In February of this year I moved for my job, as do many in the software field, to the San Francisco Bay area. Coming from Rochester, NY, a medium-sized city, and having visited San Francisco on many previous occasions, there were a lot of changes I knew to expect. Public transportation, for one. I love not driving to work. If you do drive at all, even if it’s not to commute, the sheer volume of people mean that your life must be planned around traffic patterns. Rent, of course, is too depressing to talk about. And then there’s the weather–no rain and a little cooler in the summer, with no winter to speak of. It’s a mix of good and bad, but nothing particularly shocking.

// begin whine

For the past several months, though, I’ve been feeling the need to rant about the grocery stores here. It’s one of those things that nobody thinks about much when moving, but, assuming you eat, has a big effect on your day-to-day life. Sure, the prices are a little higher and it’s still a little weird seeing wine and liquor on the shelves, but that’s nothing unexpected. There are a few things, though, that really get on my nerves. Maybe I have unreasonable expectations. Maybe I’m just a big whiner. It’s likely I’ve been ruined by Wegman’s for the rest of my life. Oh well, you can decide for yourself.

First, the price of produce is crazy. Bananas are always more than 70 cents per pound. We couldn’t get tomatoes for less than four dollars a pound yesterday. A box of Clementine oranges is eight bucks. We’re talking double the price in New York. And this is where they grow the stuff!

Then there’s the feeling I get when I realize that half the dairy expires in two days, and maybe another quarter of it is already past its “sell by” date. It’s the feeling that I have to try to avoid a bait-and-switch more suited to a sleazy used car dealership than a grocery store. It seems like I never had to be so careful in the past. Wasn’t this supposed to be the land of ultra-regulation?

But that’s not nearly as bad as the shock you’ll get when you try to get in line. At the wrong time on a weekend, I’ve stood in lines fifteen carts long, stretching into the aisles. People still shopping have to turn around and go all the way back to get to the next aisle because there’s no room at the front near the registers.

Seriously, what is it with these grocery stores? Am I just in a particularly lousy area? The store I usually go to has ten registers, a few of which are usually not open, even during the busy times, plus four self-service checkout stands. The stores I’d grown accustomed to had, in about the same amount of space, about twice the number of registers. And we’re talking a much lower population density. How does that work?

Anyway, that’s enough moaning for now. I feel much better! I would be interested, though, in hearing about anyone else’s experiences to see if perhaps I’m just shopping in the wrong area or store.