As I was pushing the cart around, following my mom’s lead from aisle to aisle, I felt as if I was in a war zone. In fact, the only other time I felt the same way in a goddamn supermarket was prior to Hurricane Sandy came to shit all over NYC. I remember going to the neighborhood Morton Williams on 2nd avenue with my friend to “stock up” on food and supplies, and found ourselves in the midst of a fucking chaos. I suppose this is understandable since a freaking hurricane was coming to the city. But here in UB, it would seem that as if everyday a hurricane is gonna come and piss all over us. 

First, absolutely no one has any manners. I guess this part doesn’t surprise me much anymore. But the least you would expect would be some helpful staff, but no. Actually the staff is probably the worst of them all. You ask them something and they stare at you for a second and then either point their fucking finger in some direction while chewing a gum, or circle their eyes around a little bit and say something stupid like “we don’t have that stuff, so I don’t know.” No shit, you don’t know. What do you know anyway?

Then there’s the fact that all the aisles and things are stocked up in such an unorganized manner that your eyes go freaking nuts trying to spot whatever it is you’re looking for. I had to walk up and down the aisle at least three times until I realize what I was looking for was in fact where I was looking at. Basically, not just disorganization, but aslo lack of aesthetic display. What I’m trying to get at is the environment of the supermarket is not ideal by any standards. I would say that the way the items are displayed depreciate the value of the item significantly. Add the price tags onto this problem, and then you’ve got yourself another shit dilemma. Aesthetically, your mind prices the items low, but the actual price is way higher than you thought. 

I don’t know. Usually when I’m in a grocery store, let’s say in Albert Heijn in Amsterdam, I go in with the intention to buy the things that I know I need. But somehow end up purchasing way more shit than I need because everything looks so fucking good. On a side note, trust me, the weed has nothing to do with this. Albert Heijn just makes you wanna buy all these foods. Same goes for Wholefoods in NYC. Matter of fact, grocery shopping used to be fun and exciting for me. But now it’s not so much. 

Am I crazy? Am I too spoilt with the wonders of Albert Heijn or Wholefoods? Or is shopping for groceries really that intense for Mongolians? In a way, I felt like this whole scenario paints a picture of how Mongolia in general is right now. A big mess of shit. I keep hearing how the economy is developing, the country is getting richer and better. If it really was, shouldn’t the improvements be directly correlated to the most basic needs of society first? If the standard of living and the GDP per capita really was improving to a point where we are no longer a low income economy, but a mid-income one, I imagine the simplest things in life would correlate that change.