive?

It depends.

I often tease myself in West Side Market or Whole Foods, that if I won the lottery the way an observer would know is I would buy the prepped diced onions and peppers in the bowls for $4.99. (My crazy lottery plans! lol) To my druthers, not watching a reasonable budget I would spend about $200 a week on food by myself, probably that much or $250+, when I’ve been in a live in-relationship.

Social Class Research

All of the social class research backs up the thresholds an individual crosses and buying in social class alignment to poverty, middle class, rich/wealth—-about abundance, quantity and quality. I was surprised but able to chart myself over the years when I read through those templates and compared it to my parents being younger, more educated, and earning more than their siblings (which meant the same for me vs. my cousins) and how we acted and spent and therefore ate/used food differently.

Ironically, my mother sort of gave up in ill health, at the end of her life, the last decade, and resorted to food as comfort vs. nutrition and combined Poverty-Abundance with Rich-Quality in an enormous amount of far too rich, unhealthy foods. Beyond Middle Class, which for an individual I would put at $50-$75 a week—-you tend to start to factor in quality, healthiness, exoticism, a broader palette. I would say a third of my weekly regimen is “exotic”—-according to my coworkers who have “commentary” about my brought in lunches (oddly I make and bring in my lunch about 90% of the time). It is fascinating how more resources and curiosity sort of gently pushes you (me) over a social class line that I only notice in reflection/comparison to other social classes.

I also have and try things out from a lot of cookbooks, I would leave that as another “class step” one takes in regards to food and cooking. (Yeah, one year I might attempt the Julia Child cookbook recipe a day challenge. The Joy of Cooking/Mastering the Art of French Cooking cookbook recipes. lol)

(I’ve mastered coq au vin and Osso Buco so far. lol)

#KylePhoenix

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