While some people regard shopping as an act of buying goods and products to keep their households, kitchen and pantries updated and stocked, Joan Kamikamica Smith of Suva considers it as a family outing to experience and enjoy different things around the city.
“Shopping for me is more like a special family time where we go out together and create a healthy eating habit and teaching my toddler the different kinds and cultures of food,” she said.
“As much as I like to do things on my own because its much quicker, I prefer going shopping with my little family as my husband and I get to spend time with my toddler where he runs around the aisles and burns out his energy”.
Originally from Bau Island Tailevu Ms Smith is the General Manager for Fiji Fashion Week involved in looking after international guests and logistics.
Ms Smith stays at her family house in Suva with her husband and a 2-year-old son. She shops every week from different supermarkets including Extra Supermarket, Newworld supermarket, Cost U Less and Fresh Choice depending on what they need to buy and the sales and promotions.
She said they have a budget of $250 to $300 a week and stick to it unless there are any events or a major function.
Smith prefers shopping on Saturday mornings as its easier to get fresh products then.
She said there are no diet plans which they follow and buy groceries depending on what meals would be prepared during the week including meat, vegetables and canned foods and often stick to local products as it is much cheaper and convenient.
“We like to plan our meals ahead for the week and buy groceries accordingly, some of the top three items which I buy every week is butter, milk and biscuits or bread,” said Smith.
She said some items like vegetables has noticeably become more expensive especially when it is being sold off season.”I love anything pickled so what I do is, I buy cucumbers, onions, cabbages and tomatoes and pickle them or store them in jars to keep it for a long period when its off season,” she said.
Ms Smith highlighted that rising food prices also affects consumers and whenever a product is on sale she buys them in bulk and stocks it based on the expiry dates.
She says one of her recent products she became a fan of is instant noodles.
“After I returned to Fiji, I started liking the spicy Korean instant noodles that I always buy”.
She said one of the pantry items she never forgets to buy is salt.
Ms Smith said she would like to see Buffalo sauces back on the shelves.
“I was trying to find Buffalo hot sauces which Newworld and Extra supermarket used to sell, but it was a bit pricey. However, I don’t see it there anymore”.
She said some of the things like having accurate prices on the shelves and more cashiers could make shopping easier and faster for customers.
“We noticed that there are a lot of counters but no cashiers to cash out and sometimes the prices on the shelves do not match with the system. I constantly check the bill and screen when cashing to ensure the correct prizes are scanned,” she said. She has noticed a price increase on items as their budget has doubled from the previous years.
She added that this Mother’s Day we all need to celebrate strength, love and sacrifice of all mothers and mother figures.
“We thank you for inspiring and nurturing our future generation and Happy Mother’s Day”.
