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We are fortunate to live where there are many, many grocery stores nearby from which to choose, because I get extremely bored eating too many of the same foods. I also like it that grocery stores hire many local people and that they seem happy in their jobs and have been with the stores for decades.
I prefer many of the offerings at Whole Foods, as we look for organic and non-GMO products, high-rated milk and eggs, fish and organic meat and shun conglomerate food like General Mills/Kraft, as large conglomerates and their subsidiaries spend more money into political propaganda ads to defeat efforts to require healthier food for everyone. Those companies also tend to look out more for their shareholders than those who eat their food. They also tend to have yucky ingredients like carrageenan, which is banned elsewhere.
The larger supermarkets, including our local Safeway and Raleys do have some organic and non-GMO products, but then they also have huge rows of conglomerate, GMO cereal and breads because of payment for shelf space by manufacturers to supermarkets. And I don't like most of the O Organics branded products.
But I dislike the way Whole Foods displays their breads: they are set out in bins, including low baskets, and I have seen people touch more loaves than they buy and their kids, with their dirty little hands, touch them, too.
What I'd really like is either a bread bakery store (made on the premises) like in Germany, or an area of a store set aside where a large variety of fresh-baked, different, nutritious breads are behind a counter requiring employee assistance so no customers can squeeze the merchandise.
(Please don't suggest Panera bread, because they simply don't carry the right varieties of bread.)
We also have a Sprouts, but my husband doesn't like shopping there, mainly because he's still unfamiliar with it and he says the shopping center where it is located is too busy.
My favorite place to check out the quality of eggs and milk products is Cornucopia.org.
The more grocery stores, the more people will be employed and the more variety that will stay.
Wall Street Journal is a newspaper for investors, and any lessening of the number of stores means that the main conglomerates will have even more influence (via the shelf space they buy) and conglomerates and their investors will make more profit and fewer locals will be employed. No thanks.
Hey thanks for letting us know about the Cornucopia site, it's awesome!
But I feel like a lot of American consumers actually are tired of having to walk aisle after aisle of 20 different milks and cereals and drinks. They would be just fine with three brands. They don't need 10 or 20 brands. That's why Aldi and Trader Joe's are so popular. Smaller stores and mostly just one brand.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth
No, that's not why Aldi and TJ's are so popular. They're popular because they're discount stores.
Not me. I go to TJ's simply to browse and see different items and different people. The closest one to me is still too far to frequent on a regular basis. I may go once a month. I go to Sprouts for most fresh foods, but due to its small parking lot, my visits have to be timed right (before 11 a.m.).
I love having a variety of brands. For that reason, I have a strong dislike for our local Kroger-owned chain that dominates this area. Very few brands other than its own, and the store is way too large. if I just want milk, I have to walk through the clothing and furniture departments to get there. The store isn't big because it offers more brands. It's big because it's turned itself into a one-stop shop-for-everything store. I'm not a fan of Safeway but I am more likely to find different brands there, even though the store is smaller.
That is not the only reason they are popular. They are also popular b/c they are 20-30,000 sq feet, half the size of a traditional grocery store. They are a quicker shop. Most of the new grocers are following this smaller store model: Fresh Thyme, Sprouts, Earth Fare. Walmart is now building smaller stores, so is Meijer.
The trend is smaller, unless you are Wegmans. Wegmans seems to be the only one bucking the small store trend.
Tell that to Kroger, Harris Teeter and Publix. ALL are building new BIG stores. And Kroger has budgeted big bucks to renovating their older stores.
But I feel like a lot of American consumers actually are tired of having to walk aisle after aisle of 20 different milks and cereals and drinks. They would be just fine with three brands. They don't need 10 or 20 brands. That's why Aldi and Trader Joe's are so popular. Smaller stores and mostly just one brand.
We are at a tipping point where the American consumer values TIME (just give me fewer brands in a smaller store I can get in and out of quickly) over VARIETY (Wegmans for example).
I feel like the era of the big box grocery store is over. This includes Walmart, Kroger, Safeway, etc.
And then there is MONEY. Walfart has like one person manning 30 registers and it takes half an hour to get out. What a pile of crap. People pile in to Walmart believing they are "saving" money. Hey, they probably aren't, if it's food and it's compared to ON SALE items at grocery stores. But.. they THINK they are saving money. And some people will spend a lot of time to save money. And those people often also spend a lot of time to save... a little time. Those are the people that drive like nut balls on the road, then get in to an accident. Or change in to a lane that ends up moving slower. People are illogical!
Here in Texas, there are 3 basic stores: HEB, Walmart, and Target. Some places may also have an Appletree, Albertson, or other store, but most of those have disappeared from this region.
In reverse order, Target strikes me as a company store like that of an oil company or a remote military station. Rows of food that is not really meant for home preparation beyond that of sticking it into a microwave. It may not entirely be like that but that is the feel of it.
Decades ago, I read a Nat'l Geographic story about two men who were kayaking, East to West, across the NW Passage. They landed in Alaska on oil company land. The security jeep took them to the supermarket to buy provisions and it was row after row of baseball caps and potato chips. "Where's the food," they asked? "No one around here cooks. If people want to eat, they go to one of the restaurants or orders delivery." the cashier told them. Target feels like that to me. (the kayakers were set up with a cook in a cafeteria who provided them with flour, butter, sugar, things like that)
Walmart can be good....and it can be bad. On the lesser side, I would not buy beef from there and there can be better selection for fruits and veggies. On the up side, however, it can be the better selection for bulk foods. It is where I buy my powdered milk, where the cheese prices are better, and where I stock up for a camp out. Camp outs or at home, I make out like a bandit for day old bread. The tortilla prices are too high, however, and I would not buy canned meats there.
HEB is where I usually shop. Beef, can goods, produce, dairy other than noted above, tortillas, and so forth, they win out......but as noted above, there can be advantages at times over at Walmart.
No store is perfect and it does help to have some selection even if one has to drive across town.
I love HEB stores. I live in northeast Texas and up here we have Brookshires, but no HEB. The rumor is that HEB and Brookshires have a "gentleman's agreement" not to infringe on each other's territories and if so, I hate that because I prefer HEB over Brookshires. That being said, our local Brookshires is good, and we also have Brookshire's Fresh - which is very similar to Central Market and I LOVE it. So we're doing well up here, but I'd love to see HEB move in and give us some good old fashioned competition. Doubtful though, since Brookshires corporate headquarters are here in Tyler.
We have Aldi, Krogers, Walmart (including the smaller grocery stores), Target, but no HEB. I find that strange.
Our inner cities have become "food deserts" with choices limited to small bodegas and corner stores that sell plenty of overpriced junk food, sodas, candy, liquor, lottery tickets, overpriced salty and sugary snacks, but little or no healthy fruits/ vegetables.
For instance, Ward 8 of Washington D.C. has only one supermarket.
Agreed, though Instacart and other grocery delivery services might help mitigate this problem a bit. Bigger grocery stores benefit from economies of scale which help pass along the cost savings to customers, and Instacart will help make the drawbacks of having fewer but larger grocery stores in an area more bearable.
I shop at Super Target, Sprouts, Tom Thumb, Whole Foods and Central Market (part of H-E-B).
Honestly, I actually enjoy the fact that different stores have varying specialties. Some stores have high quality produce at a lower price (Sprouts), while others have lots of higher end items like good caviar, expensive cuts of meat etc (Central Market). Super Target is good with non-food items and the service is much better than Walmart despite being only marginally more expensive.
What do you think? Some people say we have too many grocery stores, other people say our stores are too big. Then other people say the stores we do have don't have the right selection.
All I know is, there is no perfect store. And I usually have to shop 3-4 different stores every week. Sometimes I want organic French olive oil, sometimes I want Oreos. Sometimes I want fresh halibut, sometimes I want boiled peanuts. Why can't one store have everything?
Why has no one been able to come up with the perfect store? Not too big, not too small, not too expensive. This should not be that hard.
Maybe the solution is no store and buying everything online. That way, no wasted time and trips to the store where you can't find the right selection or price or quality. That's what the "experts" say anyway.
We have precisely the number of stores suggested by the economics of grocery stores. And tomorrow if 500 new ones open or 500 close, I would say the same.
Where I live, we need a few more grocery stores. If I shop on the weekend, the store is so packed it's hard to get through the aisles and lots of shelves are empty. Sometimes I drive across town just so I can shop where it doesn't feel like there's some kind of food shortage.
Can you schedule your shopping for weeknights? Doing that or 9AM weekdays I have the stores to myself.
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