Going to the Grocery Store

Going to the grocery store for us Olson's can be a chaotic or delightful or some-combination-thereof time, depending on circumstance. We are blessed to live five doors down from the nearest store, Hank's, which has been a boon in time of sudden need. (Missing an ingredient in the middle of cooking dinner? No problem. Sprinting to the store, finding and paying for said ingredient, and sprinting back takes less than ten minutes. Yes, I'm speaking from experience.) And it's a boon several times a month, too, in slightly less urgent times.

It's also been great fun to go to Hank's on the occasional, special morning to get doughnuts and eat them in the little booth area. We have members who work there, and we almost always run into people we know--the perks or the downside of living in a small town! A downside only on a bad hair day :). We also love the ceiling tiles that droop, the old linoleum, the feeling of being back in time when we're in there--I'm always reminded of going to the Piggly Wiggly with my grandma when we visit Hank's. We LOVE Hank's!

The other grocery store in town, Coburn's, also has perks we enjoy. I enjoy their Super Saver coupons tre-men-dous-ly. And the lady in the bakery almost always comes out with M&M cookies for the boys, which is a treat for them! And they have a drive up, where you can pull up in baking sun or freezing cold and someone else loads your groceries into your car. This hasn't ceased to be novelty with me in the six years we've lived here!

But now change is a-foot. This week, Coburn's opened a new prototype store on the outskirts of town, and we made sure to visit the very first morning it was open. (I rode by during my bike ride last week.) Papa had gotten a sneak-peak tour during Kiwanis a week or so ago, so he told us the impressive statistics he found out: 32,000 square feet (the old store had only 14,000), thirty new employees on top of all of the ones who were tranferred from the old, Sioux Quartzite mixed into the concrete used in the floors (and the dark red flecks are oh-so-becoming).

Brand-spankin'-new! What could be better...

I've never been in a store that's quite so new, and I must admit that I was bedazzled--the perfect rows of vivid produce--and the section is massive compared to the old one!--aisles and aisles of products, including organic and varied choices--four different types of pure maple syrup alone, for example--the spotless glass in front of all the refridgerated and freezer areas. And P just loved the miniature carts! I felt like we were in an adult-sized version of the miniature grocery store at the Children's Museum of South Dakota--everything was just too cute and orderly. My neat-freak heart couldn't stop pitter-patting. :) And on top of getting some uber-deals, we snagged the last freebie bag given to the first customers of the store--a fabric, reusable bag stuffed with non-perishable items like granola bars, crackers, chips and salsa, and lots of things families with young kids like us use all the time. Perk, perk, perk! As we left, P said, "Can we come back, Mommy?" Yes, Honey. We'll come back. And we will always love you, Hank's, but I fear we have a new love--in grocery stores, at least.

...except that it abuts a lovely cornfield? The best of both farming and commercialized worlds.