Tell Tale Community Traits

As we travel we have had the opportunity to experience many different ways of life, culture and local trends within both urban and rural settings. I have found that the best way to get a “feel” for an area is by paying close attention to the local grocery store. Almost every town has one and they come in all sorts of different shapes and sizes. I have taken every opportunity that I could to avoid the almost ever-present Wal-Marts as they are the same no matter where one travels and they seldom give one a flavor of the area unless one is doing a sociological study of the native inhabitants but that is a blog story for another time.


Most groceries are pretty routine with the basic staples of life such as bread, milk and People magazines. I discovered that two areas of a store truly make a grocery outstanding; these areas are the bakery aisle and the meat counter. If fresh bread is baked within the store that is a dead give-away that the store will have quality produce and savvy consumer goods. I love vegetables and since I am the only crew aboard the Lolligag that eats any fresh vegetable other than celery and white potatoes, I am always excited when I enter a grocery store and the smell of fresh baked bread because I know that yummy vegetables will be part of my next meal.

The next area is the fresh meat counter. I love it when I find a grocery that has a real person, in an apron, standing behind a tall glass case just waiting to assist me with my choice of meat or fish items. I love being able to point to the salmon filet that I want and to tell the “butcher” how I wish to have the fish wrapped. I know that the person waiting on me is most likely not a butcher but pretending that he/she is completes my grocery shopping fantasy experience.

Now if a store has both an in-house bakery and a fresh meat counter then it is guaranteed that I will also find a delightful deli, choice cheeses, and scrumptious snacks along with a plentiful soda/pop selection. Using these standards as the basis of comparison I am able to deduce an unscientific but very accurate assessment of the local community. It is interesting that some several of the “best” grocery stores have not been in the “best” communities from a socio-economic perspective. Also interesting is the fact that often the grocery store is the social hub of a community and a place where the community spirit is most evident. This is especially true if the local high school sports team will be facing a long standing rival on Friday evening.

Now with all of this being said I will reveal my top five favorite grocery stores based on our travels thus far:

#5
Farm Fresh which is located in the south


#4
Kroger which is located in the Midwest

#3
Buehler’s Buy Low which is located in Lionville and surrounding Southern Indiana towns

#2
Harris-Teeter which is located in the Mid-Atlantic states. This grocery chain came in a very close second to Wegmans. Harris-Teeter did have an unfair advantage in that these stores are allowed to sell wine while the grocery stores in New York state are not allowed to do so…

#1

Wegmans which is located in New York State. This is by far my favorite grocery store in the whole United States. If I could get the company to branch out to the Midwest, I would be in hog heaven for sure (pun intended). Since this is highly unlikely to happen, I did the next best thing and that was to shop in as many Wegmans stores as I could while I was in the area even if I did have to go to another store to purchase my wine.