For the First Time Ever, I Have Warm Feelings Towards Walmart

Over the past 10 years, I’ve gotten pretty good at feeding Matthew. but a large part of that is being able to find the right products. Margarine has always been a hard one because most margarines have milk in them. The brand that we have used for years is Nucoa. It hasn’t been easy to find and over time, I have been able to find it at fewer and fewer stores. I had been driving across town to find it and usually purchased a couple dozen boxes at a time and stored them in the freezer. But about 6 or 7 months ago, Nucoa was no longer available at the place I had been buying it. So the search began. I checked all the stores, searched online, inquired about special ordering it, etc. Unfortunately, I had no success. There is one other brand of margarine that works for Matthew, but it is definitely not my preferred brand. It is $5 a box. When it melts it acts more like water than butter. And it doesn’t even taste buttery. But it was our only option so that is what we’ve been using and every time I buy a box, I have to ignore the sticker shock.

Even though I’ve checked all the stores, I always give the shelves a quick check when I’m shopping just in case of the miraculous appearance of a new, cheaper option. Today while I was at Walmart, I happened to see this:

It was our beloved margarine. And it was $1.67 a box. I was so grateful that I cried, right there in the dairy section of Walmart. And then I loaded up my cart. I asked for the dairy manager to express my supreme happiness about having Nucoa in the store and when I explained to him why it is such a big deal, he told me he’d keep it stocked and asked if there are other products that we need that they carry. In the past year, there have been several specialty items that have shown up that we can use, so I shared those with him and expressed my appreciation for having them in the store.

Walmart is definitely not my favorite place to shop. There are a variety of frustrations involved such as poorly stocked shelves, few options in terms of brands, very few Matthew safe store brand items, etc. But today, for probably the first time ever. I was happy in Walmart.

My life is full of tender mercies from the Lord and although I’m sure most people would not classify margarine as a blessing, for us this is definitely a tender mercy.