The end of orange season

You've got mostly gray-hairs shopping on a weekday morning and, so, a quick visit to the grocery store is almost impossible. They're inspecting each of their choices carefully, making sure that they are getting the best deal, whether the "Buy 1, Get 2 Free" deal on pork sirloin or packaged salad is really a good deal.
Not only do we have to make sure we have enough room in the refrigerator or freezer for these products, we need to discover our true motive in buying these products. Dan Riely, in his book, Predictably Irrational, describes how the notion of free twists our decision-making process. For example, we have salad with most dinners at home. Even so, it'll be a race to eat three big packages of salad before they start to go bad. Is a "Buy 1, Get 2 Free, Eat 2, Throw Away 1" still a good deal? Probably, even though the local farmers' market offers fresher salads and I can buy only what I need.
It isn't just kids with cell phones these days. During yesterday's shopping trip, there were several gray-hairs chatting away while drifting through the aisles, coordinating their purchases with the person on the other end of the phone. It's getting to the point that we'll need to ban cell phones while shopping, lest all the aisles be jammed up while shoppers argue with their caller because the shopping list says spaghetti but Ronzoni Rigatoni is on sale at 12 for $12.00.
The last of the American oranges are in the produce section now, at about a buck a piece. The oranges in bags come from South Africa and aren't as sweet. (To be fair, it's still in early in the southern hemisphere's winter.) Local tree fruits - apples, peaches, and pears - aren't quite ready. We'll just have to make do with the blueberries and raspberries that grow wild around the camp.