I have to say, I absolutely love going to the grocery store. I know most people don't. But I just adore being with food Sometimes as I slowly peruse the aisles, salivating over the delicious options,I have big debates with the two sides of my brain: the 'oh-I-want-to-be-thin' lobe and the 'but-you-might-die-tomorrow' cranial section and I do spend alot of time vicariously eating each box of cookies that line the shelves. Claire is the only soul willing to go with me, and I'd like to think she has inherited this salivating trait, but I think the truth lies in her decent sense of control and her determination not just to get yogurt, not just nonfat yogurt, not just greek yogurt but peach in the two-fer packaging! But I digress....
So, given my confessed neurosis, I was not going to move anywhere where the grocert stores were not decent. And, frankly, it was a low bar because Greenwich, wierdly, doesn't have the kind of grocery stores that you tell your friends about....I think it must go back to a time where the 'help' shopped....therefore,you can imagine my trepidation about Charleston, if you get my drift!
First, we found a terrific store about 30 minutes from Charleston called Newton Farms. It was absolutely beautiful -- it reminded me of this huge farm store in Nantucket, called Bartletts. I thought well, thrity minutes for a great store isn't awful and if I had that option in Greenwich, I would have taken it in a hearbeat.
Then we found one, right in Charleston, almost in the midst of the Historic district. Finding a store so among that charm of the city was like having perfect children. Or perfect parents. It just doesn't happen!
The store was named "Harris Teeter" and the name itself made me smile. Inside the store was even better....it actually reminded me of what I absolutely consider the gold standard of grocery stores: Gelsons, in Southern California.
Beyond the physical spaciousness, with wide aisles (two large carts can actually pass each other with no one having to say 'oh, sorry') and it has the array of brand selection I appreciate -- do you want whole wheat bread, 7 grain bread, 5 grain, 12 grain, multi-grain bread, rye bread, half-rye bread, etc etc--plus a parking lot that always has decent spots, right near the entrance! But it's the Employees of Harris Teeter that elevate it Gelson's-status.
Amazingly to me, they are trained to graciously ask four questions which just make me shake my head in delighed awe:
1. When you go up to check out, the checker asks if you have easily found every thing you were looking for?
At first I was so startled that someone cared, that I simply said, yes, thank you. Then, the other day, I was too cruious to see what the response would be if I said I did not, so I said that I was disappointed that I could not find my husband's favorite lunch, frozen White Castle hamburgers. (For those of you not familiar with this delicacy, they are sold in CT either 6 to a frozen box, or at Costo, in a 24 sizer.) The checker called over the manager and before I could say, oh its ok, she did some walkie/talkie mumbo jumbo, then some Blackberry magic. She then turned to me and said in the perfect little Southern accent: "Well, I am sorry to say we do not carry that, but if you go to the Publix (a competitor) in Mt Pleasant (about 14 min away), they have both sizes.And, when you go, ask for Hunter Rockwell III...he is the Manager and is expecting you." What can you say to that except, 'thank you so much. I will go right away!'
2. They then take the groceries out of your cart and scan them.
Again, not since Gelson's days have I not had to lug all the stuff that I just put in the cart out on the conveyer belt. And the Harris Teeter people do it happily, some of them humming as they lift all those coke bottles and try to make sure all the shallots don't fall out of the flimsy plastic.
3. They ask you in the nicest most non-judgemental voice if you'd like paper or plastic.
One time when I asked for paper, I heard the bagger (a lovely woman in her 40's, too well dressed I thought to have the job), mutter under her breath....umm, umm, umm....and when I looked at her she said apologetically, "...oh I mean no disrespect Ma'am, but your soda bottles (of which I had many!) will do better in plastic....they'll jus tear the paper right through!" Well how could I argue with such logic and told her she was right and I would switch to plastic. She let out such a yelp of joy I jumped myself...turns out in her 18 years of working there, no one had ever told her she was right and I knew I had made a friend for life. (I acknowledge that it might be better to have influential friends at the DMV or the Historic Home Color Review Board vs a checker/bagger -- but you never know....I thought she had enough charm to someday run for mayor, and being a checker/bagger is probably the perfect experience for that position!
4. Finally, after they've taken your groceries out, scanned them and bagged them the way you want, they then ask, regardless if you have two bags or twenty, if you'd like help to your car! I havn't yet said yes, though I'd really love if they would offer to come home with me and put all this stuff away....I will do the trunk, if they would do the cabinets.....mayber I could put that in the suggestion box!
I wish I could end this here...leaving you with nothing but admiration for the Harris Teeter store and a bit of envy for me...but no....No, in today's world, there is always something. Some blemish which makes perfection impossible and allows Gelson's to still be atop the grocery store mantle.
You see, Harris Teeter has a slight problem with English....and the promise they proudly make that they are open 24 hours.
I don't know about you, but to me, 24 hours means they should be open every hour of every day, no matter what! But last Thanksgiving, they failed and I don't know why they did it!
We decided to bring as much of the family down to Charleston as possible ---to see if they would like it if we moved here. (I think I wanted to make sure we would get some company, as I doubted our ability to make new friends....more on that later) So, we actually flew in on the Thanksgiving Thursday and I thought it might be nice to pick a few things for the hotel. You know like peanuts, candy, cookies, bananas, coke, snapple,water...all the essentials our family needs to survive in a hotel that has room service!
We went over to the Harris Teeter, a store that promises to be open 24 hours, and found it closed.
The next day when I went back and shopped for my deprived family, I asked one of the women at the Service Counter why they had been closed teh day before when all their signage and billboards clearly and boldly say "OPEN 24 HOURS'
And here, word for word, is what she said: "Oh, we are open 24 hours if we are open. But, if we're not open, we're not open 24 hours."
You can't argue with that....but you have to know Gelson's would never, never say that to me!
sending love from Charleston....
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