Chickadee was my shopping buddy again today!
Chickadee Thursday
Schnucks
The Schnucks Anniversary Celebration
Today, our local Schnucks store was having a celebration for the store’s 75th anniversary. I’m just weird enough that hanging out at the grocery store on a Saturday morning sounded like a good idea!
The highlight of the event (for me, anyway), was the barber shop quartet…so fun!
The front of the store (inside and out), was decorated to give it an old-time feel…I think they succeeded!
I love that Schlafly made a special beer just for Schnucks anniversary!
Of course there was food:
And cake!
The soda was even in glass bottles…how old school! (Not pictured is the pineapple Fanta that three of the children tried, and I insisted on sampling…it was so good!)
Did I mention the throwback uniforms? Bow ties are cool!
This was a really fun way for Schnucks to include their customers in the anniversary celebration.
Here’s to another 75 years!
A Month Without Walmart
At the end of 2013, Ryan and I decided that we were going to make a commitment to stop shopping at Walmart, and start shopping at a local grocery store, instead, and see what happened. The reasons were varied, but they boiled to one point…you just don’t feel good about yourself when you’re at Walmart.
So, we’ve been a whole month without setting foot in that giant store (New Year’s Eve morning was the last time I was there). And, for the most part, it’s been very liberating. I like shopping at Schnucks…the employees are friendlier, the store is calmer, and, for the most part, the quality of the items is better.
I say for the most part because I’ve run into one problem at Schnucks…buying meat. From beef to chicken to pork, the meat is quite a bit more expensive, which I figured it would be. But, we’ve also found that surprisingly, the quality is less, and I can’t even get all of the cuts of meat I was used to purchasing (frequently) at Walmart.
The meat department is the only one that I can say that about. The produce department has better quality fruits and vegetables, and, for the most part, the prices are comparable. Same goes for dairy and frozen, and even when the prices are higher, I don’t mind it, because I feel that I’m getting better quality food.
But the meat department leaves something to be desired. So what do we do?
I think we’ve decided that once a month, I’ll go to Walmart and buy all of the meat we need for the month. The beef brisket I make every year on the Fourth of July is only available at Walmart, anyway, so I already knew I’d have to go there and buy meat at some point…it wasn’t ever going to be a complete divorce from the store (I also knew that I will continue buying the girls’ tights there, because they honestly have the best quality, most durable tights I’ve ever found). This is going to further change how we budget and shop, because I’m going to need to figure out what we need ahead of time, or base our meals on whatever it is that I’ve already bought. I think it’s a good compromise though…I’ll still be shopping at Walmart very rarely, and still patronizing Schnucks as much as possible, but I’ll also be able to get the things we need.
I don’t mind paying more for better quality and better service. Even though we had to rework the grocery budget a bit, and change what kind of things we buy, I was happy to do that to receive those things from Schnucks in return…and have the knowledge that I was supporting a local business. But I can’t see paying more money for something of a lesser quality. So, Walmart hasn’t completely released us from its grasp. But, if I ever find a store with higher quality meat (that is in the realm of affordability), you can believe that I’ll be shopping there instead!
A Promise Kept
For the last few weeks, every time we’ve been in the grocery store, we’ve seen Cardinals cakes, cookies, and cupcakes. Of course, these caught the children’s eye every time they saw them, especially the giant cookies the size of a pizza. I told them that when the Cards won the pennant, I’d buy them one of the decorated cookies.
I almost forgot, even though I had been thinking about it before the game yesterday. But when we stopped at Schnucks today, the children proved that their memories are much better than mine, because they certainly hadn’t forgotten! As soon as they brought it to my attention, I remembered, and now the Carlos Beltran cookie has been a delicious promise kept!
Shopping at Schnucks
Since I blogged about the new Dierbergs yesterday, I thought I’d give Schnucks their due, too. They have also opened a new store, just down the street from Dierbergs, and in many ways they’re very similar, to the point where I have to wonder how competing stores know to include the same features when they’re being constructed at the same time!
Like Dierbergs, this Schnucks also has an upstairs eating/seating area as well as a cooking school. I think that in general, Dierbergs wins in this department. The views of the store from the Dierbergs mezzanine are pretty incredible (there’s something unique about seeing all of those rows of grocery shelves and neatly arranged produce from above!), but you don’t see a whole lot from the upper level at Schnucks. They do have this very lovely fireplace, though, which is a nice touch!
There’s a cafe at the Schnucks, as well as a bakery, olive bar, and sushi bar, all features shared by Dierbergs. I did think that the chilled wine and cheese room was a nice touch…as a matter of fact the whole wine/liquor area was pretty impressive!
Everything else was fairly standard upscale grocery store, complete with yet another meal’s worth of samples. The children definitely prefer the cookies Schnucks gives out to kids over the Dierbergs variety, and I love that there’s a Kaldi’s Coffee right there in the store. No vermaport/parking garage at Schnucks, though, which gives Dierbergs a major bonus! I love watching carts go down an escalator!
It’s fun to walk around such nice, bright, new grocery stores, especially when you’re used to mingling with the masses at Walmart!