For persons who shop in a wholesale store downtown, the process includes shouting out your order and waiting your turn. - PHOTOS BY IAN ALLEN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPER
PUSHING A trolley along the ceramic tiled aisles of an uptown supermarket while munching on samples here and there is like being in a world where you can make anything happen. But then you are brought back to reality when the cashier tells you the price.
This is the reality that sends many housewives downtown.
Marcia Stewart shops weekly at wholesales downtown. Stewart, a minimum wage earner who supports a family of 11, says downtown is more economical and closer to her home, in Waterhouse.
She spends at most $1,500 at the wholesale. If she has a 'little extra' she spends $2,000. If she can, she goes to the market and spends an extra $800 on fresh produce.
THIS IS HER WEEKLY SHOPPING LIST:
10 lb rice - $90
5 lb sugar - $65
10 lb flour - $50
3 corn beef - $110
2 medium Captain's Bread - $170
1 quart cooking oil - $90
3 rolls toilet paper - $50
3 packs Lasco food drink - $50
3 packs soap powder - $60
3 blue washing soap - $30
3 packs Tang - $50
1 tube toothpaste (Lasco) - $50
5 lb chicken - $375
2 lb liver - $90
1 gallon Lasco ketchup - $250
2 lb bulk butter - $60
1 tub Chiffon margarine - $70
Fresh produce: Lettuce,
yam, cucumber, orange,
carrots, peppermint for tea - $800
