Grocery Shop 'til You Drop
Last weekend, I went up to Wisconsin for a few days. I got to cross two big items off my bucket list - going to a Wisconsin Badgers game at Camp Randall (not to mentioning jumping around) and going to a Green Bay Packers game at Lambeau Field. While those were the two main reasons for the trip, there was one other thing that I ended up doing that I really enjoyed: grocery shopping.
Last fall, my parents went to Wisconsin for a wedding. While there, they came across a grocery store named Woodman's, a supermarket chain with locations in Wisconsin and Illinois. Two things that parents mentioned to me about Woodman's was the sheer size of it and the incredible amount of selection in the store. When I checked it out this past Sunday night, it turns out they were right on both counts - and then some!
Going to Woodman's truly was quite the experience. Never in my life had I seen such a wide selection of ice cream, frozen pizzas, sodas, and every food and drink imaginable. There also were flavors of common foods that I had never heard of before - Chocolate Twinkies, Twinkie Ice Cream, chocolate flavored whipped cream, and even cool whip with brownie bits in it! Okay, reading that past sentence sounds like a giant sugar rush and crash in itself, but that is all just to say Woodman's has a whole lot of selection -- and it definitely didn't disappoint.
Since moving to Houston, one thing I've found a lot of joy and fun in is in grocery shopping. It sounds silly, but everyone has his or her own quirks. The thing about grocery shopping is the selections can completely vary from store to store and each store has its own style and "taste" to it - pun not intended. The fun thing about going down the aisles of different stores is just seeing all the stuff on the shelves and being amazed that it actually exists. Somewhere along the way, people decided that flavors like Rocky Road, Strawberry Shortcake, Kettle Corn, and Pistachios would make for great Oreo flavors. Apparently, the Original and Double Stuf flavors just aren't enough. This doesn't just apply to Oreos either - all one has to do is look at all the different flavors of Doritos or Pringles.
Grocery shopping, of course, goes beyond finding ten different flavors of cookies or chips though. It also means learning that things like cultured milk, jazz apples, Icelandic yogurt (move over, Greek yogurt), carrot cake muffin bars, and pumpkin-flavored everything exist. Or, if you shop at Central Market during Green Chile fest, just about everything from cornbread to meat is infused with green chiles. When people say that variety is the spice of life, they should probably clarify and say that variety is the pumpkin spice of life. Through it all, there's something about the whole experience that oddly makes it quite enjoyable.
When it comes to walking around stores, there can be times it can be maddeningly funny, like when a store labels an item at one price but now gives it a brand new price that's...higher. One time when I was at Target, the listed price for a pack of 2 pie slices was originally marked at $2.29, but it was on sale and had a new low price of...2 for $5, or $2.50 a box. Nobody's perfect - including grocery stores.
Why do I enjoy grocery stores and shopping so much? Well, it's one of those "small joys" of life for me. Getting to walk around the store and see all the different kinds and variations of different kinds of food is fun. There's a lot to choose from between the entrance of a store to the checkout line. It also probably helps that I grew up in Richmond, where there's a surprisingly competitive grocery market these days - Tom Leonard's, Food Lion, Kroger, Publix, Walmart, Target, Aldi, Wegmans, Sam's Club, Costco, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and so on. And if we're talking about Richmond grocery stores, none can top the greatest of them all, Ukrop's. Though Ukrop's only lives on in the form of a bakery now, it will always be the best of all Richmond grocery chains.
Now that I'm in Houston, there's a lot of similar grocery stores (Kroger, Walmart, Target, Costco, Trader Joe's, etc.), but there are also different ones - H-E-B, Central Market, Fiesta, and so on. And if one goes all over the country, there's different grocery chains in each region, chains that people from different areas revere - Wegmans in New York, H-E-B in Texas, Publix in Florida, and so on.
At the end of the day, everyone grocery shops. Although services like Instacart make it easier, to me, nothing beats being at the grocery store itself. There's just something about physically being there and being present. And since living in Houston, going at 8 AM on a Saturday morning is a nice way to start the weekend - there's plenty of selection and the crowds haven't picked up yet. It's a small joy, but life's about finding joys in even the most minute of tasks like grocery shopping. I don't know what next weekend looks like, but I know that I can pencil in grocery shopping on Saturday at 8 AM. And the beauty of it is, I just never know what I might find there.
Last fall, my parents went to Wisconsin for a wedding. While there, they came across a grocery store named Woodman's, a supermarket chain with locations in Wisconsin and Illinois. Two things that parents mentioned to me about Woodman's was the sheer size of it and the incredible amount of selection in the store. When I checked it out this past Sunday night, it turns out they were right on both counts - and then some!
Going to Woodman's truly was quite the experience. Never in my life had I seen such a wide selection of ice cream, frozen pizzas, sodas, and every food and drink imaginable. There also were flavors of common foods that I had never heard of before - Chocolate Twinkies, Twinkie Ice Cream, chocolate flavored whipped cream, and even cool whip with brownie bits in it! Okay, reading that past sentence sounds like a giant sugar rush and crash in itself, but that is all just to say Woodman's has a whole lot of selection -- and it definitely didn't disappoint.
You truly can't make these Oreo flavors up
Woodman's was a gracious Hostess to many different food variations!
Grocery shopping, of course, goes beyond finding ten different flavors of cookies or chips though. It also means learning that things like cultured milk, jazz apples, Icelandic yogurt (move over, Greek yogurt), carrot cake muffin bars, and pumpkin-flavored everything exist. Or, if you shop at Central Market during Green Chile fest, just about everything from cornbread to meat is infused with green chiles. When people say that variety is the spice of life, they should probably clarify and say that variety is the pumpkin spice of life. Through it all, there's something about the whole experience that oddly makes it quite enjoyable.
When it comes to walking around stores, there can be times it can be maddeningly funny, like when a store labels an item at one price but now gives it a brand new price that's...higher. One time when I was at Target, the listed price for a pack of 2 pie slices was originally marked at $2.29, but it was on sale and had a new low price of...2 for $5, or $2.50 a box. Nobody's perfect - including grocery stores.
Why do I enjoy grocery stores and shopping so much? Well, it's one of those "small joys" of life for me. Getting to walk around the store and see all the different kinds and variations of different kinds of food is fun. There's a lot to choose from between the entrance of a store to the checkout line. It also probably helps that I grew up in Richmond, where there's a surprisingly competitive grocery market these days - Tom Leonard's, Food Lion, Kroger, Publix, Walmart, Target, Aldi, Wegmans, Sam's Club, Costco, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and so on. And if we're talking about Richmond grocery stores, none can top the greatest of them all, Ukrop's. Though Ukrop's only lives on in the form of a bakery now, it will always be the best of all Richmond grocery chains.
Now that I'm in Houston, there's a lot of similar grocery stores (Kroger, Walmart, Target, Costco, Trader Joe's, etc.), but there are also different ones - H-E-B, Central Market, Fiesta, and so on. And if one goes all over the country, there's different grocery chains in each region, chains that people from different areas revere - Wegmans in New York, H-E-B in Texas, Publix in Florida, and so on.
At the end of the day, everyone grocery shops. Although services like Instacart make it easier, to me, nothing beats being at the grocery store itself. There's just something about physically being there and being present. And since living in Houston, going at 8 AM on a Saturday morning is a nice way to start the weekend - there's plenty of selection and the crowds haven't picked up yet. It's a small joy, but life's about finding joys in even the most minute of tasks like grocery shopping. I don't know what next weekend looks like, but I know that I can pencil in grocery shopping on Saturday at 8 AM. And the beauty of it is, I just never know what I might find there.
In the spirit of Fall, an ice cream flavor for Pumpkin Spice lovers
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