A  PIECE  ON  PRICE                                                                                                                            

      Driving towards South Phoenix presents a definite change in eye candy.  Instead of subdivision after beautified strip mall after subdivision, one finds run down houses and blue-walled convenience stores.  At first sight it seems a place I, for one, would rather not be.  However, after spending an afternoon in South Phoenix, I was not only comfortable, but I wanted to know.  I wanted to know everything.  I picked a random place to start a new sort of education: the cost of living.

            How one goes about learning the cost of living in an area while driving around for an afternoon did not prove to be so difficult.  We started at one of the most interesting and necessary places, the grocery store.  Food City (16^th Street and Mojave) was the first store we stopped at.  It needed a paint job worse than most of the houses in the area.  The sale advertisements in the windows were written in Spanish and there was a dead cockroach on the path to the door.  Once inside, we were surrounded by Spanish words flowing through the air.  No one looked at us, four young girls, unless it was a sideways glance.  Needless to say we were out of place. 

            As we walked into the produce section our jaws dropped.  There was a wall of chili, spices and all kinds of unnamable items.  Next to the “wall-o-chili,” as we affectionately named it, were the huge bins of Mexican candy bought using the honor system.  There was a little metal box with “5 cents” written on it.  There were coconuts, two kinds, and guavas, and all kinds of exotic produce.  I have never seen anything like it in the vicinity of North Phoenix.  As we continued around the store we found all kinds of exotic Mexican foods and items I had never seen the likes of.  There were no regular cookies in the bakery.  It was all Mexican breads and sweets.  There was also a giant bin of loose rice and beans.  On display around the store there were crosses, piñatas, yard art, and various religious statues.  The store was very organized, but did not have the aesthetically pleasing lighting or cleanliness of the grocery stores I am used to. 

            To compare the vast amounts of variety and low prices of Food City, we went about a mile down the road to a Safeway.  It was a new building and very clean.  We were greeted instantaneously upon entry and once again preceded to the produce section.  We looked around hoping for some sort of extravagance that would equal unprecedented diversity found at Food City.  There was nothing of the sort.  It smelled clean and had all the junk that any average, unimaginative chain supermarket has.  However, it was much more expensive.  We had a list of comparison (See attached chart) that kept us in tune with such things. 

            To add to our data, I went to a Safeway at Scottsdale Road and Pinnacle Peak.  I was not greeted there.  It looked exactly the same as the Safeway in South Phoenix.  The only difference I took note of was that the Scottsdale version did not sell loose rice and beans.  Though the South Phoenix store only had a small bin, at least the option was there.  The store was very clean and organized, with nothing special about it.  The prices were only slightly different than those of the South Phoenix Safeway.

            This experience dusted the top of what a grand scale of unusual sights, sounds, and foods may be found in the diverse area of South Phoenix.  It was a good place to start and gave me some insight on what the differences may be.  I hope to eventually understand some of the cultural differences that exist on the south side of the city and find out how and why South Phoenix is thought of so poorly.  There was more to do, see and experience there than I have found anywhere else in the greater Phoenix area.  How could one not want to view it to its fullest extent?