Published: Tuesday, Sep. 11, 2012 / Updated: Monday, Sep. 10, 2012 05:05 PM
Back to Basics: I want variety in my groceries
I like variety. Not long ago, I could leave my house near Gold Hill Road and have a choice of three different grocery chains, all within about three miles. Sadly, that’s been whittled down to one chain within the same three miles.
Hey, at least there’s a store on my side of the red light open again. I’m happy for that. Unfortunately, they don’t carry the basics.
I know what you’re thinking, “Is she crazy? They have bread and milk.”
Yes, that’s true. But I can find bread and milk anywhere. I’m talking about the other basics, like homemade fudge and instant lottery tickets. That’s what I call one-stop shopping.
Something else bothers me about this store. I’m having a problem with the entrance. I loved the open, warehouse type doors. Instead of an ordinary grocery store, I felt like I was in an outdoor, European market.
But that’s not my problem. My problem is, that every time I leave Dollar Tree, I walk to the right, quickly turn, and find myself up close and personal with a giant melon. Then it hits me, “Oh yeah. I can’t go in that way anymore.”
I’m hoping to overcome this habit before one of us, probably me, gets smooshed.
Believe it or not, “smooshed” is a word. I use it all the time and I verified it on the Urban Dictionary. It’s a combination of smashed, mashed and smeared.
Now that I think about it, that’s how I feel in the main aisle of this grocery store – smooshed.
I feel smooshed between the pizza bar, the rolls, the muffins, the olive bar, and the hot chickens, not to mention the people. This aisle is like the family kitchen, everyone congregates in it and with all the food displays, there’s just not enough room.
There’s a coffee bar up front with oodles of space. It even has tables and chairs like a real kitchen. It’s spacious, but no one congregates there.
I’m sure, that in time, I’ll adjust to the new store. If I walked in and saw homemade fudge and lottery tickets, I’d adjust real quick.
One thing that does help is seeing all the familiar faces of the previous stores’ employees. I’ve run into a lot of them and I hope to run into more. I only hope I can stop running into that giant melon.