I live right behind a large corporate supermarket, and I hate to go there. I don't think I've even been in the thing for 2 months.

Made a beer run today, corner liquor store's great for that, more like a walk, up to the end of the block. God knows what country the people running it are from, India or Middle East or something, but they're nice people and often we have a nice chat about the weather or something (supposed to rain this weekend, who'd have thunk it?). There's a pretty decent mercado/carneceria a street or so over, a farmer's market down from that, and a really killer farmer's market that meets up at night, at the intersection of Lawrence and El Camino Real. I learned about that one from a bike-only friend, we agreed to meet there, and I told her she'd get there first, before me in my car, and I was right - she was waiting for me as I came in.

And there's Trader Joe's which is as close as the Bay Area gets to a real health food store, that and Health Food For Republicans AKA Whole Foods, look up *their* pedigree, that place gets the Dick Cheney seal of approval, but I digress, both are close by.

(more digression: I'm a Repub and vote Repub becaus I see the current Dems as WORSE! KohnKerry makes Bush seem like a Pacifist, and the most Stalinist systems I've seen set up in the US have been set up and maintained by Dems. And what makes "ethnic" markets so great is, they can get away with far more rightism - they only hire their own, they keep unions out and prices low, and if they don't like your looks, they don't serve you, what're you going to do? Sue a POC?? Come on, it's impossible! And if I don't know what gobo or bok choy is, that's MY problem. No namby-pambyism there, and I'm free to shop or not to shop. I choose to shop, in preference over the more "american" places.)