#the morning traffic rush bc it was a quick buck even tho krispy kreme is not actually better than malasadas ykwim

[princessnijireiki]

like hawai'i is one of the places I’ve lived where like the whole… “eat/shop local” thing is v. doable + accessible AND actually cheaper than the alternative

which I’ve only found to be the case elsewhere either in like rural areas (esp. if there’s a large hunting season or sth!) or in areas where you can tap into a network of like other poor ppl hustling & making do like x always has vegetables & trades with y who raises fish who sells to z who braids hair, like generally this is a poor poc and/or poor immigrant concept

in suburbia™ (esp. if you don’t have a car) this is damn near impossible to do & harder still to afford unless ppl come to you… like example: there’s a few ppl I know down here who keep chickens, if you’re friends they’ll give/sell you eggs for cheap, but that’s RLY regional… there’s folks w. pickup trucks who sell watermelon on the roadside s/t but like at 2-3x grocery store prices, so I can’t swing that… but there’s ALSO The Honey Man, who has a pickup truck set up on random nice sunny days with raw unpasteurized (s/t unfiltered!!!!!) local honeys, and he is literally the Only person my family buys honey from

but without those like outliers & fringe markets you either have to find + stalk a farmer’s market (the closest one to me is like a damn 45min drive away) or u pay through the nose for the privilege

orrrrr like in hawai'i there’s still yk like poverty walmart shopping + the dollar menu for fast food, but like going to a noodle house is cheaper than pizza, buying seasonal local fruits is cheaper than, like, deciding you need apple pie or sth, even at on-base prices (and tbh I Hated going on base)

hell, another on-base example: I went up there once & there were lines out the wazoo for overpriced shitty like pizza hut & burger king… and No One at this food truck literally just outside this shopping building area (catering more towards local workers who cldn’t shop inside I think— and ain’t that some shit??? working someplace you can’t shop??? like it’s literally not legally allowed) selling plate lunches with guava chicken, aka like 3x as much food that’s 2x as good for ½ the price

it’s just a weird dichotomy to observe, like, as a poor person, bc I was sick as a dog at diff. points out there (my var. autoimmune shit started kicking in like 1/2yr before I headed out west…), but it’s probs the healthiest I’ve eaten/lived in my life and it was like sort of 100% accidental bc you don’t get to say “I have 79¢ to my name, it’s pop-tarts for dinner,” like, no, it’s rice & eggs bc pop-tarts cost money, so ig you BETTER make some time to cook bc otherwise you’ll be having sleep for dinner

like it demands a different kind of lifestyle from you, which isn’t necessarily a good thing— I didn’t make a living wage, for example, so if I’d had a cross-island commute or a 2nd/3rd job, my energy levels wld’ve been rly different… but on the mainland a mcchicken is cheaper than a can of spam, in hawai'i I can get a spam curry katsu ramen (like 2 meals’ worth of food!!!) for less than a happy meal. it’s just v. v. different than what my atlantic seaboard ass is used to.