I recently wrote a piece about the Soup Situation in our home. Asked to go to the store to buy more soup, I did an inventory of our supply instead and discovered our shelves were bending in the middle under the weight of the 41 cans we already had. However, with the two of us eating soup as fast as we can, the stash has fallen sharply to a dangerous level of only 30 cans in the past 16 days and with one of us suffering through a bad cold and consuming chicken noodle almost faster than the chickens and the noodles can produce it, it became necessary today for me to once again head out and stand in the soup line.
One thing to know about buying soup is every store has its approach to soup pricing and so in-depth research is required before purchases can be made. The first thing that must be done is to fill up the car with $49.52 cents worth of gas to ensure you do not run empty before the investigations are complete.
Being soup frugal, we often wait till Groceries Galore puts it on sale for 57 cents a can but these bargains are as rare as alligators in Alaska. Nevertheless, that was my first stop today. The soup was on sale for $1.19 a can which seemed almost reasonable for the emergency chicken noodle for which I was in the hunt. However, though the store covers the equivalent of about four city blocks and it would not be unreasonable to call a taxi to get from one end of it to the other, there was not even one can of chicken noodle to be found anywhere, as I guess half of my fellow citizens are currently down with a cold.
So, it was off to Fantastic Foods only to find that the price there is $1.29. That store did have lots in stock but the price was exorbitant by any standards so I left. Back in the car, I hiked off to Wealthy World where, shock of shocks, the extortionists there are trying to pawn off their supply for $1.99 a can. The people I saw there in three-piece suits and formal gowns seemed happy to pay that fee but I would die face down in a ditch with a cold before I’d even consider it.
So, with hope dwindling and thoughts of driving to the four other grocery stores on the other side of town beginning to dominate my brain waves, I suddenly remembered I was within range of one of the three Pennyrama stores in our town, so I drove there. And I came away with four fine cans of chicken noodle for $1 a can. I checked the best before date on each can to make sure I wasn’t five years younger when each container was filled and was thrilled to see that the contents will last till sometime in 2021, long after, I presume, the common cold will no longer be an issue in our house. And given our newly replenished soup supply, neither will famine.
So, we’re back in business and as of this writing, we have:
19 cans of tomato;
6 cans of cream of mushroom;
4 cans of chicken noodle;
2 cans of cream of chicken;
1 can of vegetable;
1 can of pea.
And lest you think you know of better ways to spend an hour on a cool day in the middle of February, let me set you straight. I cannot think of even one thing I would rather do, on any day in any month, than shop for soup. Like a Neanderthal tracking an ancient wildebeest, I was in my glory wrestling all those chickens and those noodles to the ground.
I’ve gotten good at it. I would gladly enter a televised Soup Challenge if any Food Network had the good sense to air one.
©2020 Jim Hagarty
