The Corner Market

Nikkala's last post of "bad chocolate" brought to mind the market on the corner of 3rd & F Streets NW in Washington, DC - a block away from my old apartment. How great to have a market less than a block away, right? That's what I thought when I moved in. I would go there to get paper plates, charcoal briquettes, or other last-minute items whenever I would have company over. My mistake came when I tried to actually purchase edible items there. One day, I felt like a little chocolate, so I purchased a CRUNCH bar from the corner market. Upon opening the candy bar when I got home, I noted that the chocolate was a mucher lighter hue than I remember from my previous experience with CRUNCH bars. I took a bite and was immediately sorry that I had done so. It was n..a..s..t..y! I looked on the wrapper for an expiration date, but apparently they don't print expiration dates on chocolate bars ... at least not that one. But what I did find was information about an instant winner contest that you could participate in by looking under the wrapper. Well, I didn't win anything, but as I looked closer at the rules for the game, I reallized that the contest expired over three years before I bought the candy bar . . . THREE YEARS!!! That means that the candy bar that I bought from the corner market was at least that old, if not older. I vowed then and there not to shop at the corner market anymore. And for a while, I held to my guns.

A while later, I woke up on a Saturday morning to the grumbling of my stomach. Upon checking the cabinets, I realized that I didn't have any cold cereal left. Thoughts of my previous experience at the corner market flashed through my mind and I thought: Do I dare take the chance of buying food there again? After debating it in my head, I decided that it would be a safe purchase. I mean, as long as I check the expiration date, I should be ok, right? I soon learned how wrong I was. I walked down to the market and bought a box of Honey Bunches of Oats with an expiration date well into the future. Feeling excited for my new purchase, I quickly returned home and got a bowl, spoon, and a jog of milk on the table. I opened the box of cereal and tipped it to pour into the bowl. But only a few flakes fell into the bowl. I shook the bowl, thinking that maybe they were just stuck. All of a sudden a clump of flakes fell into the bowl, wrapped together in some kind of webbing, though I wasn't about to find out if the web creator was still in the box. I quickly poured all the flakes back into the bowl a promptly threw the box of cereal in our outside garbage. I was so upset that I wrote an email to the cereal company (I believe it was General Mills, but I don't remember) explaining the disgusting situation. They very promptly returned my email and asked me to fill out a form describing the incident, the expiration date and UPC code of the bow (which I had luckily kept), and the store where it was purchased. They sent me four coupons for a free box of cereal, which I thought was fair enough. But you can bet that I stayed away from the corner market from then on.