Grocery Stores

I moved from the south nearly six years ago and live in a place I'd never have even visited, let alone moved to. I live in North Jersey. After living in the south for a very long time and being only ten minutes away from the ocean, I have tried to adjust to this new life, living in a small town which is next to another small town which is next to another small town until eventually you get to the Hudson River and can cross that to get to New York City. It's very different for me and adjusting has been impossible. But I love my husband and I moved here so I could be with him so that's all right.

There are a lot of things I miss about the south. I miss going to spring training games on a March afternoon when the sun is shining and the sky is blue from one side to the other. I miss the smell of orange blossoms wafting through the air as I'd drive to work. I miss friends who made me laugh and gave me love. I miss the slow pace of life that you have to live in the south or you'd die because it's so hot. And I miss Publix.

I shopped at Publix from the moment I started shopping. I would wander through the store, filling my cart with the things I needed and didn't need. The aisles were wide and clear and clean. The shelves were stacked properly and always orderly. I would ask the store manager if he could get something that they didn't have. And he would. I would ask the deli manager to slice my sandwich meat a certain way, and she would. If I couldn't find something, they wouldn't just tell me where it was but would go to the proper aisle and show me. And they would bag my groceries for me and take them out to my car and unload them for me. When I shopped at Publix I only touched my purchases three times--when I put them in my cart, when I took them out of my cart, and when I put them away at home.

Now I shop at different places because there are no Publix Supermarkets in the north. And try as they might, PathMark and Stop and Shop and Shop Rite aren't Publix. The people aren't helpful or friendly like they are at Publix. After they scan my groceries, they just move them down for me to bag them myself. If I don't, they will do it but with a chip on their shoulders and they'll stuff as much into one bag as they possibly can, not paying any attention to the type of things being put in the same bag. If I have toilet bowl cleaner, they have no problem bagging it with bread and deli meat. If I have bread they'll put cans of soup on top of it. They don't care.

Now I touch my groceries five times - when I put them in the cart, when I take them out, when I bag them, when I carry them out to my car, and when I put them away at home.

Sometimes, when I watch baseball games that are being played in Atlanta or Miami, I see the Publix sign by the scoreboard and wish I could get up and drive to the local Publix, just to walk around and look at how neat and clean everything is. I feel a certain sense of homesickness even though I know I'm at home.

Six years and I still miss the grocery store, almost more than anything else, in the south. I miss Publix.