Is your supermarket as bad as mine?

[Chris Hennes]

I've lived here in Oklahoma for a year and a half now, and I went from really enjoying my weekly (sometimes more often even) grocery store trip in Pennsylvania, to dreading it here, to simply not doing it at all. I can't even quite put my finger on what's wrong with the stores, other than the extreme emphasis on prepared food and packaged stuff to the detriment of any type of decent fruit, vegetables, meat, or seafood. I end up going to between three and six different stores on Saturday mornings to get all that stuff, and leave the actual grocery store trip to my wife to get staples like bread, eggs, etc.

[RobertCollins]

cbread, I thought that you might live here in the 'burb of Seattle I live in. Your description fit the only 'Grocery' we have in this bedroom community, an Albertson's.

Luckily, we have many fine places to shop in Seattle. I go into there even though the City center is 11 miles away.

I do hope you sent that letter and wonder, did it accomplish anything?

Chris, don't you love the heartland shopping experience? When my wife and I visit the family farms in Boonville MO; we drive 25 miles to Columbia to buy groceries. The U of Mo is there and they actually have lettuce the isn't just Iceberg.

[qrn]

While I don't live in a small town in a small state, I feel your pain! I grew up in Vermont and can only return to visit now in very small doses--and a lot of the blame is the grocery shopping (to be fair, it may be my mother's shopping habits, and not the stores themselves--Hannafords in Rutland actually looked pretty good the one time I was there).

Now I live in a reasonably sized city in a reasonably sized state (I tell everyone that Denver is as rural as I ever want to be again), but I still have issues... I live in a fairly affluent (and new) neighborhood which was specifically planned to have a central "town center" (modern urban planning), but the Albertsons that won the bidding to be the "market" is just plain B-A-D. Many of the complaints you raise about your little local store:

* Meat and fish selection is spotty (never, to my knowledge, literally, but there's always tomorrow) at best. And the fish is usually mealy looking, when it's not stone-cold frozen.

* The produce section is a joke. Miles and miles of apples and out-of-season red rocks, er, I mean, tomatoes, but not a sprig of Italian parsley or rosemary. Every so often I find a shallot that's as surprised to be there as I am to find it, but that's rare.

* At least six months ago they "reorganized" the store, but they haven't bothered to change the aisle signs, so I have to wander all of them to find what I'm looking for.

* Why, oh why, isn't taco seasoning with the other "Mexican" foods?

* If there is a sun-dried tomato to be found, I haven't stumbled across it yet.

* Someone really needs to explain to me the logic of cookies and soup in the same aisle.

It just irks me that I live in this great urban neighborhood, and no one bothered to put a Whole Foods or a Sunflower or even one of the new, upscale Safeways in instead of a floundering Albertsons. Craziness.

Luckily for me, unlike you--you poor thing, I have several ethnic groceries and a couple of Whole Foods (heck, even the Super Target has better prices and selection) to choose from and only have to resort to the local store when I'm desperate (or desperate for Doritos).

Albertsons used to be my go to store...They were sold, and or reorganized a year or two ago, Never stop there any more

King soopers is now it And it is kinda shakey from time to timeDepending what you are looking for...Also Try Sunflower for meat and veggies...And of course Sids, If money is no object..

Bud

[nibor]

I've lived here in Oklahoma for a year and a half now, and I went from really enjoying my weekly (sometimes more often even) grocery store trip in Pennsylvania, to dreading it here, to simply not doing it at all. I can't even quite put my finger on what's wrong with the stores, other than the extreme emphasis on prepared food and packaged stuff to the detriment of any type of decent fruit, vegetables, meat, or seafood. I end up going to between three and six different stores on Saturday mornings to get all that stuff, and leave the actual grocery store trip to my wife to get staples like bread, eggs, etc.

Is your "actual grocery store" quite close to campus Chris? Our just-off-campus Albertson's doesn't really have much of what I consider food. It is there primarily to serve the students, and so has lots of prepared/packaged food and very little fresh stuff to cook. It took me a while to figure that out, and I am happy to drive farther (and spend more) to get real food.

[cbread]

I can't believe it has been a year since I started this topic. I am pleased to report that there have been some improvements at my nemesis market. I know, it is the market it always has been, but I'm guessing they have been watching too much business march off to their competitors and decided to start addressing a couple of the worst failings.

I want to be positive for this posting, so here are main the good things I have noticed: some fresh herbs are appearing. They stock a bit larger variety of some lines of foods. I see a modest move into some higher end foods - not the uberprice stuff, but better, more interesting. A good start. I don't feel quite so negative when I shop there and I am less inclined to shop elsewhere out of sheer angry spite. If they continue in this direction, they will grab back even more of my business.