Shopping List
If it is one thing that frustrates me it’s trash around my stand. Over the years at assorted markets I have swept up some of the most disgusting items so my customers did not have to step over them in order to procure their food. You could always tell as a neighborhood was gentrifying when less of that garbage was lying in the gutters come market day. But there is one item of trash that I will snatch up without hesitation like a $20 bill on the pavement and that is a shopping list. It’s not only at the farmers market, but anytime I spy a piece of paper left in a cart or a basket. I can’t resist. Sometimes they are erroneously dropped and sometimes flippantly left behind.
These slips of handwritten paper offer a glimpse into the life of somebody I do not know. They are a short story in and of themselves telling me what others like to cook for dinner, what is missing from their lives, and if I am lucky confidential information that was not supposed to be shared with anyone but the recipient and sender of the e-mail upon the back of which the list is written. Is it really insider trading if you get a good investment tip from the back of a CFOs e-mail to the board of directors?
Sometimes I can almost hear the seething passive aggressiveness of the writer thanks to the asterisks and epithets beside certain items. ***Under no circumstances do not f%ing forget! I wonder how many times that item had been previously forgotten and if the purchaser remembered to get it when that particular list had been handed to them.
I can go for weeks, sometimes months without finding someone’s left-behind shopping list. Napkins, plastic bags, and my least favorite although I don’t find them as much anymore, used masks are the usual items.
Markets that take over a public street are always the worst when it comes to trash, but the school parking lot and markets on private property are always much cleaner. The rule is if the market does not leave our space clean, we risk losing it and as vendors we have been repeatedly warned of this regularly over the years. I like my spot and take these admonitions seriously going so far as to clean up the crap other vendors have left behind without complaining to loudly about it. As a market, we try to keep trash receptacles handy for customers. If you can’t find one, simply ask.
As the market wound down last week I began to police the area for garbage left behind and spied my treasure. There were several handwritten items on note paper from the Kennedy Center. A supporter of the arts or maybe one of the musicians? I know several from both the National Symphony Orchestra and the Opera House whose shop at the market. The list contained 2 pounds of shiitake oysters enoki and button mushrooms, Greek whole fat yogurt, berries, vegetables, salad greens and my favorite, boy treats. I am guessing they have a dog. All of those items are found on my aisle of the market and are identical to my weekly mental shopping list minus the boy treats.
Shopping lists have evolved over the years as we’ve gone digital. Some simply snap an image of the hard copy posted on their fridge or erase board at home. There’s also a new methodology for vendor identification taking place—pictures. A patron stood in front of me swiping through their phone until they found the text with a picture of my stand with a list of item they were to procure from me. They similarly had photos of fellow vendors along with the items from their individual stands. Now that’s an effective list they’d never have to worry about dropping or leaving behind.