Reflections

This project was actually very frustrating and a lot harder than I though it would be.  When forming my menu, I tried to just think of things that a typical low to middle income family would think of buying instead of trying to tailor it to what I would do if it was my own family.  Naturally, a lot of things that I ate growing up still found their way in there but it was not the main focus.  Additionally, when I got to the store, I quickly realized that I could easily spend three hours there if I allowed myself.  Then I thought about families on a tight schedule and the fact that no mothers or fathers probably ever have all that time to spend in the grocery store and are in a time crunch.  So I decided I would get into character in that way and pretend I was in a rush.  I could easily spend time reading five different labels of potato chips to see which ones had the least sodium but were still the cheapest, etc. but instead I hastily went through the aisles and allowed myself to be victim to any type of advertising, what looked the best, and I grabbed what I thought a mom in a hurry would tend to grab.  I did not pay much attention to store brand vs. name brand, I did not search for the cheapest item, I just imagined I was in a hurry and I needed to get dinner on the table.  In doing this, I ended up getting a mix of both store brand and name brand. 

I believe what I put on my list was a very conservative amount of food, and even so, the list was daunting.  I knew I was forgetting stuff and I knew the average mother probably did not spend as much time on a list as I did, but probably relies on just getting to the store and being reminded of what she needs-- dangerous.  Anyway, two inevitable things happened when I went to the store-- I forgot something and I added something.  As I was walking through the store, again trying to think like a mother, I was noticing all the things that would be so easy to add thinking about what the kids would like, what everyone would want, etc.  I chose to only add one item which was cookies because I though the family would be unhappy if there were no sweets in the house.  When I got home, I noticed I forgot one thing, despite the amount of times I checked the list.  I forgot meatballs!  And since it would be such a sin to have spaghetti without meatballs and I feel that my family would be displeased, I know the parent would most likely make another trip back to the grocery store to get the meatballs, where inevitably she would buy other things as well, since you can't just buy one thing.  I probably forgot them because they were in some obscure spot trying to lead me towards something else to buy, like Nestle talks about.  I chose not to go back. 

All in all, this was exhausting and thinking about the pressures that would be on if this were a real situation was frightening to say the least.  All the points Nestle makes proved true about the layout.  I noticed it all this time and was in awe.