What's in our supermarket carts? Life stories

You can people-watch, grab some me-time and reveal a lot about yourself at supermarkets.

- Lee Siew Hua

My supermarket shopping reveals two stark halves of my diet: Cookies and chips vying with low-fat yogurt and baby radishes. On full display in my basket are my guilty pleasures and nutritional ideals, if you look.

We sometimes steal glances at supermarket trolleys rolling past us and guess the buyer's lifestyle. Is that shopper carting multiple trays of eggs running a home-based bakery? Is that person buying in bulk feeding very hungry teens?

Besides people-watching/basket-gawking, supermarkets are the national go-to for seemingly anything we fancy.

Men wandering alone in the aisles before closing time are there for me-time away from their families, my friends confess.

Seniors find contentment in supermarkets as safe places for a solo outing, or perhaps wheeled by a helper.

For anyone in between vacations, the array of goodies is a window to the world. I've impulse-bought mini avocados from Turkey, grabbed beetroot sourdough crackers from Ireland, and loved succulent-salty ice plants cultivated in Jurong West. Yes, corners of Singapore also fascinate global-local explorers in our midst.

In all these appetising ways and more, supermarkets mirror our personal lifestyles.

BOUNDLESS CHOICES I thought about these interlaced private and public narratives when the sale of Cold Storage and Giant outlets to Malaysian retail group Macrovalue for $125 million was announced on March 24.

That day, Macrovalue co-founder Andrew Lim assured consumers that they can expect a greater assortment of merchandise, more value for money and fresher products from Malaysia, The Straits Times reported.

Choices. Prices. Fresh food. His ideas resonate with us in choice-rich, price-savvy and food-fixated Singapore.