Grocery Stores

How may of you like grocery shopping? Show off hands. Not many? Me, I’m not a huge fan of grocery shopping. But, like everything else, it depends. With this in mind, I figure it is time to look at the fun and not so fun of grocery stores.

For me, the fun begins with which grocery store I am going to. No matter where we have lived, if there is a Trader Joe’s, it is my favorite. They make grocery shopping fun. Why? Well, good products, great service and it’s friendly. That and their products are fun. In how they name them and how they taste. Plus, they generally are a good value. The only problem I’ve had with Trader Joe’s is I’ve never lived close enough to one to just walk to it. Probably a good thing…

All the Trader Joe’s I’ve been to are great but my favorite is the one I go to in Pacific Grove. It is located fairly high on a hill and it can be foggy when I go which tends to be around 8 in the evening to avoid the crowds. This means I get the atmosphere of film noire and the friendly of Trader Joe’s. A powerful mixture!

Next on the “good” list are small, local stores. They can be full on grocery stores or convenient stores / gas stations. Andronico’s in Pacific Grove and a Sinclair in Canon City fit this category. Both are friendly and mostly have what I needed. One is walking distance and the other was the closest store to home although it was still a couple mile drive.

The great thing about a lot of stores in this category is they may make their own items for sale. An example are the amazing homemade burritos that a store in Colorado and California both have! This can elevate a store from good to great (see below).

The rest. This includes major chain grocery stores and the like. They are better or worse depending on their management. Some are good, some not so much. They all fade into the background. Commodities basically.

These are the stores that make grocery shopping boring or painful or both. At times, they can be lonely and unfriendly places. Avoid these stores if at all possible and I am sorry if that is your only option.

There is also an exception. Isn’t there always? This is the little store you always find on vacation. The one that has just what you need, a great store owner with great information on the area and finally some speciality item that they make that is delicious! These exist across America and probably the world and they all need to be discovered!

Finally this isn’t about products, it’s about feel. The feeling you can get when you walk into a place and you’re home or that feeling of contentment of just being there. That feel, for me, it what makes grocery shopping tolerable or even fun.

Let me know in the comments what you think about grocery shopping and the grocery stores you’ve visited. What are your favorites? Me, I’ll be at Trader Joe’s or exploring that little store that we’ve happened upon on this journey called life!