I've been seduced in the past by the scent of roasted chicken. I've written stories about the longing for a bit of crispy skin in the middle of shopping, to crack open the plastic cage and rip off just a bite.

However, this weekend I went to the Big W store, in hopes of scoring those colorful mesh sponges for my bath. Before the economy took a dive, and the big box stores were overflowing with product, you could find them two for a dollar in the bath section instead of going to the beauty section to pay $3.00 for one.

Ever the optimist, at least as far as those day -to -day things you have to buy ,like toilet paper and toothpaste, I went up and down the aisles in search of the bargain scrubs, but no luck. it was so darned hot and muggy outside I figured I might as well do my grocery shopping while I was here. What? You mean buy things like meat or chicken or baked goods at big box store like this one.

Now don't mistake me, the big C membership stores have really juicy fat roasted chickens. I love them. But the chickens at "W" were obviously the runt of the litters, if they are in fact, chooks at all. I realize how spoiled I am, in terms of the fresh food I buy. I just haven't thought about it for quite some time.

The chicken was fatty, greasy, and the ratio of fat to meat was like 90 to one. It was all shriveled up and God knows it was probably not even roasted today, or in California for that matter. It makes me nauseous just thinking about it- for a dollar more you could get fresher product at any supermarket. This was like ordering from a room service menu and really expecting great food at a healthful temperature to be delivered to your hotel room- and then reality sets in once again and you have to tip the poor guy who wheeled it all over the property so he could get it upstairs without inconveniencing any guests.

After seeing the future of food and the Monsanto genetically modified-putting small farms out of business movie, I only buy locally sourced corn normally, but, it was really cheap and juicy when I popped a kernel with my thumbnail. I cooked it up tonight and OMG it tasted like someone injected it with sugar syrup. Not sweet corn, but sweetened corn.

Third course was the heavy, dried out "carrot" cake. After one bite I looked at the container nutritional label. Baked in Arkansas, ugh! The main ingredient was sugar then carrots, but the carrots were probably bland and tasteless when they came out of the ground several months ago and not intended for human consumption.

I'm not a nutritionist or any kind of expert on health food, but I do have a pretty good idea if what fresh ingredients taste like, and what preservatives might do to the human body internally. Actually externally also- you won't catch me shooting up my face with Botox. I just know there will be some bad batches on the street that will freeze a whole generation of people,, and along with the cheekbones, frown line fillers (ok- disclaimer- I have done restalyne after winning a syringe at a spa and I loved it- unfortunately I couldn't afford to keep it up) .