Bigger Is Better?

Yesterday evening, a friend and I wandered through the brand new, ultra-humongo, phantasmagorical, multi-mega HEB store in town. Who'd a-thunk that a grocery store would sell beds?!

I lived in Austin for ten years, most of them two blocks away from the local HEB store. I loved shopping at HEB. The food is high quality. The prices reasonable. The selection sufficient to deal with the picky palate of a toddler and his sometimes pretty picky mom. (have to be honest about this, you know!) It didn't hurt that the store was nearby and open 24 hours/day, not that I ordinarily shopped at 2am, but occasional dashes to pick up emergency supplies when one has a sick youngster sure made it handy.

I probably won't be back to the Beaumont HEB any time soon. It's not that the prices weren't good. Of course they were good! They've got to lure you into trying their new store and making the switch. It's not that they neglected to provide a variety to choose from. Variety! Sushi ... live seafood available ... an in-store buffet of ready to eat stuff, or ready to take home and reheat stuff ... live cooking demos and samples ... fruits ... veggies ... even Drumsticks in a flavor-pack that just jumped out and said "take me home!" It's not that there was a crowd, even though we went during Friday night high school football hours. That'll die down after a few weeks.

Nope! It's none of those things. It's the layout. Now, don't laugh. The store just plain isn't laid out like a grocery store! There's no apparent rhyme or reason to it. Grocery stores should have a 'flow' to the way you shop them. I don't particularly care if you start with the fruits and veggies on the right or end with the deli on the left, but it needs to flow from there. And this one doesn't.

Hmmmmmmmmm.....I may have just hit on my problem with HEB. I like to start from the right side of the store, and you can't at HEB. OK - I admit it. I'm not particularly fond of change. *chuckle*

I also tend to shop close to home. It's convenient, and on my way home from the office, and I can get the stuff into the 'fridge a whole lot faster. These things are important, since I only go to the store when the cupboard's approaching barer than bare. The desperation of the hunt is what usually sends me into the wilds of the local store. It helps if I know where things are in the places I usually stalk (semi-pun intended).

*sigh* Is bigger better? I'll give that an unqualified 'maybe'. I've been spending some time this past week learning some better definitions of success, most of which don't include anything about size. It's nice to know there's a place which has a variety of the things I like from time to time. In that particular instance, bigger does equate with better. The larger store has more space for that variety. However, when it comes to the overall picture, I think I'll stick with 'smaller', and just get adventurous when the craving for chocolate-chocolate Drumsticks overwhelms the senses and draws me out into bigger-land.