An hour before I had to pick up my youngest from school, I spontaneously stopped at a big grocery store in Tukwila, a city south of Seattle, near SeaTac airport.
Good god, it was a revelation.
I still haven’t quite found my rhythm in this fall’s new schedule, but I’m getting closer.
Our kiddo is in a wonderful school, just right for them, and they are starting to thrive. The fact that the school is south of Seattle and 30 minutes away from our home?
Entirely worth it.
Instead of going to an office with a permanent desk and all my favorite paintings and quotes on the walls around me, like the one I had on Vashon — 7 minutes from home and filled with friends — now I’m a traveling scholar.
Most days, I’m writing while drinking weakish coffee in community centers, where a senior is defined as someone over 55. This is how I can take fitness classes like drumming on exercise balls or yoga for $30 a month. And I am starting next week.
In the afternoons, I’m reading, writing, or listening to classes with my noise-canceling headphones on in public libraries. Instead of staying close to the school, I spend one day in Burien, another in White Center, another in Tukwila, and another in SeaTac. (One day a week I drive home for a day off from the computer and work on the house, plus see friends.)
My ADHD brain is THRIVING with all this change, these new sights, the people I am meeting.
And my ADHD brain also forgets to pack lunch for myself before we have to leave the house at 6:40 am, most days. Or the night before, which would be sane.
Although I have loved the chance to eat Somali food in a strip mall or fufu from the Congo at Spice Bridge Global Food Hall, I cannot afford to eat out for lunch every day.
I have decided to treat myself out to breakfast or lunch once a week. I had a gorgeous breakfast, with an unexpected, connected conversation, at the Original Pancake Chef near the airport. I’ll share that story with you next time.
But the other days of the week? Well, sometimes I find myself lightheaded without lunch, so I stop for a small, quick snack somewhere.
This is why I went to Saars Super Saver Food in Tukwila, a suburb of Seattle, right next to SeaTac airport. And I was shocked.
Here’s the food that I bought:
2-pound package of thin pork chops
3 pounds of pork shoulder, cut in big chunks (marked for pozole)
4 pounds of chicken drumsticks from Washington
10 pounds of Cosmic crisp apples
Package of smoked sausages
A dozen organic brown eggs
3 pounds of shredded cheddar cheese
Pint of blackberries
Collard greens
Chocolate bar
What did it cost?
$59.
WHAT?
I had to look at the screen twice before I believed it. All of that for $59.
And in West Seattle, where we live, this order would have been $175. I’m not kidding.
This store is not pretty. It’s enormous. The lighting was kind of dodgy. And I didn’t walk all the aisles. Generally, I only shop the perimeters of stores anymore, because that’s how we eat.
The meat and seafood section was HUGE, however. Bigger than Costco. Plus, a separate section for halal meat. (Including a whole goat, wrapped in white, hanging in a giant refrigerator.) I saw kinds of whole frozen fish I had never heard of before.
In the produce section? Piles of fresh tamarind. Fresh coconuts. Enormous pieces of fresh ginger. Every kind of fruit or vegetable I could imagine.
Plus, pupusas in the freezer section.
$59.
I’m going on Friday to shop for our Sunday prep-ahead cooking session.
As I wrote on Threads, here’s what I took away from this trip:
Shop away from the shiny places.
You’ll save money.
And, the food in places like this is much more interesting than the Safeway on Admiral.
It intrigued me to watch the responses to this post. Intrigued.
As I said, I’m a goober.
To quote myself again:
“Know this.
Who you think I may be from reading my words here? Especially if you feel like I'm some kind of authority? I'm not.
I’m a big old goober, still so excited to see you excited, talking with my hands wildly gesticulating, listening better than I did at 17, but still wanting to share my stories.
I’m wildly imperfect and making it all up as I go along.”
Writers? Teachers? We’re definitely weird.
Most people don’t experience something, or learn something, and then immediately want to share the precise details so that others can experience it too.
So when I share something like this, it’s genuine. I’m astonished.
I want you to know.
It also astonishes me to see so many people respond, so positively. There were dozens and dozens of comments from people talking about the stores they like to visit in their area. We all gave our tips on how to save money on food, when it has been ridiculously expensive since COVID. We were helping each other.
As someone wrote, “I'm not in the area (North Florida, actually), but I'm loving this thread - this is the most prosocial use of social media I've witnessed in a long while! 🙌🙏🙏”
That’s how I felt too.
My kiddo has been singing this N’SYNC song, “Better Place,” from the latest Trolls movie, which means I have been singing it too.
I keep singing this line: "I’m so excited to I see you excited!”
That’s the heart of writing, teaching, and sharing online, to me.
I’m excited! And I want to see you excited!
That’s why it always confuses me when I read comments like this:
“Bull malarkey. Bremerton is the least shiny place I can imagine, and EVERYTHING is expensive. You give us the name of ghetto mart and we’ll risk being the victim of a serial killer if the prices are that low. Pics next time or it didn’t happen.”
Ghetto mart?
Victim of a serial killer?
Really?
I read a few comments — only a few compared to the multitudes of helpful comments — from people who either insisted I must be lying or I would have posted a photo of a receipt. (Um, never occurred to me. Why would I lie about this?)
But worse, those words. Ghetto mart. Serial killer. War zone.
Someone called the area where I was shopping a war zone.
(Narrator: it’s not a war zone.)
Why?
Tukwila is possibly the most diverse city in Washington State. “As of 2022, 39.4% of Tukwila, WA residents were born outside of the country (8.49k people).” There are 80 distinct languages spoken in Tukwila.
This is a city of refugees, immigrants, Black Americans, Latino American, Asian Americas, and a world’s variety of people.
Ghetto mart. Serial killer. War zone.
I know why those few ugly comments used these words.
The Black and brown people are bad. Shady. Violent. Ugly. Not to be trusted. Post a photo of the receipt or it didn’t happen. Because I want those prices but I don’t want to have to go to that place to shop.
And in the last 8 years, people who think like this feel no shame in saying these things out loud. Louder and louder.
This makes me sick to my stomach.
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Oh Shawna, you and I are on the same page. A huge portion of our shopping for many years has been in ethnic markets. Many people are put off because they don't understand ingredients. And then there's prepared food that while it's interesting might not have the best ingredients. It's all a game and a lot of fun to explore. I will never forget my first glass of mango lassi that we made at home. Two ingredients: buttermilk and canned mango puree from the Indian market. Mix together in equal parts. I will never pay $6 a glass again!
My favorite place to visit is a supermarket. Any city, any country. They all have their own personalities. I’ll never forget the one in Denmark with two full aisles both sides of each filled with candy!