Saar's

[elfs]

Omaha and I went to the QFC grocery store to pick up a ton of food for tomorrow's Thanksgiving dinner this evening. We had half of a shopping cart filled, but we were surprised that the local grocery store was out of shallots. We also tried Traders Joe's and the grocery store next to it, but they were all also sold out of shallots. All three stores were insanely busy, packed up to the noise-absorbing ceiling tiles. The crowding generated short tempers for people trying to park their cars.

When we got home with our bounty, we decided to make pizza for dinner, but we were also out of crusts. So Omaha dispatched me to the Safeway, the third-closest grocery store in our area. Well, it was, except that a new grocery store between my home and the Safeway had opened. It has the unlikely name of Saar's.

It looks like one of those grocery stores that caters to lower incomes: lots of two-color posters bragging about 59¢ soap and 79¢ toilet paper plastering the outside walls. But inside, I was pleasantly surprised, was absolutely nothing like the discount grocers of my childhood memory. The place was well-lit, well-stocked, and clean. It had extensive Asian and Hispanic sections, the fruits and vegetables were well-stocked, fresh, and clean. But better than that, the place was empty. There were more than enough checkers and staff, the other shoppers were calm and relaxed, and they had a large, full bin of shallots, plus the same brand of pie crusts and Mozarella cheese that we use.

On the one hand, it's still trying to establish itself: it just opened a couple of months ago. On the other, it was so relaxing that I definitely want to go shop there again.

Comments

[funos.livejournal.com]

I've had the same experience. Made me seriously wonder how much of the higher prices at the regular stores were branding and presentation.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

There is a true "discount grocer" in the area, right around the corner from Saar's in fact, called "The Discount Grocer." They're so downmarket that we sometimes call it "Uncle Bob's Used Food," (a restaurant from Those Annoying Post Brothers) as it is truly scary what they sell in there.

[riverheart.livejournal.com]

Saar's is pretty decent. We have one over here, and it's the only locally-owned grocery in town.

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

I've had something of the same feeling when some of the European supermarket chains moved into the UK, outfits like Lidl, Aldi, and Netto (they all have websites if anyone is curious). And there's some evidence that the supermarkets operating in the UK have higher margins than in the rest of Europe.

One of the differences that shows up is in product choice. There's a local store which is owned by a subsidiary of one of the supermarket chains. They only stock the genuine, full-price, Pepsi and Coca-Cola. The supermarkets sell at up to 20% less, and also have own-brand equivalents at around 40% of the price, and really cheap cola at less than 15%. Which suggests that operating costs are pretty low.

Lidl sells three different brands of olive oil, Tesco a bewildering 20+, some of them quite expensive. And there are people who have wondered how either of them can sell "extra virgin olive oil" at the price they do, when the Italian olive farmer is paid 10 Euro per litre, and the shopper in Britain pays about a third of that, for oil and bottle.

[abostick59.livejournal.com]

I'm chuckling at the idea of being able to find shallots at a down-market grocery store.

(What? You don't make your own pizza dough? Tsk, tsk!)

[elfs.livejournal.com]

I get the feeling they don't qualify as "downmarket" so much as "othermarket." They don't appeal to yuppies, but to the ethnic market that's grown substantially in our neighborhood, and as such they carry a ton of good things that everyone wants to eat: bell peppers in four colors, shallots, elephant garlic, and so on. In my local Safeway couscous is a luxury item; at Saar's it's a staple. And it is a staple, along with bulgar wheat and orzo. But you wouldn't know it from the tiny boxes sold at YuppieMarts.