For one thing, there is the quality of the produce, which is truly wonderful, and for another, there is the pleasure of chatting with the growers who proudly hawk their wares. There is the pleasure of thanking them for coming out to the city, for the sweetness of their nectarines and the corn, for the delicious Naan that the Indian baker brings, and there is the pleasure of getting recipies and advice on how to handle and store this bounty. Now that I think of it, this might be the only chance I have of actually having a relationship with the people who make the stuff I buy.
I haven't bought produce at the name-brand supermarkets for many, many years. Why bother? It has been created for the box and for the shipping container, not for the stomach. Theoretically, supermarkets were supposed to be good because high-volume=low prices. But, guess what, as soon as they destroyed most of the small local markets, their prices went up and up and up, and the quality, whatever of it there was, vanished. A loaf of bread-in-plastic which lasts so long that it scares you is now 50cents more expensive than a loaf baked that day at the local baker's. How can that be if @#$&@% capitalism is so @#*$^ efficient? Oh, and before you get at me about union wages, health plans, etc., I should add that the local baker is a worker-owned coop which pays a living wage, which offers health insurance, and which shares the profits.
Now, I suppose, that under some kind of "scientific socialism"
supermarkets might be organized and provisioned in such a way that the quality would improve while the prices decline. That would be nice. But there would be that dreaded middleman again. You couldn't thank him for the tomatoes; he didn't grow them. In Romania, in the early sixties, I used to go shopping with my grandmother. The farmers would come into the capital daily to sell their produce, milk, sour-cream, eggs, you-name-it. The infamous queues were nowhere to be seen. Most of what my parents queued for in those days were the exotic produce that was only made available once or twice a year: oranges, bananas...
As for workers being versed in more than one skill: I notice too that all the vendors at the farmer's market are equipped with only a scale and a cash box. No calculators anywhere. And yet, each and everyone of them is most wonderfully adept at mental math. In fact, they're about a hundred times better than any supermarket clerk I've ever encountered. If the arithmetic gets too gnarly, they'll shave the odd 17 cents off the price and you're both happier.
I know that folks will write back and object that this is all very good for California, but what about Alaska and what about those places that are hundreds of miles away from the nearest farmer? Well, that is a problem, but I still don't see why it has to be solved by for-profit corporations. Anyway, for those of you who have the option of buying from local producers, this is just to say that I hope you'll take advantage. It's a treat.
Joanna