The New Feel of a New Grocery Store

A new grocery store opened this week. The H.E.B grocery chain is trying some new things. I guess they may have lost some business to WalMart in the past. The new Vintage Market opened Nov. 14th. We thought we would wait a couple of days to check it out. Let's face it, anything new draws a crowd. So we waited until Friday. Bad idea. I guess because it was payday and the weekend before Thanksgiving it was packed. I even got hugged by a live shopping bag. Don't ask-it even hugged my husband. But it was an interesting tour. That is when we could weave around the crowds. We got a turkey for 27 cents a pound. We looked at a lot of different things. It had a 7,000 sq. ft. meat market with nice selections. How about 17 kinds of apples? It had 42 feet of seafood. I don't really care for that but it was ok. I even saw pots and pans, glasses and dinnerware for sale. Very stylish, too. Every so often they had cooking shows and samples. They have a very large wine area featuring 3000 wines. I would have loved to check that more closely but the place was mobbed. Of course when you have free wine tasting I guess that is to be expected. 3,000 wines and I could not find the one I usually buy. So since I would be having company over the holiday I decided to grab a "box of chablis". Ever try to open a box of wine? I think delivering a baby would be easier!

While we were impressed with the store, I think we will wait for a while to go back. The place was crowed and everybody seemed to get in my way and on my nerves. Just try to look at a variety of items while people are crowding around and pushing baskets everywhere. Every isle I went to seemed to have a backlog of people trying to see what was there. It reminded me of Black Friday. I went to Black Friday once. I have decided to skip it ever since. I don't care if they offer a $1000 plasma, HD tv for $10! I will just not fight the crowds. I would rather take my time finding what I want then have people running over me in the isles or kids blabbing on their cell phones standing in my way. Besides if I want to look at 400 varieties of cheese, it is going to take me a while. But at least it is something different. Maybe in a couple of weeks? Maybe then I can find my way around it a little easier. Hope springs eternal, until someone runs over my foot with a basket.