Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Soap

It takes a butt-load of cash to be an environmentalist. I had about thirty minutes of free time this afternoon to get my laundry up to the mat. With time as a variable, I was slightly peeved to discover that my brother had jacked my detergent. I could walk down to the Grocery Outlet and pick up a barrel of Tide for thirty five cents like usual but that would really be cutting it close. I had to be back to work in twenty eight minutes. The Food Co-Op is the closest place and my only alternative. So I walked the two blocks downtown to the hippy Mecca of the city.

I walked in, greeted by hairy people, then past the pesto, the olives, the free range chicken, the organic pomegranates, the sticks of myrrh incense, finally arriving at the soap isle. “WTF!” I said through my teeth so that only me and the few near by granola crunchers could hear. A gallon of environmentally friendly laundry soap: $17.99! I don’t even think my wardrobe is worth eighteen bucks. No way. What’s the cheapest deal here? 12.99 for the half gallon, 8.59 for the powder. Ah ok, $4.65. I grab it and go. For that much I could have gotten an oil tanker to deliver a ton of the Outlet stuff directly to my door, maybe even hire a servant to do my laundry but like I’ve said, I was fighting time. I stood in line looking sadly at what I was about to purchase, a container the size of a twenty once bottle of Seven-Up with a very blaan label.

On the walk home I studied the ingredients. Number one: salt water. Number two: plant extract for scent.
Where was the ethyl alcohol or the ammonia ethanol--you know, the stuff that’ll sterilize the f@#k out of your clothes making you feel serene and android fresh.

At the laundry mat, I read the label to see how much of the stuff I should use. One teaspoon , it tells me. One teaspoon of salt water is going to clean my clothes? I think not. I poured half the bottle in and chuckled.

Damn hippies.

1 comment:

Jessi said...

Joy and I made the bad decision to have lunch at the Co-op yesterday. My experience with their food as never been memorable, its over-priced and almost always bland, but until yesterday I never thought it possible that someone could screw up a simple wrap. They called it the "Omega Wrap" and that should have clued me in right there, but I went ahead and wasted 4.50 on it anyway. So did Joy who happened to skip breakfast that morning. We couldn't make it more than four bites into the thing it was so bad. Covertly making our way to the garbage to throw away the remains unseen was no easy task either. I half expected some tie-dye to spy us, point and start screaming "infidel!"

Surprisingly, their espresso is tasty and cheap. It sure beats the walk to Starbucks for a tasty Saturday morning treat.