Alon Z / Art / Whole

Taking the escalator down to the lower level of WholeFoods I can already see the tower of hand-held baskets waiting for me when I reach the ground. I pick the one I estimate has the most even handles and start my journey through the store.

The inner aisle of the store has very little to offer me, though I make a point to walk through them anyhow. In the past I used to get toilet paper in one of them, and though I still use the bathroom regularly, I switched to ordering these online, as carrying the large package doesn’t fit well on my bicycle.

Once a quarter I’ll be getting a box of old fashioned oats in the first aisle, or if I were to get anything here it would be paprika or some other spice, but neither one of these options will manifest into a reality today. It’s most likely that I’ll walk with the empty basket all the way to the other side of the store where the eggs and milk are placed. There with two dozen organic eggs my real journey will begin. Until then I’m just a random passerby looking around.

On the second aisle, pass the tomatoes sauce section, I run into two individuals, or at least that’s what they appear as first, though as I get closer to them a sudden movement that one of them initiate towards the other makes me wonder if they are a couple, then the individual points towards the upper shelf and say “you see, this is the one”. Though it isn’t clear who they are talking to, as the other person is not acknowledging the gesture, and stays in their own world examining a package of low sodium bone broth.

Grocery shopping could be a test for any relationship with so many choices to make. Indeed an opportunity I certainly oftentimes declined. It takes a certain kind of wholesomeness that I’m not ready to challenge, I think to myself hurrying toward the distant eggs shelf.