One of the most popular Back Talk topics is grocery stores. Whenever we have a supermarket post, it’s one of the best read and most commented on. In fact, I was working on a grocery store project for the blog to run later this year when I saw Dallas’ Only Daily Newspaper had done a consumer-friendly survey story about grocery stores. (As opposed to its usual rankings story, which runs every quarter or so and discusses the hard-hitting topic of market share.)
Grocery stores are actually a hobby of mine, and I have written about them for magazines and newspapers. I try to visit one whenever I travel, and have been in stores throughout the U.S., Europe and Chile. I even went to a store in mid-town Manhattan a few years ago in search of David McCallum (too long a story to repeat here). The best I ever saw was in Spain — a hypermarket of epic proportions.
The News’ story, though quite useful, doesn’t address why we are so fascinated with grocery stores. After all, we don’t cook anymore, or so the experts say. If that’s the case, and all we’re doing is buying prepared food, then one store should be as good as the other. Yet advocates — or non-advocates — of each chain are especially passionate. I shop at Kroger, but others here have insisted Tom Thumb is better.
This is something that the chains don’t realize. They are so consumed with cutting costs to keep pace with Wal-Mart (which fared poorly in The News’ survey in everything but prices) that they forget grocery stores are about more than price. If you can’t find the brands you want, then you aren’t going back, no matter how cheap everything else is.
