I recently changed grocery stores. This is probably not of much interest to you unless you market grocery stores, but I did it for a number of reasons. The new store has more products I like, it’s smaller and closer to my home, and it’s in the same shopping plaza as a liquor store and my bank. (Note to Americans – In all Canadian provinces except Quebec you cannot buy wine in the grocery store, or anyplace outside of the liquor store. Pain. In. The. Posterior.) If I forget my re-usable bags they use paper instead of plastic, and the staff is very smiley.
Deciding that I like one grocery store better than the other is hardly earth-shattering. However, I feel a little guilty. I shopped at my old grocery store for over 6 years, from the time that we first moved into this house. I took my newborns there, and the staff knew them and commented on their growth. I had a relationship with that store, in many ways. But their parking lot is awful and the store is big and overwhelming and the don’t carry large jugs of organic milk.
Photo credit buck82 on Flickr.
It’s funny how wrapped up my identity can become in the place that I buy toilet paper. I feel almost as if shopping at Store X instead of Store Y says something about the kind of person I am. The store I choose is about the food I eat and the community I live in, and both of these are extremely important things. It’s also about my money and what I choose to spend it on. While I know that store preference is subjective and not values-based, it still implies something to me.
Photo credit steev-o on Flickr.
Grocery stores vary with where you live. In urban areas stores are small, but you can find a wide variety of specialty stores, too. Places that sell only nuts, but the best nuts you’ve ever eaten, or exotic foods without a single recognizable letter on them. Here in the suburbs the stores are big and the parking lots are bigger. A single grocery store is outfitted to look like a bunch of smaller specialty shops all put together, with a ‘cheese shoppe’ and a ‘butcher’ and a ‘patisserie’. One-stop shopping is the aspiration, but we like the illusion that it’s somehow fancier than the massive barn it really is. In rural settings the stores get smaller, again, and people may have to make long trips to stock up on certain items.
Photo credit Tim Murtaugh on Flickr.
If stores carry different food in different packaging for different prices, doesn’t that say something about a place? The way that people acquire and handle food is fundamental. The value that we assign to what we eat, and our relationship to it, is reflected in our grocery stores. For example, do we buy something that looks like a chicken, or do we buy chicken nuggets? Is there more store space devoted to pet food than vegetables? If we are what we eat, then our grocery stores matter.
Do you apply special weight to your choice of grocery store? Or, do you think I am blowing the significance of grocery store allegiance way out of proportion? Please share!
I love to visit grocery stores when I travel – I just like to see how different they are from one place to another. I currently don't like my grocery store at all, but I keep going there because it's so close to my house. I can walk there! So it's hard to justify going anywhere farther away even though I dislike many aspects of the store.
Kind of off topic, but when I was teaching overseas I heard about another teacher in a small town in Korea. She noticed that all the items she bought at her local store had the same tag above them, written in Korean of course. Finally she asked one of the Korean teachers at her school to come shopping with her, to find out what the tag said. Turns out the store was using her to sell their wares! The tag translated to "the foreign teacher buys this" or something to that effect. I thought that was priceless! Imagine how the store owners would have felt if she moved her business on somewhere else. Although, my friend that knew her said she was pretty creeped out that the whole town knew what feminine products she used
My hubby does the grocery shopping for the most part and he shops at several different stores depending on the flyers/specials. He never goes shopping at more than one store at a time (which is a waste of time/gas/etc), he just plans his purchases according to what we need/what is on sale, and how much time he has to travel to said store. We are vegetarian and we try to buy organic as much as we can and I believe he does an awesome job of getting the best bang for our buck.
I totally agree with you that where you shop has significance. I struggle with this because I have to find a balance between where I want to shop and where I can afford to shop.
We have a great Farmers Market and a couple natural markets here. They sell local meat and milk and seasonal local produce (they also ship in produce, because Alberta doesn’t have much for produce beyond potatoes and carrots).
But since I have been on maternity leave, there is no way we can afford to shop there. And with the cost of Day care there is no way we will be able to afford it when I go back to work.
Instead, we shop at the big box Grocery store. They do have a big natural section (even some bulk organic) and a line of ‘more natural’ meats without antibiotics or hormones. Not ideal, but better then nothing. They also carry many of the brands found at the ‘natural’ grocery stores for 25-50% less.
The problem? Other then the typical ‘big box store’ complaints? They don’t carry Organic milk in the 4L size we go through weekly and they don’t carry organic cream at all. So I have to make a separate trip to the natural market each week.
Where our food comes from is important to my husband and I and so is where we shop. I don’t think the stuff at the farmers market should be less expensive, it is worth it and the farmers worked hard to make it. But it is unfortunate that it is not affordable for the average family.
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I so know what you mean!! We have (had) a Loeb walking distance from our house. We liked it, the prices were good, the fresh produce nice, a good selection etc etc. Then, Metro came in, rebranded the Loeb, and the products on the shelf changed, the prices went up, and the selection went way, way down. Their BBQ chickens also went from yum to yuck.
I had walked to that grocery store while off on mat leave with my son, got our groceries, got home, and had an “outing” in nice weather, stroller and all. I liked that it was a smaller place, that the staff all knew us, and the LCBO was right beside it, and the prices were reasonable compared to Loblaws (a much further walk away, not do-able in the winter). Over across the way was also a Shoppers Drug Mart, and it made for a one stop shop when we needed.
I was devastated that we were no longer able to shop at this store within our grocery budget (yes really… the prices jumped several dollars in some cases!) and I’ll admit it, I felt sad beyond belief that this had happened. Now we car-ride it to the nearest store (Loblaws) to shop within our budget. I miss walking for groceries. I liked having “our grocery store” and being able to count on the little things. Now our local store is a big box that exhausts us when we do grocery runs.
So no, having allegiance to a store is normal, I think.
Oh, and in Ontario, btw, you can buy wine in the grocery stores. Most big stores have “Ontario wine” kiosks inside them now.
.-= Caroline´s last post ..Where I’ve Been – Part 7 =-.
I’m pretty sure Alberta has private liquor stores. I remember seeing a “Great Canadian Liquor Store” attached to a Superstore there.
But yes, I am all about the convenience. We buy our meat and eggs from farms so I don’t actually buy a whole lot at the grocery store.
We have 3 large chain grocery stores all in a row. We also have a couple of farmers markets, which I do shop at if I want something specific. But for now, I primarily shop at a large grocery store, the expensive one (cover’s eyes). But ONLY because they have great sales and add that with coupons, most items are only pennies or a couple of dollars. So I go there for the sales and stock up on the items I use. I would prefer organic but for now, my wallet makes most of the decisions.
OH and here in NH, we have wine/beer in the grocery stores, but the liquor stores are all over the place. You can even find them on the major highways.
.-= Sara´s last post ..___ for granted. =-.
Alberta does have private liquore stores, but they are still seperate from regular grocery and convience stors. And yes…Superstore does have their very own liquore store, as does Safeway, Save On Foods and Costco.
More than a year ago I changed how and where we shopped. It is difficult living in Alberta to find good quality, fresh produce all year round. This is one of the reasons preserving became so important to me. Frozen and canned goods done by my own hands makes me feel better come the winter when produce isles are slim.
Luckily it is easy to find really great organic meat in our area. It is definately more expensive, but we eat less meat now and so things have a way of balancing out. Farmers markets are great too, especially for root veggies, baking and preserves. When it comes to a actual store though, I have been spending more time at a local Co-Op grocery store. I love that there are little signs telling me which farm the potatoes came from, or that their instore sausage was made from pork just down the road. They are also one of the only stores around that is currently stocking BC tomatoes. One of the choices I made awhile ago was to shop as close to home as possible. This means there are many times that we have gone without tomatoes. Actually, it means we are eating more seasonally in this house. Which, I think is a good thing. There are still bananas in this house though, and the odd kiwi too. But, in general, my fruits and veggies come from Canada, and hopefully from Alberta first.
I was shoping at Superstore a bit ago and I love that they have ‘free from’ meat. What I didn’t love though, was the farm the meat came from was in Montana. I probably would have bought the meat, had it been from a Canadian farm…one even just down the road.
Living rurally does have it’s challenges. I don’t have easy access to anything. Everything is a thought out trip. And, saving money is very important to me. But, I would rather spend a little more on healthy, nutrious food now, rather than worry about spending it on health and dental care down the road. It is just a matter of choosing where you want to spend your money.
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I don’t think it’s strange to have a favorite grocery store. I shopped at Cub Foods and loved the prices and their produce section was fantastic! I drove out of my way to shop there by passes several other grocery stores. When our Cub Foods closed I almost cried because I missed it so.
.-= Condo Blues´s last post ..POMegranate Juice is Wonderful! =-.
I know where you are coming from with big stores. I hate to shop in the big superstores simply because it takes forever to do your shopping. I mean seriously how many different types of chopped tomatoes in cans are there? I try to shop as local as possible and I am lucky that we have a fruit/veg shop on the high street, a co-op and an Aldi. A short car ride away is a Waitrose or what I call “guilty pleasure shopping” lovely, the right size of supermarket but quite expensive. Still I go there regularly because the stock the stuff I use in cooking.
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When I first moved to our little town, I went to the grocery store closest to us. It is open 24 hours, has a huge produce section, great product selection, wide isles, car carts (for the kids) and the cashier’s are rarely lined up because they always have adequate staff scheduled. These are all important factor’s for me. It’s my favorite store but my husband find’s it expensive so I’ve been trying to ‘look for deals’ and therefore will go to a No Name chain to save a dollar on milk etc. I have recently started going to a Halal meat market as well and they have excellent deals on meat there. In the summer we go to the farmers market as much as possible. So I can completely understand an allegiance of sorts as I do have my preference. But lately I am actually travelling a little farther and enduring longer line ups to save money.
I totally get it!
“my” grocery store moved to a bigger and fancier building accross the street and I felt cheated. The layout that I knew like the back of my hand was gone, the managers that I used to be able to chat with were lost in this huge new space, and there were a bunch of STRANGERS shopping in the brand new store just because it was bigger and newer.
I am loyal to this grocery store for 2 reasons:
1) the organic products are often cheaper than the regular things (and come in large sizes).
2) It is the closest on to where I live
But now that the loyalty is established there are other benefits I recognize too:
It is a small, local franchise (which I like)
Knowing the cashiers in a familiar way gets great service.
I know exactly where things are which is very comforting to me.
I know the product quality is predictable… (unlike the time I got food poisoning from immitation crab from Superstore — oooooh that was awful!) I KNOW that I have to check the dates on dried goods at my store, but that’s okay, because I am expecting it.
I can read their flyer easily and know if it’s a good deal or not.
NO POINTS/MEMBERSHIP CARDS!!!! (I hate those things)
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Before kids I had no issues about hitting a varietyof stores based on the flyers and what sort of deals they had. Plus there was always items I liked I could ONLY get at one store.
Now with 2 kids I am about conveinence and price. Generally I can find everything I want at a decent price in one store so that’s where I go.
My biggest pet peeve is when they reorganize the store. I will JUST get my shopping routine down and they go and mess it all up! Argh
.-= Carrie´s last post ..Kid Swap Meet time! =-.
I was pretty devoted to one store since I started shopping for myself (regardless of the province I was living in). Then I found a local organic food delivery service and that changed everything. They deliver organic milk and dairy, fresh local produce and free range meats. It’s so much easier and the food is so much better than my local store that we haven’t looked back.
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The management at my local Save-on recently changed and I’ve been growing more and more dissatisfied with it. In my particular burb there are two large stores and one teeny one. Save-on was the best of the bunch for price and selection and so for 13 years (!!) I’ve been shopping at that store. I recognize everyone that works there. They ask me where my kids are if I don’t have them with me. But they also stopped carrying pesto and a few other brands of food I usually use so I’ve been thinking of moving on…and out…I’ll have to drive to another burb to get to another kind of store and that’s my hold-back. So far.
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I understand what you’re saying, but most of the stores around here make it pretty difficult to stay loyal. I love the Farm Boy, and it’s right near the school, so I go there once a week for produce and sometimes meat, but the bakery is way overpriced. I go to Loblaws because my gym is upstairs, but they keep rearranging things (remember the saga of the canned peaches?) and they have the self-checkouts and not enough actual cashiers now. We had a Loeb I could walk to that’s now also a Metro — I still go there when I want a walk and I only need a couple of things. The best is the summer when we have an organic farmer just down the road.
.-= Allison McCaskill´s last post ..************Dream a (weird) little dream =-.
I deal with this sort of angst by shopping at three different stores.
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My big thing is trying to stay out of big box stores and shopping at local stores. I feel better buying non local items if at least the store is local. We shop about an hour away from here because I’m in a small rural town where all you have is Wal-Mart, discount stores (which sell pretty much just packaged crap) and one small grocery store that has little to no organic or local food.
Anyway we only shop once a month and make a date out of it by eating out (something that is pretty rare for us). We shop at two small stores, one natural food store that has almost everything we need but a small amount of meat and not a whole lot of local items, this store is cheaper so we get most things there. After that store we fill in with the other natural food store, it’s focus is local and being in Oklahoma local food meats LOTS of meat. So we get almost all our meat their as well as some other local items.
Shopping local makes me feel better about the money I’m spending and using small stores means nicer staff. I also love that I can contact the stores when they don’t have an item I want and they almost always get it for me!
.-= Lisa @Retro Housewife Goes Green´s last post ..A Wake-Up Story =-.
I have a strong preference for a particular store. They’re a chain, but a smaller one. But my favorite part is that they don’t make you carry those accursed cards to get the sale price. They have a sale, you get the price. No loyalty or any other kinds of card to clutter my wallet or key chain. I like that.
And their prices tend to be better anyhow.
.-= Stephanie – Home with the Kids´s last post ..How to Decide When to Trust That Work at Home Product Review =-.
I have no choice, but I’ll tell you about my grocery store anyhow. The nearest grocery store (15kms away) is catered to tourists (local specialties, ready to eat foods, really fresh vegetables only on Saturdays) and has a terrible stocking policy so that when demand is high they run out of the product in 2 days (ice cream in summer). BUT they have those DIY check out points, and I love not having to wait in line. Alternatively I drive 30 kms away where there’s a proper wonderful store.
(PS weird wine policy, how about choosing a grocery store in Quebec?)
.-= Francesca´s last post ..Mending with Nonna’s magic egg =-.
I just switched from one big chain to another big chain (updating my “shopping map” in the process), because the local branch of the old chain just didn’t have enough selection. We need something that’s open really late because one of us usually does the shopping after the kids are in bed, which limits the store type. Now and again, I’ll stop by Whole Paycheck for something special, but the chain has a decent organic section.
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I’d never really given this much thought until one day a pollster called on the phone. I agreed to answer his questions and an HOUR later (yes, an HOUR) I realized I had definite preferences in where I shopped, why, and what images I had of the markets in my area. (By the way, I didn’t know what the poll was about prior to agreeing to it.)
What I discovered is that I have logged in my brain the pros and cons of at least 5 different stores in which to purchase food. Some are better for produce, others for meat, and others for household items. And that’s where my allegiance lies: in a particular department, not the store as a whole.
But I’m with you: I prefer the smaller stores and whenever possible I’ll go with less choice in order to have an easier in-and-out experience in general.
.-= Jessica – This is Worthwhile´s last post ..G-O-T-E-A-M! =-.
we recently changed grocery stores too, and believe me I considered all the pros and cons to the point where my husband got totally fed up and declared that he would take over the shopping if I didn’t stop pestering him over the store choice! We actually went to a larger store for a couple of reasons, first is price. I was paying $6 for 4L of milk at smaller store and $4 at the larger store. Also at the smaller but closer store there would be days I would go in in the afternoon and they would be all out of chicken or bread or other really common items. I also found the floors are kept cleaner and I’m always seeing someone cleaning at the larger superstore whereas at the smaller store there would just be a pylon on top of the mess! I realize they can’t afford the manpower to get to this stuff right away but c’mon does it really take that long to swipe a mop over a dropped jar of salsa? Anyway, I’m much happier now even though I have a longer drive and a less personal atmosphere.
Smaller can be better when it comes to grocery stores. I hate the large stores because by the time I get to the freezer aisle I HAVE TO GET OUT as my kids are driving me nuts.
I am polygamous when it comes to my grocery store relationships. I love the employee owned grocery store 20 minutes away and buy most of my groceries there. Trader Joe’s supplies 1-2 months of frozen veggies and various other goodies. And the local supermarket is where I go for odds and ends. Target is my friend with benefits, I go there once in awhile if I need groceries and stuff. But since I moved it’s not so far away.
I do not go to three stores in one weeks because of coupons and deals. That’s where I draw the line.
I agree with you. I prefer to shop at the smaller grocery stores, where there is less selection of packaged, processed foods. Whether they have quality meat, and a good selection of fresh fruits and vegetables is most important to me. I tend to shop at the smaller, “health” type food stores because my daughter is also allergic to dairy, so I am more careful about my purchases. However, I don’t seem to have loyalty to one particular store… probably because we have moved around quite a bit.
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