Grocery Store Snob

I would say that one of my happier memories of my childhood (there aren't many) was the smell of my mom's kitchen. That woman knows how to cook. I should be ashamed of myself for not taking the time when I was growing up to learn all I could from her about cooking. Now instead, I have to pay the long distance phone bill for sometimes weekly phone calls for cooking questions. I've even followed her around the country via phone, pulling her off of loading docks to ask questions about cooking. I liked watching her cook, I liked eating the food and I even enjoyed helping her shop for the ingredients. I learned very quickly that she only used certain name brands for certain products that she used in her recipes. And that those name brands sometimes made a difference in the quality. I also gained an appreciation for the grocery stores that we shopped and the grocery stores that we just didn't set foot in.

When I lived in Ohio, we had several different grocery stores to choose from. I mainly did my shopping at one certain one because of the price, cleanliness, coupons they offered and special incentive programs they ran. They also carried the name brands that I had grown up with as a child and recognized as safe. As our ten years went by in Ohio and we continued to move closer and closer to Lake Erie, I continued to shop at that store. The main one I went to had several face lifts and additions through the years. It soon had it's own video store, sushi bar, and Chinese buffet. I spent so much time in that one location that the people at the deli counter and seafood counter knew me by name and always gave the kids special treats. One lady at the deli counter had even looked at my youngest daughter and said, "My, she sure does look like your husband.". That location felt like home to me. Every once and a while, when time was of the essence or we weren't anywhere close to that store, we would stop in the "higher end" grocery store. You know the kind - prices are higher, you don't recognize half the brands in the store or sometimes even the products, they actually count the number of items you have in the speedy checkout lane and frown upon you if you've tried to sneak in that extra item or two. And then, there was the grocery store that after my 10 years in OH, I stepped foot in only one time. I would consider this the "lower end" on the grocery store chain. They rarely had good sales, the store was dirty and you were afraid to approach the deli counter because of the smell.

When we started talking about moving to Pennsyltuckey, one of the first questions I had asked my mother-in-law and my hubby's uncle (who both already live in the area), was the names of the different grocery stores. What I really meant to ask but didn't want to come across as a snob was, "Which ones are the 'higher end'?". I soon became familiar with what I would call your every day grocery store. This would be the one that I would do all of my main shopping for the month - for their sales, convenience of location and so on. And then, I was reintroduced to a grocery store that would make my "higher end" store in OH look like a "lower end" store. This store has been my saving grace. I know it seems silly but in the first few weeks, I went there about 2-3 times a week. Just to walk around, enjoy the ambiance, pick up some sushi for dinner but most of all to enjoy my most favorite treat at the bakery counter, chocolate mousse. I still get one of these every Wednesday night as a treat when my kids are at church. For me, it's the little things that count. This place has everything you could think of - it's own cafe with fresh made exotic sandwiches every day at lunchtime, fabulous fresh seafood and the best cuts of meats at the meat counter, it has a train track in the ceiling in the dairy department (my kids enjoy getting milk and yogurt), a place to weigh and label your own produce, an olive bar and a hummus bar, fresh made sushi - I could go on and on.

But the point of this post, isn't to make you hungry, it is to give you more of a glimpse into what makes me, me. This last week, I made the fatal mistake of stopping into one of those "lower end" stores just to pick up a few quick things. Oh, my. Never will I set foot in that store again. I was greeted with memories of the store back in OH. The odd brands, the dirt and grime on the floor, that strange smell coming from the deli department, the weird color of the meats in the meat department. Yes, I would save about 20-30 cents per item at this store but I have to tell you that I would gladly spend the extra money at my "higher end" store just to walk on clean floors, play with the weight machine in the produce section and stand and look up at the train going by in the dairy section. I like the ambiance.

I am my mother's daughter. There are just some grocery stores you don't set foot in. I am proud to state and admit that yes, I am a grocery store snob.