I'll Admit it

Ok I'll come out and admit what I think many have suspected for awhile -- I've been shopping more at Wal*Mart.

whew.
Man it feels good to get that off my chest.

I try not to buy clothing and things like that because I can't stomach buying stuff that was made more then likely by a child in another country. Low prices does not mean a good deal. :(
same goes for toys. I'm still making Noah buy more sustainable gifts like purchasing water for a developing country. He doesn't like that. Oh well.

But as for groceries, while I still do as much shopping as I can on the loss leaders at other grocery stores; however, I have to admit that Wal*Mart is cheaper. Of course we all know why they are cheaper -- its just because they can purchase in HUGE amounts and being the largest retailer in the world sadly they have the upper hand on some items. When I do shop I try to buy things that are organic or are from a company that has more sustainable practices. Although, there isn't a ton of companies that are "in" at Wal*Mart that have sustainable practices there are some. What is hard is knowing that companies like MorningStar Farms is owned by Kellogs....or StoneyField now owns Brown Cow and how they sometimes have to source out organic milk from as far away as New Zealand.
I get it.
Shopping organic is not easy nor is it always what we want.
Which is why growing your own or making it from scratch is more likely to be closer to home then some of the organic companies I try to support.

I'm getting off track here.

But I still need staples like milk, sugar, flour, spices -- you know staples! while I would love to be able to afford having my milk delivered in the pretty glass bottles that you can return the next week....sometimes the sales in the stores and using a coupon is just a better deal. I don't know...we've toyed with the milkman idea for awhile now, especially since I insist on Organic Milk only.
I did have to stop my Terra Organics delivery because it was just getting to be too much and to expensive. But I miss it terribly. Especially since we didn't grow any good lettuce this year in my garden!! UGH! Store bought lettuce is gross and I can't do it.

So I feel better admitting I've been shopping at Wal*Mart. Let me tell you though - when I realized how much I was shopping there I then realized I was also buying a lot of stuff i normally wouldn't buy that have a lot of packaging. Shame on me. TV dinners are my weakness. Sometimes I just don't want to cook or try to come up with an dinner idea. But then you think about how much waste I'm making which means I'm also putting more trash out which means I might have to upgrade to a bigger trash can -- and the list goes on.

Anyway....now that I've admitted my fault I'll probably scale back.
I just have to try harder to avoid it and stop justifying the "savings" I'm getting there. Its not a big savings in the end when you think about the overall cost of how Wal*Mart treats their people at the store level as well as those who manufacture for them. I need to stop.

Besides, if my beloved Top Foods went out of business because of the Wal*Mart across the street I think I would be hurt....and partly responsible.