9:58 a.m. - 2004-08-08
Valli produce

Valli Produce

I went to the local Italian grocery store yesterday. Going to Valli Produce is an event, not a shopping trip. It is a multi-cultural event in both food and people.

At Vallie Produce you can get every kind of fruit and vegetable under the sun. Those you have heard of and some you have not. There is a deli counter with the freshest, most inexpensive meats, cheeses and prepared foods and whenever I go, I must be mentally ready to wait at least 25 minutes before my number is called. The aisles are crammed with every food from every part of the world you can imagine.

There is an entire Polish Aisle, an Asian aisle shared with Greek, one whole aisle that contains nothing but pasta and another that contains nothing but various Italian tomato cooking sauces. Every aisle is crammed so full you can barely get by.

This brings me to my second point. The store can't be more than 3000 square feet, yet at any given time there are about 2000 people, each with a shopping cart. Ok...maybe I am exaggerating, but I kid you not. The traffic jam in every single aisle is unbelievable. When shopping at Valli Produce, one must not only leave time for waiting at the deli, but you need to plan to be there for an extra half hour to leave time to navigate through the people and the endless sea of shopping carts, clogging up the constricted aisles.

There is more to this store than being packed to the max with goods, people and shopping carts though, It is like the United Nations only more cooperative. At any given time, there are representatives from literally every nation on earth and some countries are represented regionally too. You find Northern Indians, and Southern Indians, Eastern Europeans and Western Europeans, Pakistanis, people from all the other "stans", Mexicans, Australians, Englishmen, Americans and everything in between...I think you get the picture.

Despite the over crowded conditions and the diverse people, all speaking a different language, everyone bides their time and navigates through the shopping cart traffic jam with out pushing, shoving or swearing at each other. Smiling and politely nodding is a universal language.

The only real trouble in the market are children and old people. The minute you go through the doors, you are sucked into the traffic and there is no turning around and going back. You have no choice but to march along with "Volare" playing on the P.A. system and navigate the aisles until you find what you want and make your way out. There are some old people in Valli Produce who look confused and I suspect they have been in there for weeks having gotten sucked into the crowd and are destined to wander aimlessly until they get spit out. If you live in Chicago's Northwest suburbs and you have lost Grandma, check Valli Produce.

My only beef about the place is the children that come with their parents. The parent's attention gets completely focused on making sure they grab what they need as they are herded down each aisle and leave the shopping cart attended by the child. Now children from all over the world are the same and if you have two or more, they will be more intent on having fun with the shopping cart than minding where their mother is. Now and then the peaceful herding of multicultural cattle is interrupted by a couple of giggling children who decide to use the shopping cart for body surfing through the store. Wham....here comes little Bobby and little Susie careening right into the 80 year old Grandpa. Bang, there goes little Ramesh and little Jugdish pushing their cart at high speed through the crowd waiting at the deli. For a moment the sea of people are parted and you can actually see the floor of the market, but only for an instant, the space is filled by shoppers who have been stuck in the aisle for several days and all of a sudden see a way out.

The deli workers hardly notice though. They are too busy filling orders. It is a highly animated operation with Spanish and Italian being spoken all at one time making a language that is simply "Latin". A boy, tired of wating with his mother, sits down on a pile of parmesan cheese in one pound plastic bags. The deli manager notices and yells out in a thick Italian accent.

"Hey You....yeah you... get offa my cheese...nobody wantsa to eat butt food." There is always something entertaining at Valli Produce.

P. I. Yarnsmith

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