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This may seem like a dumb thing to focus on, but here goes.
I've lived in basically three different areas in my adult life - Des Moines, Indianapolis, and my hometown in northeast TN. Iowa and Indiana are big ag states, Tennessee is not. Both of the Midwestern areas were bigger and wealthier than where I am in Tennessee.
This seems to translate over into the local grocery selection. When I lived in Des Moines, there were tons of different options - Fareway and HyVee in the mainline grocery segment, Super Target along with Walmart in the hypermarket segment, Whole Foods and Trader Joe's on the upper end, and various ethnics and specialty shops to fill in gaps. There were also Costco and Sam's.
Indianapolis had even more selection. Kroger had several extremely fancy stores called "Kroger Marketplace" that are the best stores I've ever been in. There were even more offerings at the high end - Fresh Thyme, Earthfare (an Asheville based Whole Foods knockoff), and The Fresh Market. Aldi on the low end. Super Target, Meijer, and Walmart on the hypermarket end. There were two Costcos and two Sam's within 10-20 minutes of where I lived.
I moved back to TN two years ago. No Super Target within a hundred miles. For the hypermarkets, it's Walmart only. The area has several mostly rundown Krogers with a poor selection (only one is nice), Aldi (just came in the past couple of years), Sam's, and is otherwise dominated by a regional chain called Food City and Walmart. Food City and Walmart are basically your only choices in most of the smaller towns and even parts of the cities. Prices are high and selection is poor.
Our farmer's markets are downright poor compared to the ones in the Midwest I've been to, even smaller towns. Fairly routine items that grow well here, like raspberries and blackberries, are simply not available. Local meat is hard to track down. There is a good "farm store," but they just sell staples - corn, green beans, cucumbers, and tomatoes. Strawberries, various, squash, and blueberries are occasionally available. If I can't find it here, I'm loading up the 61 qt. cooler and driving to Asheville or Knoxville.
I went to Raleigh a couple of weeks ago. I was basically in food heaven again. Harris-Teeter and Publix are both cheaper than Food City. Selection was much better. Sprouts was terrific. The Carrboro farmers market was amazing.
How important is food selection when you're looking at places?
I need to look around and see how far I will need to drive for groceries, but I don't need upscale fancy stores with clever decorating and lots of high end prepared food. I cook from scratch and a bag of flour from Walmart is just the same as the same brand of flour from the pretty upscale store ( that costs twice as much). Moving to a new area always involves finding new places to shop.
I went to Raleigh a couple of weeks ago. I was basically in food heaven again. Harris-Teeter and Publix are both cheaper than Food City. Selection was much better. Sprouts was terrific. The Carrboro farmers market was amazing.
Raleigh also has a number of CSAs that will deliver great produce directly to your door. Even some varieties that are tough to find in stores.
SO expects breakfast, packed lunch and dinner. I expect him to bring home the bacon with me generally bringing home the grits.
Do I miss DC? Oh yes! Do I miss AL? Oh yes, yes! Then came TX, now there is OK.
If you can relocate based on grocery stores and farmers markets - take your pick.
Chick-Fil-a
Good pizza place
Long Horn - or a good steak place
Good breakfast place
Good Mexican place
Library
Hardware store - not just a big box - on the lines of an Ace or True Value.... they generally have an "old guy" who can tell you how to snake a drain or fix this or that without calling in a professional..
I 'assume" there is a Walmart within 10 miles of everyplace so that's not on the check list. There are other places I look for - not that I can think of off the top of my head.
When I decided to leave Atlanta in 2002, I came up with a list of things that I had to look for... I know I saw it the other day. I'll see if I can find it.
This may seem like a dumb thing to focus on, but here goes.
I've lived in basically three different areas in my adult life - Des Moines, Indianapolis, and my hometown in northeast TN. Iowa and Indiana are big ag states, Tennessee is not. Both of the Midwestern areas were bigger and wealthier than where I am in Tennessee.
This seems to translate over into the local grocery selection. When I lived in Des Moines, there were tons of different options - Fareway and HyVee in the mainline grocery segment, Super Target along with Walmart in the hypermarket segment, Whole Foods and Trader Joe's on the upper end, and various ethnics and specialty shops to fill in gaps. There were also Costco and Sam's.
Indianapolis had even more selection. Kroger had several extremely fancy stores called "Kroger Marketplace" that are the best stores I've ever been in. There were even more offerings at the high end - Fresh Thyme, Earthfare (an Asheville based Whole Foods knockoff), and The Fresh Market. Aldi on the low end. Super Target, Meijer, and Walmart on the hypermarket end. There were two Costcos and two Sam's within 10-20 minutes of where I lived.
I moved back to TN two years ago. No Super Target within a hundred miles. For the hypermarkets, it's Walmart only. The area has several mostly rundown Krogers with a poor selection (only one is nice), Aldi (just came in the past couple of years), Sam's, and is otherwise dominated by a regional chain called Food City and Walmart. Food City and Walmart are basically your only choices in most of the smaller towns and even parts of the cities. Prices are high and selection is poor.
Our farmer's markets are downright poor compared to the ones in the Midwest I've been to, even smaller towns. Fairly routine items that grow well here, like raspberries and blackberries, are simply not available. Local meat is hard to track down. There is a good "farm store," but they just sell staples - corn, green beans, cucumbers, and tomatoes. Strawberries, various, squash, and blueberries are occasionally available. If I can't find it here, I'm loading up the 61 qt. cooler and driving to Asheville or Knoxville.
I went to Raleigh a couple of weeks ago. I was basically in food heaven again. Harris-Teeter and Publix are both cheaper than Food City. Selection was much better. Sprouts was terrific. The Carrboro farmers market was amazing.
How important is food selection when you're looking at places?
Perhaps a little unfair to compare grocery store options in Indiananapolis (863,000)
.................................................. ...............................Des Moines (210,000)
.................................................. ...............................Johnson City ( 65,000)
Because I grew up rurally, and grocery shopping was always an inconvenient production, and it was virtually impossible to "pop out and grab something" you needed at random, I do have a rule of thumb that I would like some type of grocery store of size within a mile or two. But that's really my only hard and fast.
More than a couple grocery stores with a variety of foods is very important to me. For one thing, if there is more than one or two major stores in the area, there will be competition and that means lower prices. Having access to lower cost foods is as important to me as any other bill I'll be paying.
I do like a large grocery store with a lot of variety, because there are so many recipes I want to try. I remember when I was in the Twin Cities and couldn't find dry salami anywhere. I had to practically go to a specialty store to get it. I'll tell my mom (who lives there) about simple recipes to try and she can't do them because she can't find things like capers or kiwis or things like that.
I love the Farmer's Markets in my area, but they are super expensive. So unless I found one with reasonable prices, I wouldn't really care about them. Especially if I start my own garden.
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Important things on the list
