Disturbed By Bulk

The other day I stopped in to Costco with my father, he's become something of an enthusiast ever since the recent arrival of our local Costco and the seemingly endless parade of consumers began. I have a smaller living space, which I pack rat enough without buying ridiculously over sized food products, and haven't really felt the need to do much exploring in that arena. Anyway, we stopped in to Costco because my father wanted to see if I could buy bulk Rice Milk, my two year old having developed a certain fondness for it we go through a rather large amount, and so I joined him on the search... I've been to Costco a few times before and have generally found myself an odd mixture of daunted and unimpressed, the selection being large in size rather than variety I suppose it's an understandable reaction. However, since my first trip to Costco I've become quite a bit more environmentally aware, since the second I've become a bit more active, since my third I've been looked at like a nut-job by various friends and family for everything from avoiding white flour to setting up a compost bin in my NY apartment (complete with worms) to bringing my drop spindle with me on the subway... It's safe to say things have changed. My fourth ever trip to Costco I can honestly say I was frightened. I walk in, find stacks of giant cardboard boxes wrapped in multiple layers of plastic wrap, and balk... I was no longer sure that lower prices on Rice Milk was worth this. As we wander through the isles I see any number of things that just get under my skin, large boxes of small bags of snacks, giant containers of products that I know will contain a grocery list of my "Ingredients-to-avoid", Rows of giant containers of non-recycled paper goods... I couldn't help but wonder how many trees died to populate that isle for a week.

To be honest, the non-perishables made my skin crawl by sheer scale of ecological disregard but what got me really frustrated with the whole thing was the refrigerated and fresh produce sections. How much of this stuff passes it's expiration date before it even leaves the shelf/bin? It's a real question and probably equal to the question of how much of it goes bad before the people who buy it can use it... There were spinach bags in there that could have provided me and a few friends with spinach for a week, if we felt like eating spinach at least once a day, which I'm pretty sure your average American isn't prepared to do. How much unnecessary waste is being produced by Costco and the people who go there because they want more bang for their buck?

There wasn't any Rice Milk, I don't think I really expected there to be. It's frightening to think that this is what appeals to people, giant impersonal rows of non-biodegradable, chemical filled, unhealthy merchandise. It's no wonder America is growing so fat, so in need of care... It's senseless! Meanwhile my small local health food store struggles to stay alive. I've heard it said that our future, if we continue on the path of self destructive binging, lies one of two ways. One school of thought says that we are raising what will possibly be one of the first generations to die before their parents due to issues like heart failure. The other says that our children will not die before us, but instead live lives in and out of hospitals and dealing with chronic health issues, the kinds that don't go away because we've just messed ourselves up beyond actual repair. It was one of those recurring thoughts as i watched people pushing around their double-wide grocery carts.

I just can't help being disturbed by buying in that kind of bulk.