Pennyaline wrote:

> Good!! Some of these stores are soooo big it's too much of a chore to
> get around in them. And "choice above all"? What a joke! What choice?
> You get what they stock, and they stock what THEY choose, period.
> Special orders? Fuggedabbouddit! Albertsons, Smiths (Kroger), Harmons
> (local chain) all sing the same song: "We don't have enough demand for
> that product, so we wont be ordering it for you."

I have mixed feelings. I find that some of the larger stores have lots
and lots of variety of the things that I have no use for. I don't buy
prepared foods. I am more interested in a wide variety of meats, fruits
and vegetables and ethnic ingredients. It doesn't hurt for them to have
a good in store bakery.

I have to say that none of the local stores are mega stores in the same
magnitude that i have seen in the US, and even those that I have been in
in the US are probably smaller than what you are thinking off.

I split my shopping up between a number of stores. When I want to stock
up on chicken I go to a small family run grocery that always sells
chicken cheaper than anyone else and often has specials on them that are
hard to beat. And it is good chicken, not that injected crap. I won't
buy that. I am not crazy about their beef. When I want to stock up on
ethic stuff I go to a larger grocery store, which always has nice lamb.
In the summer I buy fruit and vegetables at local fruit stands, and in
the winter I get them from a discount store that has great produce.

I make a weekly trip to the local Dutch butcher because he has great
bacon and breakfast sausage as well as great deals on good beef, and his
Italian sausage is the best around. When he has chicken it is good and
cheap... when he has it.


> The only downside to the loss of the megamarts is that there will be
> even more massive empty box stores darkening commercial areas nationwide.

Not a problem. They can be torn down.