At the end of 2013, the grocery store that I've shopped at for twenty years closed. It is going to be remodeled into a bigger, two story store with an added pharmacy. The plan is to be open again in ten months, which we all know means a year or longer. I am not happy about this as I liked the smaller, neighborhood store. It was built in 1963 and its layout is vastly different from all of the other stores in its chain. The employees there have known me since before I had children. They have watched my kids grow. They have bantered with me over football. They have ordered me special requests. The bakery made my wedding cake and my girls' first birthday cakes (and most hereafter). The deli people remember my order. The dairy guy looks for me on Mondays to discuss the Steelers. The produce employees know most everything about my life, and the cashiers each have different topics we discuss as they ring me up. The closing of this store has disrupted my life and left me feeling discombobulated.
I live within a two mile radius of four grocery stores. If you drew a square starting at my house, there is a Publix grocery store at each corner. That is, there use to be. Now the southwest corner is empty, stripped of its signage, the interior gutted. I have been to each of the other groceries at one time or another, even when they once belonged to another chain. The southeast corner grocery was closest to my children's private school and was easy to pop in when dropping off or picking up. Kelly once worked at that grocery when she first moved here and it was another company. After that company pulled out of our area, Publix took over the store, remodeled it, and my old branch manager was put in charge of running it. The first time he saw me in the store he hurried over and thanked me for coming. I told him not to get use to seeing me here that I was a true and loyal customer to the old store. The northwest corner grocery is probably the closest to my house, but it is hard to get in and out of and most of us locals sneak in the back way through the Walgreens parking lot. It sits on the street that leads to the beach and during spring time we locals avoid that area. It too was once another chain store that was overtaken and remodeled. I didn't much care for it when it belonged to the other chain. The last corner is probably the farthest away, which isn't saying much as it is right up the street, but it isn't a grocery I used very often. It is the one that is next to a Hallmark store that I go into maybe four times a year and is convenient when I need a smoothie from Tropical Smoothie in the next plaza. The one thing it has going for it in my book is once I left some Hallmark card purchases in the shopping cart after unloading in the parking lot. Several months later an employee found the cards still in the cart and took them over to the Hallmark store. The employee there tracked me down by my name on the receipt and the cards were returned to me. I've never forgotten that.
Now I feel like I'm interviewing Publix stores to see which one will earn my business for the next year. The employees from my old store are scattered, the brunt of them in any of the other three corner stores, the others in stores closer to home. On New Year's Eve I stopped in the store that Kelly once worked in because I happened to be driving by it on my way home from somewhere else. This store has absorbed the customers from our closed store as they both are on the same road. On New Year's Eve it was packed. The layout of the store is odd and I wandered through it irritated, trying to locate item and annoying my daughters by talking about how much I hated the store. I ran into three employees from my old store; my buddy from the bakery, a woman from the deli, and my favorite bagger. The bakery guy was collecting carts from the parking lot and working in unloading. He was not the same happy go-lucky employee having found a vast difference in work ethic with his new co-workers. These co-workers were also not as receiving of the new hires or of the new customer,s and tension was definitely in the air. (At least that is how I saw things when witnessing a few happenings) My little bagger lady, a handicap women I've known for years, almost burst into tears when she saw me as she readied herself for her first day, waiting to punch in at the time clock. She is the one that told me the remodeling workers had already discovered a hiccup in the old store, something about faulty piping. She was very unhappy and looked very lost. I left the store feeling sad.
The next store I tried was the one at the other end of my street. I use this store for the rare times I need a different pharmacy, for when I'm popping into Walgreens, or for getting sandwiches to take to my buddy's house on football days. It is set up a lot like the other store, both previously owned by a different grocery chain, and while both are bright, spacious and inviting I find them anything but. The layout is opposite and twisted from what I am use to. I think the produce is certainly not up to par and the employees not as helpful. I decided that this too was not going to be a grocery I wanted to frequent for the next year.
The last grocery I went into was the one that is farther up the street. It also happens to be the one closest to where my mother is currently in rehab recovering from her latest hospitalization so the first attempt I made was after visiting her. At the deli counter I asked the girl behind it if the store had seen an increase in population with the closing of my store. She said they had that they had also acquired some of that store's employees. She asked if I was from that store and I said yes. She welcomed me to this store and said she hoped that I would enjoy this store. I thought that nice. Later as I went down an aisle looking for black beans, two employees stocking shelves in that aisle asked if I needed help. I mentioned my store closing and we had a conversation on the construction, missing the employees, and familiarity. They welcomed me to this store and told me they thought I would find it my liking and if there was anything I needed to order to just let them know. Hmmm...quite nice. On I went. At the check out when the cashier asked if I had found everything I needed I told her I was seeking out a new store. Ah, she replied, you are from the store that closed recently? She then introduced herself, welcomed me, asked me my name and told me they were happy to have me as a customer. Then she called over the manager who repeated the above and then asked me if I needed help taking my groceries to the car. I left feeling quite happy. The second attempt at this grocery was almost as nice as the first. While in the produce section I lamented to Darcy that the cilantro was always so tired looking at this store. Immediately, an employee in that aisle unboxing produce told me he would look in the back for some more. He disappeared and than reappeared quickly with a whole new batch of cilantro, apologized to me, and replaced the cilantro. Looks like I have found a winner!
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