inequalities

So, the first store I happened upon the Mrs Meyer's stuff in after falling in love with it at my teacher's house was, of course, Whole Paycheck. Which was really where I was expecting to find it.

But then yesterday after work I had to stop at Shaw's to pick up a few things. (My dad was really concerned that Evil Kitty was going to starve to death because there were only like eight cans of cat food in the cabinet plus an almost full sack of dry food. *This* is what I put up with.) Anyway, since I hadn't actually planned ahead about stopping for groceries, I didn't have my reusuable shopping bag(s) with me. But in the "Natural Harvest" section of Shaws, they sell these really nice, really big, washable organic cotton bags, of which I already have two, so I decided to buy another to fit my shite in.

To my surprise, there in the natural foods section of Shaws was a nice selection of Mrs Meyers stuff, so I don't necessarily have to trek to the Whole Foods for it. And rounding the corner, there were a bunch of gluten-free baking mixes, pizza dough, etc. Now, I've kind of been paying a little attention to this recently, knowing one person who's been dx'd with celiac disease and thus absolutely needs to stay away from the gluten, and another who's been d/x'd with gluten sensitivities and advised to omit it from her diet as much as she possibly can. And from what I understand, it's kind of a real pain in the ass and expensive.

So then I started thinking. The Shaws I was in yesterday is the one in between my house and work, not in an upscale area, but certainly middle class (despite the ghetto Market Basket across the parking lot). There's another Shaws I sometimes go to, which I may have mentioned. It's across the street from the mental health clinic D goes to, which is in the kind of neighborhood you would expect such a facility to be in. I only shop there on occasion as a desensitization exercise for D. I certainly won't buy meat there. And I was thinking, wait, they don't even have a natural foods section in that store, though it's a big enough store. If any of the poor people who need to shop there can't eat gluten, I guess they're shit out of luck. Likewise if they want to clean their apartments with less-toxic and beautifully smelling cleaning solutions. (I will say, if they really wanted to, they can take the bus from that Shaws to the other, but I dunno. I understand the business decisions involved but it still sorta sucks.)

xoxo