Thoughts from a Saturday trip to the store

As winter takes its last few breaths, and as the snow melts revealing the yellow grass underneath it, Canadians are taking to the streets and to the hardware stores, anxious to start the summer season complete with camping, road trips, and endless BBQ’s. Motor cycles are back on the streets, their riders who have be waiting patiently for the day the temperatures turn above 5 Celsius seem to have maintained their obnoxious driving skills from last year.

I needed new wiper blades, so naturally I visited the nearest Canadian Tire to pick up some wipers and some car washing necessities. The store was flooded with people despite it being less than ideal outside. The seasonal department is already full of BBQ’s, gazebos, water toys, and patio furniture. I left the monstorous plaza built a few years ago, and lined with box stores like Home Depot, Wal-Mart and Old Navy. While waiting in a line of 5 cars or so at the stop sign waiting for my turn, a guy in a raised door-less Jeep with monster tires decided to cut me off, and speed his trip home by a second or two. As the Jeep sped away I couldn’t help but smile at the complete ignorance this guy must live in. The price of a litre of gas is already at a dollar, and we’re still dealing with a stagnant economy. I can’t begin to imagine the fuel economy of his unnecessarily oversized car, and given his driving habits, I figured he would be trading his car in for a Smart car in a few years. This recession has unfortunately made people believe that the price of gas we saw prior the recession was all part of the “bubble”.

I continue driving home and I come across another big box store, this one though is a grocery store, one of about 3 in a 2 km radius. The store, like all others, features foods from all over the world. Clementines from Morocco, strawberries from Mexico, and oranges from South Africa, sold to you by a friendly cashier wearing a uniform made in China, using a computer made in Taiwan. Across the checkout is the Wine Rack, a store within a store, selling wines from Ontario, Australia, France, among many others. A few more turns and I’m home.

I pass a Petro Canada gas station on the way, across from a Tim Horton’s, Canada’s favourite coffee shop. Both the gas stations and the coffee station have something in common, a line of cars idling patiently waiting for their turn. At Tim’s the cars are at a drive-thru, possibly the worst idea in the food industry’s history of horrible ideas. The cars inch slowly forward, the average car idling for about 5 minutes before the order is filled. At the gas station the wait in line is much longer, and the wait is not to fill gas but to get a car wash. Across Canada I thought there must be thousands of cars idling at that moment waiting for their turn to come.

I’m finally home. I jump on the internet and log onto facebook. Some friends posted pictures of their latest trip to Cuba. Another posted fresh pictures from her most recent mall harvest... I counted 5 boxes of shoes. The comments on the pictures are full of overtones of confessed jealousy and congratulations.

How long can we maintain this lifestyle?