Poverty, Seen from the Grocery Aisle

Grocery shopping when you are poor is one of the most depressing experiences a human being can have. A store filled with aisle after aisle of things you want but can’t have is a unique way of torturing the downtrodden. Take away all the things you can’t afford, and a grocery store might as well be a big empty box. You learn to live by the maxim that if it’s not on sale, it’s not for sale.

Grocery shopping when you’re poor looks a lot like this.

Your inner monologue becomes a constant negotiation. The frozen broccoli is 2-for-1, so that’s a yes because we haven’t had a vegetable in a week. Do we want the $8 package of lunch meat? Of course not, because that means buying a loaf of bread too, and by the time you add cheese and mayo, we’re looking at $15, nevermind luxuries like lettuce or tomato. Throw in a bag of pretzels and that’s nearly half of the weekly budget just for a couple of sandwiches. Breakfast may be the most important meal of the day, but we can save some money if we just skip it. Sure, we might feel a little weak before lunchtime rolls around, but we need to do laundry this week, and that $1.50 a load is going to eat into the grocery budget.

If this sounds insane, then I’m glad that you’ve never had to know the intense and constant bargaining that has to happen in poverty. Being poor is a constant battle between dignity and necessity. It’s not that you’re trying to make bad decisions, it’s that…