Bryant and I were slowly starving to death.
Ok, not really.
We've become lazy people.
(It's amazing.)
Honestly, we were really sick of how much money we were wasting on ordering food all the time. But then again all of the local grocery stores are organic/vegan/hipster and we would spend just as much buying groceries as we would ordering out.
(I don't CARE if this tomato was covered in harmful pesticides!)
To give you an example of what we were paying:
A HALF gallon of milk at our local Sunac grocery store: $3.00
A gallon of milk in Utah: $2.50(ish)
Angers me every time. Mostly because all I eat is cold cereal so I am buying milk constantly.
So Monday night Bry was in class until 8 pm, so when I got off work at 5:30 I figured I could hurry and take the subway to Costco in Brooklyn, fill our biggest suitcase full of frozen food, then travel back home all before he got there at 8:30.
Let's show you the route:
6.8 miles from A to B.
In Utah that would take 10 minutes at the most.
If you take a taxi here that should take around 25 minutes in great traffic.
Subway commute time: 52 minutes. (Plus I had to transfer from the L to the R Train)
So I took our largest suitcase, packed the cards and keys I would need in my coat so I didn't have to carry a purse, and took off on my adventure!
(There's always a small part of me that prays HopStop's estimated commute times are exaggerated, but they never are.)
52 minutes later I arrived at glorious Costco:
I grabbed my cart, shoved my huge suitcase on the bottom of the cart and off I went!
I was first amazed at the double level store. When you wanted to go up or down you had to go on this elaborate escalator that reminded me of the cows being herded to slaughter on the movie
(Excellent movie, by the way.)
Time for honesty:
The real reason I went to Costco was for my beloved Honey Bunches of Oats with Almonds.
(There have been more times than I'd care to admit where I have eaten HBO for all 3 meals in a day)
So I decided to do the math on what I was spending at a regular grocery store on HBO versus what I could get at Costco:
Regular Store: $0.45 per ounce
Costco Price: $0.15 per ounce
I purchased 4-double boxes totaling 192 ounces of cereal.
Regular Store: $86.40
Costco Price: $28.80
----------------------------
I saved $57.60 on CEREAL!
Don't worry, I'll eat it all...probably before Christmas.
So finally I'm ready to check out and I'm feeling quite pleased with my purchases. We now have frozen fish/chicken/veggies galore! And Willis and I really missed the Costco rolls. (mmm..)
I get to the cart area after I check out and get my suitcase ready to start packing the goods. I was instantly swarmed by three different guys who kept saying, "Ride? You need ride?"
NO THANKS!
(Thank you Reesa for my pepper spray!)
Once I get the groceries all zipped up I think I'm good to go. I tipped the suitcase up and began my three block walk back to the subway entrance.
I texted Bry:
Me: About to head down the stairs to the subway. See you in 50!
Bry: Wait, you're taking the subway? Why don't you just get a taxi?
Me: I'll be fine. I'm tough! Love you!
...30 seconds later...
Me: Ok, just kidding. I went to pick the suitcase up to carry it down the 3 flights of stairs to the platform and I think I broke the handle since it was too heavy. Forget that. I'm getting in a cab now.
Bry: Haha. Be careful.
It just so happened that the corner I was standing on had four taxis waiting. I wheeled my stuff over and asked the guy how much it was to go to Williamsburg. ("Thirty dolla!") Ok. Done.
I honestly didn't have a choice. There was no way I could have carried that sucker through the turn-styles, make a connecting train and carry it up and down 7+ flights of stairs.
Here was my homie in his black, unmarked sketchy car with no meter.
(They're all over Brooklyn and I hate them. Always go with the yellow taxis! That's why you have to ask what they're going to charge before you hop in with the con artists!)
If you read this blog you probably saw this post on Facebook, which is a brief description of the drive home:
A solid HOUR after I left Costco, the stupid car pulled up to our apartment just as Bryant got home.
(Perfect timing for he and the driver to lift the suitcase out of the trunk.)
My precious cargo survived!
The moral of my story is that I never should have taken having a Wal-Mart exactly one mile from our Springville home for granted. Or the fact that a wonderful new Costco was built in Spanish Fork that would only take me 10 minutes to get to. Or that I could buy whatever I wanted and I could just throw it in the back of my trusty Murano.
I miss having a car.
A lot.
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