Kroger Sucks But The Skagit Valley Food Co-Op Does Not

Only one other grocery store is lower in my grocery store estimation than Kroger. That would be Albertsons. I was appalled by Albertsons when I lived in Washington and appalled when I moved to Texas to have people here tell me Albertsons was their best grocery store.

I think after my experience today Kroger has fallen below Albertsons.

I prefer well-run grocery stores, like Sprouts Farmers Market, ALDI Food Market, Cho Saigon Market and Central Market.

Lately I have been buying milk at ALDI. It is only 99 cents a gallon. This week I heard a Kroger ad on the radio, bragging about their new low 99 cents a gallon price on their locally produced Springdale milk.

I was out of milk. So, on my way back from riding my bike, with Kroger being a stone's throw from where I live, I decided to get a gallon of milk.

One thing that is disturbing about this particular Kroger is how low the stock of some items can be. For instance, there were only 3 gallons of milk of the type I buy. The sparse shelves give the look of something being very wrong.

So, I go to the self-checkout and scan the annoying Kroger card that you have to scan to get whatever you are buying at the price you are wanting to pay. I then scanned the milk.

It scans at $2.99.

But the screen says something like final calculation made after the "Pay Now" button is hit. I did so.

Still $2.99. I then asked the Kroger scanner watcher why the milk was $2.99 when it was supposed to be 99 cents.

She told me it was 99 cents with an additional $10 purchase.

That is not what the radio ad said.

That is not what it said on the $.99 sign by the milk.

I told the Kroger scanner watcher I did not want the milk. And walked out. Vowing this was the last time I waste my time going to Kroger.

Kroger needs to go out of business. How it stays in business I don't understand. I was  recently told that Albertsons is long gone from my former location, that being Mount Vernon. This is no surprise. Mount Vernon has a couple very good grocery stores. Of the likes I don't see here in my zone of Texas.

Except for Central Market. And don't mention Whole Foods to me as a good grocery store. Someone in the grocery store business, here in Texas, needs to fly up to Washington and go to Mount Vernon to check out the Skagit Valley Food Co-op, then come back to Texas and replicate the Skagit Valley Food Co-op in Texas.

I Left Texas & Went Back To Washington For A Few Minutes Today Courtesy Of Krogers

In Texas the smell that will forever say Texas to me is the smoke from a BBQ. In Washington the smell that forever says Washington to me is the scent that fills the air from Evergreen trees.

Today I went to my neighborhood Kroger. That is a grocery store for you who don't know Kroger. For you in the Northwest, Kroger is what bought Fred Meyer, to noticeable bad results, near as I can tell during my Fred Meyer visits whilst up north.

As I walked into Kroger today I was instantly transported back to Washington. I was slapped with an extreme Evergreen tree assault. I just stood there taking it in. Best thing I've smelled in Texas since I don't know when.

I figured the Christmas trees must be from Texas. I believe Christmas trees are grown out in the Piney Woods Region of Texas.

So, I was a bit surprised when I looked at the yellow tags on the trees to see that they were "ANOTHER "GEM" FROM THE EMERALD FOREST" from a Christmas Tree Company called EMERALD, based in Bellevue, Washington.

So, I really was transported back to Washington. Those were Washington Evergreens making Krogers smell real good today.

When I lived in Washington I did not notice the Evergreen smell as being so prevalent. I'd notice it if I was up in the mountains hiking, or sometimes when outside in my yard or slacking on the hammock on my roof deck.

But, in 2001 I drove back to Washington, solo, for my mom and dad's 50th Anniversary. As I crossed over the summit of Snoqualmie Pass I started noticing that the air was somehow seeming heavy and I started to be almost startled by how strongly the air smelled of Christmas trees.

Smelling Christmas trees constantly kept happening til I got re-acclimated by about week 3 and no longer noticed the smell. When I fly to Seattle I've never had the Christmas tree thing hit me in the same way it did driving over the mountain pass. I can be sitting in my sister's back yard or hiking some place, like Point Defiance Park, and it will smell like Christmas. But never again in that overwhelming way it did in 2001.

I think maybe the fact that that return in 2001 was the longest I'd been away, sort of made everything seem more vivid. I remember in addition to smelling Christmas trees I was struck by how shiny, clean and new everything looked as I drove west through Issaquah and Bellevue. I remember getting stuck in a traffic jam on the I-90 floating bridge and loving it. Mount Rainier was hovering big to the south, Lake Washington was sparkling, dozens of sailboats, everything looked, I don't know, as if Mother Nature had given it a good scrubbing til it sparkled.

Anyway, it was nice to have a brief visit back to Washington today, if only for a couple minutes.

Big Tex Takes DART Green Line To The State Fair Of Texas

That is Big Tex waiting to get on a DART train at Mockingbird Station. Big Tex is heading to the State Fair of Texas where he stands tall all day long and talks to people.

To get to the Fair, Big Tex will need to switch to the DART Green Line at Pearl Station. The Green Line will take Big Tex directly to the State Fair.

Before getting on the DART train Big Tex went to Kroger where he bought a combo ticket to the Fair. For $16 Big Tex gets a ticket to the Fair and a Round Trip transport on DART.

For those not familiar with Dallas, DART is Dallas Area Rapid Transit. Dallas has about 50 miles of light rail. Each year seems to bring more miles of DART. There are currently 3 DART lines, the Red Line, the Blue Line and the Green Line. The Green Line will currently take you to the State Fair of Texas. By 2010 the Green Line will take you beyond the State Fair.

The Orange Line is under construction. It will take riders to Irving and Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.

The Dallas Morning News has a video of Big Tex going to Kroger and riding DART to the State Fair of Texas. You'll really want to be sure and watch it.