Tuesday, November 6, 2007

a shout-out to the Brothers


I could start a whole new blog on grocery-shopping in the West Inland Empire, and I'd have posts for at least a year. I may start a "stations of the cross" series, in which your intrepid shopper takes you to her favorite ethnic grocery stores, one per episode.

But that's for another day. Today, I just want to say: However much they suck in other ways (can you say "bread"?), the Stater Brothers on Garey has a great produce section. Sure, it ain't the farmers' market, but they have a decent selection of organics, and they have both vegetables and fruits that the hoity-toity Claremont stores can't be counted on to have (kale, rhubarb, parsnips...). The produce section is clean and attractive, and there's always an employee there, stacking oranges or whatever. And the prices are lower than at the Foothill and Baseline supermarkets.

I'll still visit the ethnic stations of the cross when I can, and we're now hooked up with Tierra Miguel CSA, but when I need a quick punnet of mushrooms or bunch of tatsoi, the Brothers are there for me.

4 comments:

K said...

I have to agree with GoP about the lack of shopping baskets and good bread (and, of course, the lack of good beer at reasonable prices). But I feel like I should be shopping in my neighborhood store, keeping the taxes here in town, and seeing my neighbors around me.

Anonymous said...

I hear ya! Oh, and my wife and I feel the same way about the local schools.

me said...

Don't get me wrong: I shop there. I just think we have the right to demand better. And, I think if things get better that more and more of our neighbors will shop there, so it would have a snowball effect. My gut is that the GArey Ave STater Bros is prolly one of their highest grossing stores. I think the next step is to call a community meeting with upper management, so they can see how much we care. I'm wondering if there's anyone reading who might want to get the ball going? G of P

K said...

I suspect that this is going to be a tough row to hoe -- the management seems pretty slack there. I had to wait something like 10 minutes for them to get more money when I asked for just a little bit too much cash back. At other stores, this takes 10 *seconds*.

It's a strange place -- I asked about shopping baskets the other day, and they explained that they used to have them. But too many got stolen. What!? Who on earth would steal shopping baskets? Shopping carts, I understand (but don't condone) stealing -- if you've got 50 pounds of groceries and a mile walk and no money for a collapsible wheeled cart, life is no fun. But stealing a little plastic basket when you already have little plastic bags? Yeesh.

It may be that I've led a sheltered life.