Much Ado about Grocery Stores

When we move to a new location, there's a learning curve.  The internet and a smart phone are indispensable.  These electronic tools make 'finding' exciting instead of frustrating.  So, what do we find?  Well, first and foremost, a grocery store.  Berkeley was the easiest since the grocery store was on the ground floor of our apartment building.  This arrangement has spoiled me completely.

We just took the elevator down five floors with shopping bags over our arms.  I actually felt like I was in France or one of those other countries where people carry string bags and shop daily for food.    I didn't bother in New York City because I never cooked anything.  I've lived in at least three towns where there were no 'real' grocery stores. In Franconia, New Hampshire or Seal Rock, Oregon, it was ten miles to the grocery store.  Burlington, Washington had a 'sister town' (Mount Vernon).  The two Washington towns were like the Texas towns of  Hurst and Bedford so blended together they are really one town with two names.  In Austin it was either HEB, Whole Foods, or Sprouts.  Burlington, Washington really got me shopping organic, coop, and local since it's a farm valley.  Richmond shopping was convenient - they had a local store that sold only produce, meat, cheeses, and baked goods.  It was located next to a Walmart Super Center. (Yes, I shop with the evil empire for certain things.)  Logan, Utah was also a Walmart grocery town.  In Sun City I shop at three separate stores on 'grocery day'.    

South Lake Tahoe is a tourist town.  There's 'tourism' here 10 months of the year, with October and May being the 'dead' months.  Most of the store fronts are pitching something to the tourist trade.  For instance:   boat rental, paddle board rental, bike rental, ski rental, ski/beach apparel, bars, tourist restaurants, souvenir shops, art galleries, and surprisingly two competing 'real' grocery stores plus something called the Grocery Outlet.  A real grocery store has actual aisles, produce, meat, and a bakery.  This town is also loaded with drug stores, but the only discount 'box' store is an atrocious K-Mart.  It's probably the only K-Mart store in that company making money because they have a complete monopoly in South Lake Tahoe.  It's a terrible store filled with shoddy merchandise, complicated check-out procedures, and management who've apparently never seen a Walmart or Target.  What isn't here is a 'dollar' store - no Dollar Tree, no Family Dollar, no Dollar General. You have to drive to Carson City - basically an hour over a 9000 foot mountain to find those or a Walmart or a Target.

I think about grocery stores.  They are and aren't all the same.  In America, we take for granted that every grocery store will have wire push carts, baskets for the light shopper, and well organized head high shelving with multiple choices in the staples.  It will be well lit, with refrigerator cases keeping the cold food cold.  During the holiday season, you can expect Christmas carols over the store speakers.  There will always be beer, both cold and room temp, and sometimes wine, and a little more rarely, hard liquor.  If it's a major store, there will be a bakery and delicatessen.  There will be a checkout with a scanner of those black lines helpfully found on each and every product, a cashier to move the items across it, and usually a bag person.  You can find a combination of a sea food market, a cafe, a coffee shop, a salad/soup bar, a florist, a pharmacy, a bank, a nail technician, a massage therapist, an optometrist, a post office, or a hair dresser depending on the individual store and the location.  I've yet to see a funeral home inside a grocery store, but I figure it's just a matter of time since cremation is gaining popularity.  Just for fun, here's a list of the grocery stores I've shopped.  It's pretty comprehensive:  Walmart, Albertson's, Safeway, Fred Meyer, Kroger, Fry's, Whole Foods, HEB, Smith's, Sprouts, Trader Joe's, Shoprite, Shop Easy, Winn Dixie, Bashas, Aldi, A&P, Brookshire,  Food Giant, Fiesta, Market Street, Piggly Wiggly, Price Chopper, Reasor's, Sunflower Markets, and a new one in South Lake Tahoe called Raley's.

All grocery stores are not the same.  The products are slanted toward regional taste buds, and you can find interesting surpluses and deficits.  For that reason, there's no 'best' store.   In New England you can buy three kinds of salsa; in Texas thirty kinds.  By contrast, New England overflows with clam chowder - fresh, frozen and canned.  The South is the land of Dr. Pepper (all the flavors in every size) and pimento cheese.  You can't buy ANY kind of pimento cheese on either the East or the West Coast.  I made my own in Berkeley!  You have to blow the dust off the cans of Dr. Pepper in certain parts of the country.  Some regions swell the soft drink aisle with Coke while other regions are top-heavy with Pepsi.  Tea bag selection is at its zenith on the Northwest coast.  Any grocery store in the Northeast has an entire aisle devoted to food aiding the preparation of Italian food and a whole section of Kosher food.  Every Southwest grocery store has an extensive Mexican aisle.  The West coast stores have an entire Asian aisle with both canned, processed and fresh food items.  The grocery store in Logan, Utah had an aisle devoted to gigantic quantities - such as a 2 gallon jar of pickles or 25 pound bags of cereal.  A Southern grocery store is chock full of junk food.  (Yes, EVERY American store is loaded with non-nutritious, sugar laden, fried in palm oil, and dregded in salt food, but Southern grocery stores seem to revel in how much revolting, really, really bad for your long-term health food can be packed onto their shelves.

The last fun thing about finding the local grocery store is the scenery getting there.  Some places have the lock on the scenery, and South Lake Tahoe is one of the best scenic drives 'to the store'.  So, I'll end this Seinfeld blog (all about nothing), with a snapshot taken along the route to the grocery stores.

The Sierras on the road to Safeway