I heartily and emphatically dislike large, box-store supermarkets. I dislike their pharmacy counterparts as well, each striving to capture as much of the consuming public's attention and disposable income as possible. I don't believe that supermarkets, whose primary function is to sell to the public foodstuffs, should emphasize durable products as well.

Who ventures into a supermarket for the purpose of buying bedroom-and-bathroom linens, electronics, clothing and footwear? If a shopper enters a pharmacy are they looking for an array of food products and electronic devices?

We've been shopping regularly and fairly well exclusively, at the same small neighbourhood supermarket for the past decade and a half. It has never had a full array of products but certainly enough of a choice to suit us. We're interested in the fundamentals of food, primary products, not factory-enhanced foods that bear little resemblance to what they originally were.

We've been able to obtain fresh fruits and vegetables, cereal grains and pulses, and other staples of the kitchen and the North American diet at that small supermarket at a very fair price. On those few occasions when we've ventured into another, competitor's installation, I've been aghast at the price differential, and distracted by the huge choice of offerings, fully redundant and unnecessary.

Now, because the small supermarket is preparing to close its doors because it is moving its operations to another location, purpose-built nearby and to much larger architectural proportions, we sought out another location that represented the same supermarket brand. It is a huge establishment judged by the standard of our old one, with an amazing array of foods.

The focus, however, is on food to the exclusion of extraneous, non-food, durable items so commonly found in supermarkets elsewhere. I was amazed at the immense selection of fish at this same-name, different-location supermarket. The emphasis on ethnic-type foods, both fresh and factory pre-prepared because of the ethnic-make-up of the neighbourhood involved represented an education unto itself.

Who knew there was black rice and red rice? How is it prepared? How is it served? What does it taste like?