Simple Pleasures, #21
I probably need to get back to writing some of these posts a little more regularly. It makes me feel good about the world. Today I want to write a little something about Wheatsville Co-op. I adore this place. I recently discovered that if I shop there, I don’t have to worry about so many danged choices. It’s kind of like going to the biggest European grocery stores… except that it feels tiny here (because it is). Less choice might translate to some as poor selection. To me, it comes across as relaxation. This is especially because the items carried are what I have to hunt and peck for at the other mega-stores like HEB anyways. This way, the sorting is done for me! I don’t have to wonder if I’ll find Japanese short grain brown rice or organic dried mango (both available in the bulk item section, thank you very much!) because I know I’m gonna find exactly those things there. I was concerned that Wheatsville would be more expensive than HEB. Turns out that they’re even cheaper most of the time if I’m doing a comparative cost analysis of the crud I normally buy. That is, it’s within or under the weekly budget when we’re not in desperate need of everything at home. I mean, there are times when it’s going to be an expensive week simply because we’ve eaten all of our reserves and the cabinets are starting to fill up with cobwebs. Regular weekly grocery runs tell me that Wheatsville’s got a competitive edge over everyone else, and I was pleasantly surprised to find this out. Don’t get me wrong, you can’t find everything there… (Apparently hippies- and food-conscious folks like myself- don’t need BATTERIES because we can make them ourselves out of apples). That part is a tad annoying. Otherwise, they boast better products than, say, Sun Harvest, way cheaper crud than Whole Foods (or, as I like to say, Whole Paycheck), and certainly better prices (albeit marginally so) than HEB where I need a map to find diapers. Seriously, I do not need 48 different brands of toothpaste, y’all. Thanks. So thank you, Wheatsville. Thank you for carrying more organic products than conventional, more whole-grain products than not, friendly interesting staff, and especially thank you for not robbing me blind. (Although your diapers really are way more expensive than they are at HEB, like by 20%. I mean, c’mon.) I should totally advertise for them, huh??!!
