Marketing can be one of life’s great pleasures. In the simple effort of feeding a family, a woman may accumulate a lifetime of small adventures in the universe of grocers, farmers and food purveyors, ranging from the bored convenience store clerk to the butcher with a bloody apron.  

Unfortunately, the mega market, with its vast aisles of packaged and frozen food simulacra, its canned music and flourescent lights, towers of cereal, pyramids of phony fruit, and gleaming rows of plastic, has an atmosphere that is so removed from the messy and fascinating business of food that one could just as soon be in a place selling office furniture and copy machines. There is an illusion of progress. There is always something very impressive at work here. We are so used to the centralized and the impersonal, to falling into lockstep acceptance of whatever corporate retail offers us, that we barely notice the sterility of it and accept the deadly boredom with hardly a protest. The richest nation on earth and we can’t afford the pleasant, humanizing exchanges between small-time merchant and buyer that the poorest nations have. 

I realize the mega supermarket and big box store have brought genuinely good things – convenience, efficiency and cleanliness. I also realize that many decent, honest and talented people work for these businesses and they are often responsible employers. I know that automobiles determine many things. But I include mega retail among the significant factors in the general decline in home life, part of the lack of dynamism that afflicts the private sphere. Marketing, in the old-fashioned sense of searching for the best among a range of local merchants and exchanging little civilities with people we know, is a lost art, except in big cities where there are many specialty stores and farmers markets. No wonder many women don’t want to cook.

People say we live in a consumerist society. In fact, the consumer seems hardly aware of her power.  My mother-in-law raised her children in a humble working-class community, but for her marketing was a social activity, a chance to exchange pleasantries with store clerks and friends at relatively small stores. She wasn’t lost in the vast sea of corporate retail.

All this may be impossible to alter, but we can do two things: not pretend we like it and support local food purveyors whenever possible. Each time we buy something, we make a silent vote for what we want for our communities, whether we want them to be dominated by big businesses or local merchants. There is nothing evil about big businesses per se, but eventually they clobber the small and create uniformity.

Local food first, whenever possible. That should be the motto of every domestic purchasing agent.

Buying food is not the same as buying gas for the car. Food is more than nutrition and marketing is an expression of devotion. But it’s also an economically powerful activity. The power is ultimately in the hands of the consumer, not the business. It is not elitist to believe that marketing, an activity that takes up such a significant portion of our lives, should be quasi-spiritual as well. Soul food is created by soul marketing. We shouldn’t dread going to the store.

                                                  —- C0mments —-

Rita writes:

I liked this article. It took me a few years to realize why I absolutely hated marketing! Now I go to some of the smaller stores that have cropped up. Trader Joe’s, Henry’s and Fresh and Easy (I’m in California) are decent chains that have somewhat of a small feel. Vons Pavilions’ has certain parts of the store, the produce section mainly, with better lighting and distressed wood flooring where you can almost feel like you are in a small shop. The closest thing to what I’m looking for I find at a local “ethnic” store. The only problem with all these options is that most of the employees don’t speak English as their first language so the easygoing rapport you might otherwise have is not there. (I’m going to assume it’s just a language issue and nothing more). 

I recently discovered a company in Oregon where you can order food online then pick it up at someone’s house. This will eliminate some shopping as I will order staples in bulk once a month from them and hopefully only have to go to the grocery story once in a while for perishibles etc. Love to hear more ideas if anyone has them.

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