Do you enjoy grocery shopping? I do, sometimes. There are times when Lillian and I have a blast. But in general, it's just one of those chores that we all have to do.
We have three main grocery stores we frequent. It seems kind of silly at times to have three grocery stores, but they each carry different things, and they each have some different quirks.
The one we hit first is a place called, cleverly, Grocery Outlet. It is what it says, an outlet store. When we go, we are certain of a couple of things. We know they'll have canned stuff and frozen stuff and things in jars. They'll have soap and pizza and LOTS of sausage.
And they'll have the best prices we can get down here.
The catch, of course, is that it's kind of a crapshoot what you're going to find there. Yes, they'll have soap, but will they have the kind I can use (I'm psychotically finicky, it's really awful, you should send Lillian sympathy cards), and will they have the pizza Ryan likes or the cardboard stuff, or will they have stacks and stacks of things that none of us can eat?
It's always a kind of treasure hunt, and it can be lots of fun. They're also the first grocery store in the area to have bags of food that we can buy to be donated to the homeless and to shelters, which we do. It's not much, but it is something we can and have done.
The next one we go to is Winco. And we have to psychologically brace ourselves for that. It's a barn, a huge warehouse, and as I have noted in previous posts, it's frequently filled with idiots. I've reached the point of loving to go at 5:00 in the morning. Sure they're stocking and I have to dance around forklifts, but that's better than screaming kids eating their way through the store.
And when did it become okay to steal like that? What are we teaching our kids, when we let them eat everything they can (especially in the bulk candy section) without a blink?
Again, there are some things that we can get there that we can't get elsewhere, and the prices are better than the major chains, but not as spiffy as Grocery Outlet. We can pretty much count on what we can find there, brand-wise. It isn't as haphazard as the Outlet.
The brand name store we hit is Safeway. It's closer than the other standard ones, and we have developed a rapport with some of the staff at the Good one. There's a Bad one that's closer, but it's, well, bad. It doesn't have the same amenities as the good one and it seems dingier. Kind of scraping by somehow.
One of the cool things that we found at Safeway, though, is a type of corn tortilla that's higher in protein and is yummy for those of us who are diabetic, because it fits our lifestyles.
What's the point of this post? Not a thing. It's just what's on my mind.
So, do remember to vote tomorrow. Just because it's an off-year election doesn't mean your part isn't important. And for those of you here in Washington State, you know you've done the right thing, haven't you? If only because you don't want to be completely cut out of Nicola Griffith's life. She's said, and she's serious, that if you didn't vote in this election, you are no longer welcome in her house or her virtual space.
So vote.
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