Putting the Spice Back in Grocery Shopping

Moving across the country means having to find a new place to go grocery shopping. I was actually looking forward to this because I think I had gotten into a grocery shopping rut- always going to the same store, getting what I needed and not really looking at anything else. It had definitely become a mundane chore that I did not enjoy and I was hoping something new would spice it up. And to be honest, I was secretly hoping there would be Piggly Wiggly here because I think that is an awesome name for a grocery store... but, alas, there are no Piggly Wiggly's in Maryland.

I did a google search for grocery stores in the area and found seven that looked promising. I decided to try all of them before making a decision as to where I would do the bulk of my shopping. Safeway is the only store I could find that is also in Arizona and, in fact, is where I shop there. For me, going to Safeway is like eating chicken noodle soup... it's familiar and gives you warm fuzzies.

But I was really looking for someplace different. I tried Giant, Food Lion, Bloom, Harris Teeter, Wegmans and Super Fresh Superstore. Wegmans reminded me of AJ's- a nice store with those hard-to-find items but a bit over-priced and for me, too far (about an hour each way) to go often. Giant, Food Lion and Super Fresh Superstore were okay but the people weren't friendly- I would stop there to get milk on my way home but won't be doing the bulk of my shopping there. Bloom was too small- not enough selection- and I thought the store was poorly laid out.

And then there was Harris Teeter- the nicest, most reasonably priced grocery store I've been in! There are people throughout the store to help you find things or answer questions about products. They have more samples than Costco- and offer more samples at the deli, the bakery and the produce department. It's clean and has wide aisles. But the deciding factor was the Starbucks in the store- they make perfect cafe mistos AND give you a 10% discount with your Starbuck's Gold Card (no other place does that!). Yeah, you could say it was love at first sight.

In addition to handicapped parking spaces, they also have these specialty spaces. Interestingly, I've never seen anyone abuse them and the "special needs" one is often empty.

According to the Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER), an organization recognized by the US Census Bureau, Phoenix has a cost of living composite index slightly higher (101.0) than the national average (100.0) while Baltimore's is higher yet (118.6). They use six components (like grocery items, housing, etc.) unequally weighted to derive a composite index. In the "grocery items" category, Phoenix rates 100.5 while Baltimore is 106.8. And in case you were wondering, Manhattan, NY has the highest composite index (214.3!!!) and Omaha, NE has the lowest (88.9).

Given the above data, I would expect groceries, in general, to be more expensive in the Baltimore area than they are in Phoenix. For my comparison I chose five items that stores in both cities had "on special" over the 4th of July weekend: cherries, watermelon, yellow/white corn on the cob, Johnsonville Brats and store brand hot dog buns. I found that all but two of the items were more expensive (by about 20%) in Maryland. The exceptions were Johnsonville Brats which were exactly the same price at every store and yellow/white corn on the cob which was 200% higher in ARIZONA- where corn is one of the "Five C's!" 

Besides price, another difference in grocery shopping is the availability of certain products. For example,  diced jalapeno and whole green chilis are extremely rare commodities here. On the other hand, these are found in every store:

I guess you could say that grocery shopping has been "spicier" for me since we've been here... or at least an adventure!