Monday, November 17, 2008

Disappointment

Our new Kroger opened this weekend. I knew better than to try to go on Saturday because the massive swarm of people would ruin the experience, and I was pretty hyped about the new store. So I waited until about 6pm on Sunday to go.

I should have waited longer.

There was still a massive swarm of people there, but they weren't shopping so much as socializing. With their buggies parked in the aisles. No amount of staring and foot tapping could get them to move. And some of them were employees. Now that set me off. Granted, that wasn't Kroger's fault, but it put in a very grumpy mood from the start.

I was pretty excited that I would finally get to use some of my good coupon deals on stuff that hadn't been stocked at the old store for the past few weeks. Except most of the things I had good coupons for were still missing. Seriously. They'd been open less than 48 hours and were completely out of the hot chocolate we like to buy. And the sugar. And the taco kits. Plenty of other things to buy, just not the things I could get with my good coupons matchups! At least I did get my tomato sauce before those coupons expired this week, but I'm afraid the three cans I bought wiped them out. Sorry.

And finally, just because I'm a nerd I happen to be familiar with the normal price of my regular purchases. I know how much the ground beef I buy costs. Or at least I used to. Apparently it costs an additional 20 cents per pound to ship it across Hwy 80. I haven't decided if the randomly more expensive items are a result of the move or a result of the general price increases we've been seeing, but I had noticed that most of the prices had finally leveled off over the past few months.

Yes, it's a nicer store. Yes, it has a much broader selection of products overall. And yes, I know that after a few more trips the crowds will thin out some and hopefully they'll actually have stuff in stock. And I'll get the new layout figured out so that I can find things without making four trips across the entire store while playing dodge-the-buggies. And the parking situation will hopefully improve. But in the meantime I'm going to miss the old store.

6 comments:

Supermom said...

Our new Kroger out at the rez is so dang nice. I've waited nearly 3 years for that store to open. Sometimes I want to just camp out there. :)

They even have a sushi bar that the Dogwood Kroger doesn't.

Takes very little to please me.

Susan said...

Yeah, ours is the same design. They have sushi, but not my hot chocolate! That's just... wrong.

Sandi said...

I stopped in there briefly on my lunch break today but didn't have time to look around. They did have a big selection on the organic aisle, and I hear the international sections are great.

From the Doghouse said...

You're supposed to dodge the other buggies?

Guess that explains why I keep getting those looks.

Vroom, vroom ...

black betty said...

i'm not gonna lie...i've actually rammed my buggy into another buggy to move it with the lady standing there chit-chattin' (my huffs and puffs were ignored far too long). let's just say it went over like a turd in a swimming pool...BUT she got the point and shut the h*ll up!!! LOL!!!!

The Topiary Cow said...

Ah, that was you, Doghouse?

(Topiary rubbing her dented bits)

Moo!