When students start to plaster can food drive posters around the school, it pretty much means it's time for my annual trip to my favorite German discount store - ALDIs.
Now, I'll admit that for the past few years, I've forsaken this tradition and let my mom go buy cans in my stead while I do "teenager things" (ex. procrastinating on homework, mindless Instagram scrolling, hours wasted doing nothing, you know) but this year was special because I finally met two conditions:
- Had a car.
- Got a meager income from working carry-out at the family restaurant
So, this obviously meant that I was an independent woman who don't need no man.
Like I said, this was an annual trip and I hadn't gone in a few years, so I don't know where anything is at and what the prices are. This is very important, because I'm going to hide behind this paper-thin excuse later.
Once I find the rows of gleaming cans, I stack a few boxes of a dozen cans into the cart, admiring the cheap prices.
"Wow, a dozen cans for only a dollar? These boxes are only 44 cents each, so I'll get a few of those and call it a day."
I hope that most of you can already see the flaw in my logic that I didn't as I went to go pay, mentally calculating that I could buy 48 cans of food, 2 boxes of pasta, 2 boxes of spaghetti, and a small bag of rich for UNDER $15. In my defense, I did notice that it was unusually cheap, but I expected it since it was ALDIs.
So, I go wait in the check-out line, the cashier lady scans my items, and then she tells me, smiling, that my total is $32.65.
Uh, what.
My head snapped up to look at her because, well, it was double of what I thought I was paying, but what was I going to do, tell her I got 3/4ths of my order on accident? As I scrambled to get more cash, which I thankfully had enough of because of good carry-out tips last week, it finally hit me why I was such a dumbass.
If 12 cans = $1, then 1 can = $0.083. According to a Quoran, one can = $0.05-0.10, but with high production numbers, it's whittled down to $.01. This leaves $0.073 cents to cover buying, cooking, processing, packaging, marketing? (maybe), and shipping the food and somehow turn a profit. And if they could somehow manage that, I suspect world hunger wouldn't be a problem.
Common sense isn't common anymore, just look at me.
But, the intention of my story isn't to say we need to wake up, sheeple , but sometimes you don't realize how good you have it.
I'm from a middle class family - wealthy enough to buy everything that we need but not wealthy enough to buy everything that we want (which isn't always a bad thing, denying some wants).
I'm fortunate enough to not be familiar or nitpick over the prices of corn, sweet peas, chili, and other stuff they have in cans. I'm fortunate enough to have parents that go to the grocery store every other week to get fresh vegetables and meat to cook at home because they want me to have good nutrition. I'm fortunate to even have the $30 of cash in my wallet because my parents struggled to start up the family restaurant, which provided me with a good job that allows me to work around school.
I'm tearing up at all the things that my parents have done for me that I don't tell them thank you enough for. Sometimes, it's important to remind yourself to stop complaining about the little things when others have it worse.
That being said, I'm not trying to brag. If these things are not available to you, such as necessary food, water, or clothes, I'm truly sorry and I hope your situation gets better.
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But I'm still cringing about how stupid I am. Thanks for making it this far.