Ahh The Joys Of Grocery Shopping

I had two very different shopping experiences this week.

The first shopping experience was at a mainstream, normal grocery store called Albertsons.

Back when I was a kid it use to be called Lucky’s. Anyway, the first thing that I like about Albertson’s is that they have hand wipes at the front door to wipe off the handles of the carts. Hundreds of people touch those carts everyday and so germs are oh-so-prevalent on them. The next thing that is great is their handicapped shopping scooters. Most of the time they are charged and ready to go with no problems. They have a pretty large basket and they fit comfortably in the isles without taking up more room than a normal shopping cart. It was fun to see my Mom zooming around on it and sticking her tongue out at me as she whizzed by.

Cleanliness in a store is a big deal to me. I am buying food for me and my loved ones to eat. If there is blood all over the floor in the meat department, vegetables and fruits rotting, dirty freezer doors and other things too gross to mention, chances are I am leaving your store on the phone to the county health supervisor. At Albertson’s the floors where shiny, the dirties places looked the cleanest and the shelves were very neat and organized, even on the cereal isle. My only complaint there was that the instant breakfast was way up high and didn’t have a big spot.

Another thing that is a big deal to me is customer service. On this particular day the gal in the Deli wasn’t very attentive and also didn’t speak English that well. We got what we needed but she offered us no specials and it took a while to actually get the product we needed. However, in the past I have been to the Deli there and have been blown away by their speed and the deals they’ll make. The rest of the staff at the store were amazing though. The butcher helped us with a meat question and was friendly and funny. Two great qualities to have when you’re surrounded by dead animal parts all day. The guy at the check out line was also very friendly and when we found that we had accidentally grabbed the wrong box of cereal he offered to have the bagger go grab the right item while he kept getting the rest of the stuff checked out. He and the bagger also didn’t make a huge fuss when my Mom and I presented him with our reusable shopping bags. Things were still packed properly and we didn’t have to worry about getting things out of the cart and into the car without breaking a bag.

Then there was another shopping experience I had the next day. This store is also widely known but places like this have reputations for a reason. The store in question is Costco.

On a previous trip to Costco my Mom warned me that sometimes their handicapped carts aren’t charged. I decided to call ahead to the store in plenty of time to make sure they put one on charge. Not only did no one answer the phone, there wasn’t even an answering machine or voicemail or anything. It simply rang about 40 times until I hung up, checked the number and then dialed again to make sure I wasn’t mistaken. Sure enough, no answer and no voicemail. Already they were on my bad side. When we finally arrived the “gentleman” (I use the term loosely) told us that the carts were there but they had out of order signs on them. When we asked if there were any that worked he tore the sign off one of them and walked away. Of course when my Mom got on, we realized we’d be fighting a loosing battle all morning. Strike two.

Strike three comes merely due to the nature of the store that Costco is. The advantage is suppose to be that you buy in bulk and save money because they are basically a large warehouse where you can by 100 gallons of mayo to last you until Barack Obama is finishing his second term as President. However, this makes for a very cold and less than pleasant atmosphere. The people that shop there usually fall into one of three categories. First, there is the business that sends some errand boy (or girl) to buy in bulk supplies they need for doing business. Second, rich, uppety, yuppie, SUV driving spoiled brats that have to buy in bulk because they are constantly opening up their mansion on the hill up for fabulous dinner parties etc. The final group, is families that buy in bulk because they consume in bulk because they have large families both in size and in weight. We sort of fall into that last category but dealing with the others that shop there is really not worth it to me. They shove past you, they are on their phones and don’t care that you can’t go fast because the handicapped carts suck and so they almost run into you, they allow all 50 of their children to run wild and jump out in front of people and take things out of other people’s carts, and finally they are so impatient that instead of helping a handicapped person pick something up that fell off the conveyor belt, they loudly exhale and cut in front of her at the check-out stand.

All that is to say, Albertson’s is not only a quality grocery store, it is the better alternative to it’s uncaring and cold big-brother, Costco.