I made an exception for some reason to look at the news, which I try not to do too often because they say the news isn’t healthy for us. Who knows what the reason of the day was, but I watched and felt relief that Fry’s and Safeway were not going to go on strike, and the corporate offices were not going to rip off the little man. Thank goodness, these poor grocery-store employees still have a job. Needless to say, as you know, this got me thinking….

 Whatever happened to the good old-fashioned grocery store? I remember as a child shopping at a place called El Rancho and when you walked in, it seemed like everyone knew you. They knew what you wanted, what sort of meat cuts you liked; they probably even had your grocery list memorized. In fact, no doubt they knew that Monday was meatloaf and Thursdays were taco night in your house.

 A.J. Bayless in Tucson was another store that when you walked in the people said hello and knew you by name. The cashiers were kind and didn’t act put out, and the folks working the shelves and aisles would go out of their way to help you find something. These days you ask where the barley is and they run the other way or say wait a minute, and 20 minutes will go by, and you discover they went on break because they did not know where the barley was.

 I knew the friendly grocer era was ending when Lucky’s became ABCO, and ABCO became Smiths, and Smiths became Fry’s all in a short while. There were no more El Ranchos, no more Bayless, and no more grocers who smiled at you when you walked in the door.

 Today we have Super Walmart and Super Kmart and Super this and Super that, and no one in all that Superness can find me the barely! Heck, the stores are so big and the turnover of employees is so drastic that the clerk that checked you out last week at Fry’s now works at Park Mall.

 Well, that is if you have a clerk. These days we have machines that check you out. They don’t know your name and they quite frankly can careless what you buy. They just want to be sure you have scanned your items and paid for your food. These mechanical grocers just want to get you in and out as quickly as possible. It is like a food chain assembly line. It’s sort of sad.

 So I am glad the strike did not happen and people still have their jobs, and, hey, a little gratitude for all of us faithful shoppers who help pay for the employees. A smile once in a while, a friendly hello or perhaps just act like you are really glad we came and dropped our money at your store today. I do admit I shop at one of the Fry’s to get a few items weekly, and there is a middle-aged gentleman there who knows my  occupation , smiles, says hello and top of the day. They don’t make grocers like Cameron.  To me, he is the epitome of the kind, friendly grocer of yesteryear. And to top it off, he knows where the barely is!

 So let’s talk, what grocery stores do you remember, I know I am leaving out a handful!

In the meantime, enjoy this video

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7542334938324218723

This entry was posted on Friday, November 13th, 2009 at 7:52 pm and is filed under Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.