The new segregation

This weekend I went to the grocer to buy some boxed chicken broth. Being a simple person, I looked for it in the "Soup" aisle, where I found several varieties of boxed soup with MSG, but none without MSG. "Odd," I thought, "most grocers of any size sell MSG-free chicken broth," so I searched the aisle again without success.

A few aisles farther on, I found it, in the "Health and Nutrition" section," hiding amongst various indescribable things, mostly made of tofu. Then I saw other kinds of pre-made soup, in the "Delicatessen" section. I found soup in two other places in the same store.

This set me wondering, so I looked for cheese, which I found in three places: one for ordinary cheese, one for "gourmet" cheese, and one in Health and Nutrition. So it was with other common items. The prices at the sides of the store (Delicatessen on the right and Health and Nutrition on the left) were about 50% higher than those in the middle.

Then it hit me: food for the rich and lazy was to the right, in the "Gourmet" and "Delicatessen" sections. Food for the rich and healthy was to the left, in the "Health and Nutrition" section. Food for everyone else is in the middle. The arrangement lines up so neatly with the political spectrum that I can't imagine it's a coincidence.

Comments

[Gordie]

Interesting observation.

A couple years ago, the gym I go to had up a poster about healthy eating. The theory espoused was that folks should only shop around the edges of a supermarket, because all the processed and unhealthy foods are in the middle.

Both, and their overlap, are rather thought provoking.

[Rose Nunez]

Pretty funny. It seems to me lots of consumables shake out into a similar pattern...real estate, government services, the distribution of retail stores themselves.