I'm rather ticked off at the moment so I'm going to rant and rave here a bit.

I'm going to tell you a little story. The other night, I had planned on cooking Denise dinner, because that's sonething I like to do. I had planned the Teriayki Veggies in Spicy Rice. Being a meat eater I like to have at least something resembling meat in dishes that I make. Denise had bought and used a product from Worthington Farms (I believe this is correct) called tender vittles..Tender Bits, that's it. It's a chicken subistitute I believe. Anyway, this sounded good to me. So, Denise makes it over to my house, and says..."I couldn't find tender bits at the store."

Now we had been shopping at Kash n Karry, which at times had stunned my dear Denise with the wide array of vegan-friendly products. They had more meat substitutes and soups and vegan products than you could shake a good sized stick at and STILL had room for everything else. Well, the management/owners of Krap n Karry decided to remodel. They were pulling stuff off shelves and rearranging stuff. They even got these wonderful new carts that actually roll straight! The store looks great..

They forgot one thing....

They stopped carrying Tenderbits. In fact I don't think they had any meat substitutes from Worthington Farms. No tenderbits no flat meaty things no skallops no nothing! We were un happy.

Being the resourceful young adults that we are, we decided to try a different store. We went to Publix. No luck, their selection was a little better than krap and karry but not by much. Then we went to Winn Dixie, they didn't have squat. We left and went home unhappy. I cooked dinner and it was tasty, but even as I write this, I wonder..."Could it have been better?"

We live in Gainesville Fl, home of the University of Florida. I'm sure that there are more vegetarians and vegans than weknow about in this town but yet, they grocery stores that serve the students most are ignoring their needs! Yes, I agree that vegan/vegetarian foods may not sell as well as beer or Chips Ahoy or even Spam, it that a reason not to carry it? No! Yet, these stores can stock ethnic foods that I have no idea of what they are and have yet to see anyone purchase. We've all seen that isle with the goya products and the jesus candles. I'm not trying to be openly offensive, but if these products can be stocked, give the vegans/vegetarians a shelf or two for their meat substitutes.

In a time where it seems that the vegetarian movement is growing (vegans are still too busy bitching at each other) it seems to me that it's time to show these grocery stores that this part of the population is going to buy these products! If you stock it they will come! In fact, just from my limited expierence, vegans and vegetarians buy more food and cook more because most resturants don't have anything they can eat other than a salad or a baked potato.

If you have had similar expierences, send them to me. We'll see if we can't start some trouble!

Thanks for listening to me rant.