RORY SALAZAR | Finance | CONTACT
A pair of cosmopolitan city-slickers from Betoota’s famed French Quarter have blown into a one-horse town somewhere out in the middle of nowhere and grabbed a few items from the local IGA.
The event occurred at approximately lunchtime yesterday afternoon, when Miles Watkins (27) entered the IGA accompanied by his best friend since he was only little, Arlo (last name and age unknown).
Having stopped only briefly in the small town that is located some 60 kms outside of Mount Isa, Miles explained to Arlo that according to Google the tiny town had no Woolworths, Coles or even Aldi from which they could source fresh produce to satiate their bodily needs.
Only the small, independently operated IGA stocked any form of food in the entire township.
Having never visited a supermarket outside of Woolworths, Coles or Aldi, the pair were immediately excited to get a sense of what the real Australia was all about.
Upon entering the magical wonderland that is the small town IGA experience, the cultured city folk could barely contain themselves.
“Wow, how fresh must this food be?!” exclaimed Arlo as he picked up a single carrot that apparently cost $8.25.
Miles involuntarily let out a cry of joy as he glimpsed an out-of-date 250g packet of no-brand pasta and squeaked, “$5.50 for pasta that costs $0.99c back home?! Phoaw, it must be at least twice as good!”
The young men from the big smoke captured the authentic country town experience on Instagram, sharing a story with their friends that showed them marvelling at the same food they usually bought at Coles only with a much higher price tag.
While the pitfalls of a market monopoly were clearly on show in the small town IGA, this did not appear to register with Miles and Arlo, who ended up happily spending $267 on half a little red basket’s worth of items.
“Man, I wish I grew up in a small town,” lamented Miles as he sunk his teeth into a kiwi fruit that had set him back $4.89. “Mmmm, the food is so much fresher out here.”
