She Was Watching an Influencer’s Grocery Haul. Then She Started Tearing Up: ‘I Don’t Want to Leave This Earth Without Knowing That Feeling.’
Times are tough. Some people are a hospital bill away from homelessness, and others are hanging on minimum wage to put food on the table. Brooklyn (@brooklynmeeshee) watched an influencer restock her fridge and do a grocery haul, then her tears flowed.
“I’m 36 years old, and I have never been able to go into the supermarket and just buy everything I wanted and needed and not worry about the price,” Brooklyn told TikTok. She was scrolling through the app late in the night when another influencer’s video came on her For You page.
The influencer would usually post about makeup and luxury hauls. But this particular TikTok was about her restocking her empty fridge, so Brooklyn stayed to watch. The influencer went to the supermarket, filled her cart with her groceries, checked out, and then restocked her fridge. It was a mundane video—the kind of content that people who loved organizing would want to watch.
But for Brooklyn, the video was aspirational.
“It got me thinking about a time when I was younger when our fridge was empty for a month,” Brooklyn said.
Growing up on food stamps and an empty fridge
Brooklyn said that she had grown up poor. Her mother did not know how to speak English. Brooklyn claimed that her mother, who did not know how to read or write, used to work a minimum wage job to keep the family of five afloat.
“Putting food on the table was heavily reliant on public assistance.” Her family needed food stamps, which required paperwork to fill out. Since her mother was unable to read or write, Brooklyn was responsible for filling out the renewal forms for the food stamps on a monthly basis.
“I remember this one particular month—I guess I hadn’t filled out the paperwork properly, and there was something that was missing,” Brooklyn said. Because of the error, her family did not get the food stamps for that month. Instead of going to the grocery, the family had to visit churches and food pantries to survive.
“Out of all the years that I’ve been on this Earth… I’ve never been able to go to a supermarket and fill up my fridge and not have to worry about the price,” Brooklyn said. It is a privilege to grab something without having to check the price or scan shelves for bargain alternatives. It’s a mark of financial stability to be able to purchase one of Walmart’s trending cakes out of curiosity instead of ruminating about the other bills that need to be paid that month. This is simply a world Brooklyn did not grow up in.
Food shouldn’t be a luxury
“As I was watching the video, I saw her put just simple things… like tomatoes, and lettuce, and meat.” Brooklyn emphasized the lack of pausing and thinking for every item the influencer grabbed at the grocery. In comparison to her situation, she had spent so much of her life making ends meet.
At this point, Brooklyn was tearing up. Being able to check out of a grocery store with a full cart should be a norm. But for people like Brooklyn, they would need to rethink all the items in their cart and leave some behind before checking out because there’s never enough to pay with.
“I know it’s going to sound so simple for some, but I don’t want to leave this Earth without knowing that feeling,” Brooklyn said. It’s her dream to know what it’s like to shop for her basic necessities without having to scrimp on every penny or check her bank account. Brooklyn said that as “ambitious” as it may seem, she also wants to buy her mother groceries and fill her fridge, too.
These may seem like simple dreams, but times are tough, and even having one meal a day seems like a luxury that some couldn’t afford.
(Featured images: brooklynmeeshee on TikTok)
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