I bought pre-sliced onions at the supermarket last time I went food shopping. Just because it was totally stupid, and i wanted to know what it felt like to buy onions someone had thoughtfully chopped for me and placed inside a little plastic tub.

They were $1.73 for .6 lbs. By way of comparison, Fresh Direct will deliver uncut onions to your house for $1.99/lb. That means you don’t even have to get off the internet and they will bring an onion to your door for less than what this bucket of onions will cost.

So what was it like, to be among the group of what some call fools, others, visionaries, who buy already-chopped produce? In some ways, it was like a small luxury, like I had opted to buy Bass instead of Coors. Even within the confines of the experiment, a small part of me felt like I was clever, that I found some way to one-up the salad system. And within two days, I had made myself a salad and eaten it, whereas sometimes all the salad fixings rot before I get a chance to make a salad.

Even still , it was an extravagance, and one that I won’t be repeating. I have no problem chopping my vegetables. In fact, I enjoy it, the raw tactility, the pleasure in making something for oneself, the fact that I’m not paying $2.89/lb for onions…

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