Geographic Groceries A Dinosaur's Neighborhood Wonderworld Activity Index

<< Boxes move by at a blur inside an Asian grocery store. Photograph by James L. Stanfield

Explore the regions of your grocery store to see which foods hang out together—and why.

Geography is everywhere—even in the grocery store. Not only does your food come from all over the globe, it's also arranged in patterns like those that geographers study.

You've probably noticed, for example, that all the fruit is in one place. Or is it? Besides fresh produce, your supermarket probably sells canned fruit, fruit juice, and fruit snacks—each in a different aisle. There may also be pieces of fruit at the salad bar.

Think of each of those fruit-full parts of the store as a region, which geographers define as an area "having one or more common factors that are found throughout." A region might be identified by a physical feature (the Bay Area in northern California) or a cultural trait (the Bible Belt in the southern United States).

So what are the regions in your grocery store? You can start finding them by printing the sample shopping list and floor plan. (You can also use your family's list and sketch the layout of your local store.) Locate each item in the store and mark its location on the map.

Can you find any patterns? Why would refried beans be with tortillas? Is the tomato sauce with the fresh tomatoes, the canned tomatoes, or somewhere else?

Younger Xpeditioners: Draw a simple map of your grocery's regions. Can you think of names a geographer might give each region? The frozen foods region might be Antarctica, and the bread aisle could be the Wheat Belt.

Older Xpeditioners: As you unpack the groceries, write down where each item was produced. Mark these places on a world map from the Xpeditions atlas. When your map is done, see if you can discern any patterns. (For another opportunity to map what you eat, check out Spice World.)

Parents: Identifying and understanding regions is a key part of geographic literacy. This seemingly simple activity gives you a great opportunity to spark discussion. Ask the kids to think about the regions they've identified.

Are some regions harder to define than others (gourmet foods versus produce, for instance)? Is each region the same size? Are some more prominent than others? What items might belong in more than one region? Are the regions placed in some sort of order? Would you have organized the store differently?