In our little town, grocery shopping is about to change and there’s not much that could happen around here that would make me any happier. I’ve moaned and complained about Kroger since we got here, though I’m not sure what I would be doing if we didn’t have it. While googling, trying to find out when our Aldi is going to open, I found this article about our Kroger. I’m not sure how much of it is embellished (such as . . whether the Kroger building predates the forming of Brown County . . but a whole lot of what they say is fact. I suppose it isn’t unlike most corporate owned grocery stores these days in that a few of the people are nice and helpful, but many are downright rude and lazy. I was hoping our new manager would turn things around and I’m afraid things are going the wrong direction. There’s rarely a time when I go in there that I’m not trying to track down someone to see if they have more of something because the shelves are empty — pears, onions, cucumbers . . things a grocery store should always have. I will not miss Kroger and once our new stores open, I can’t see a reason to ever go back to that store. I hate saying that because I understand no business stays in business without customer support but Kroger has totally lost my support. I feel kinda bad for the new manager because no matter what they do in there, with two new grocery stores opening, Kroger’s numbers are not going to look good on paper and I know how all corporations come down on management when that happens . . even when it’s totally out of their control. Here’s a funny (or not so funny example). At one retail establishment (no names mentioned here!), one year the store had very little snow and the next year, it snowed so much. Every time they got the parking lot cleaned, it snowed again. That year the manager was in hot water because the cost of snow removal was up something like 500% from the previous year. Some managers are good but controlling the snow fall . . could be a bit much to expect.
We have a new United, which I think may be part of the Albertson’s network, that is scheduled to open in June. My understanding is they will have a real butcher (vs. getting all the meat in pre-packaged) and a deli where you can sit down and eat. I’d be real happy if they had fresh seafood but that’s probably asking for too much.
I’m most excited about Aldi. I’m so excited that when I’m out, I ride by there and try to peek in the windows to see what’s going on. They say they’re opening “Spring, 2015”. Hey .. it’s Spring, 2015! Open up! Let me in!
Last week I was by there and they had concrete trucks out front pouring ramps and things . . I couldn’t sneak up and peek in the windows. Their website has Grand Openings listed up to April 19 and Brownwood is not listed but sometimes those places open and then the Grand Opening happens a few weeks later. No matter when they open . . we’re closer to that date than we were 2 months ago so I’ll have to be patient.
sharon says
We love our Aldi for lots of things, not everything, but the price can’t be beat for milk, eggs, butter, cheese….and veggies that are in season.
JudyL says
Milk here is often $1.99/gallon so I’m going to be surprised if Aldi’s price on milk is much less than the grocery store. I don’t buy eggs much. 🙂 I’m so excited about them coming here.
Kathy C in OR says
Thank you for turning me onto Aldi. Their fruit and veggies (at least at MY Aldi) can’t be beat both for price and freshness. I also like their “fit” line of better-for-you products.
I guess I am lucky I have a very nice Kroger here. But I also have Publix which is great. In Tennessee stores are not allowed to make you purchase 2 items to get a lower price so all of the Publix buy-one-get-one free items are basically 1/2 price. Good for a 2 person household like mine.
Thanks again for letting me know about Aldi, you are a great spokesperson.
PattiLynn says
hahaha! Kroger is not so old it preceded Brown County. It may feel and look it, but I remember the land there before Kroger went in. It was low there on the bayou and often flooded in that area. Water would come up almost to Hastings door. They hauled in truck after truck of rubble and dirt to build up that area before they built Kroger. Guessing it was in the early 70’s.
Where the traffic ‘T’ is at Commerce and Main, there used to be a Traffic Circle with a large water fountain in the middle. In the area (general) where KFC is now, there was JRB grocery. It burned in the late 60’s, and they built a new JRB grocery where Hastings is now. It was a huge grocery for that time in Bwd and they were extremely busy. It was locally owned and I think the family just got old, sold out and are surely dead by now.
We love out Aldi here and I hope y’all get a good one there. The produce is wonderful. Cheap milk and cookies. Lots of new stuff to tyr.
JudyL says
Milk is already so cheap here . . often $1.99 for a gallon, so I’ll be surprised if Aldi is less than the regular grocery stores. I always loved their cookies and snakes since they’re different from most we can buy in the grocery store. I like their meat too. Oh . . I can’t wait. I asked Vince at lunch if anyone at work has heard when Aldi will open and he said “I don’t think most people are as excited about it as you are.” 🙂
PattiLynn says
Milk varies from 2.69 to 3.29 a gallon reg stores. I try to buy it on sale 1.99 to 2.50 when I can. I make a lot of yogurt – I bought the Cuisinart you recommended. I LOVE it!
cindy says
Oh, the typo or autocorrect was too funny — cause we all know you don’t like anyone’s “snakes”!
Enjoy the Aldi.
Judy L. says
Oh yes, that would be snacks. I have snakes on my mind these days.
PattiLynn says
http://www.degeneratepress.com/brownwood/traffic_circle.htm
Pic orientation: air view from over approx. where cvs is now, looking southward.
This is what the old traffic circle looked like: the top picture shows 2 streets forking off to the upper right. The one on the left is Fisk street, see the Old Bwd Hotel at the very top rt corner. The red brick courthouse is just below the Old Bwd Hotel in the pic.
The right fork is Main street. Kroger was not there then, it would later be on the right, some ways beyond the building with the rounded roof. The JRB grocery building that was to later burn is just off the circle (about ½” up and ½” to the left of the water fountain in the pic) The big building with the brown roof.
You can see where they would later build the new JRB grocery which they later sold out to Hastings. The building that would eventually block the view of the courthouse in this pic.
Since the new JRB was built before the Kroger, I’d say Brown County was well on the way to being established before the Kroger went up. hahah! I know it wasn’t you who said this, was only wondering why the article writer didn’t bother to check it out…was easy to google.
Hope you enjoyed the old pics, my hub and I’ve been looking for the longest this morning. We had no idea we’d go down this rabbit trail today. But, thanks Judy, for the memory diversion. 🙂
JudyL says
Thanks for digging and finding it. It’s always interesting to learn some history. I think the guy was joking about Kroger being built before Brown County was established. And, that is not one of our main media outlets.
Ida in Central PA says
I laughed out loud at this: “Some managers are good but controlling the snow fall . . could be a bit much to expect.”
Guess what we had today? Our company-wide “End of Winter” party for the employees — after it quits snowing, etc. our workload decreases dramatically.
BUT …. at Noon Eastern …. guess what was viewed outside the windows of our building?! 😀 LOL! About 2-inches of frozen liquid sunshine.
If *WE* can’t control the snow, I don’t expect store owners to! 🙂
JudyL says
Really! And would you please arrange for more rain in central Texas? Thank you! 🙂
Susan says
Sounds like no matter how you look at it, things are getting better for the consumer. I think the reason our Krogers are so great is that there is a LOT of competition here – even the Kroger stores aren’t that far apart, and there are also Aldi, Ingles, Food City, Walmart, Target, Whole Foods, Earth Fare, Fresh Market, and probably others I don’t even know.
Megan says
Judy – we have Aldi here in Australia. One opened up a couple of years ago in our local shopping centre. I had been looking forward to it because I thought it would be excellent competition for the only other supermarket close by. I was very disappointed, for several reasons. One is that our Aldi doesn’t stock a comprehensive range of everything I need. That means that if I shopped at Aldi, I’d also have to plan to go to the other, larger, supermarket to top up on things that Aldi doesn’t stock. The other reason is that instead of offering competitive prices on known brands, Aldi competes on price by stocking no-name products. That’s fine – not my preference for many products, but that’s a personal choice. What bothers me, however, is that many of the products that Aldi stocks have been packaged by their manufacturers to look as close to the known brands as possible – I presume that they must be right on the border of infringing trademarks and copyright etc. This seems to me to be a kind of dishonesty – not necessarily by Aldi, as they’re not making any claims that these products are the well-known brands. But, the manufacturers are trying to benefit from an association with other manufacturers’ products, and Aldi is party to this by being willing to support such manufacturers.
I appreciate that grocery marketing in Australia is likely to be somewhat different from USA. Nevertheless, I just thought I’d share my views and experiences of Aldi.
Urbas says
@Megan,
the status you described is similar to the situation in Germany 20 or 30 years ago. In former times many people stick to name brand products. So it was important for Aldi to make the package very similar to those well known name brand products. Today most Aldi products here in Germany have a noble very distinct design.
It is Aldi that decides about the design of their store brand products and not the manufacturer. But it’s not Aldi’s fault that so many Americans and Australians are brainwashed by the advertising of those greedy name brand companies.
We have 5 different discount chains here in Germany. The two biggest discount chains Aldi and Lidl have very few name brand products. The other discount chains have more name brand products. Better educated people shop at Aldi or Lidl. Low income, less educated people shop at poorer discount chains, that offer more name brand products. Riff-raff people are addicted to name brand products. Those people watch a lot of TV and they are really that stupid to think that name brand products offer a higher quality. There are even people that buy name brand toilet paper. It’s unbelievable.
With the years Americans and Australians will become smarter and more and more people will avoid overpriced name brand products.
I don’t say that name brand products are always bad, but in most cases they don’t offer higher quality, they are just more expensive due to advertising and greedy multinational companies. Why should I buy name brand toothpaste for more than 1 Euro, when the best toothepaste cames from Aldi or Lidl for less than half the price? Why should I buy Kelloggs cornflakes when all store brand cornflakes are of better quality? Why should I buy expensive name brand chocolate when the best chocolate is from LIdl or Aldi? for a much lower price? I don’t want to eat commercials, I want to eat good food for a reasonable price.
JudyL says
We have tried so many of the Aldi brands and have never been disappointed. To me, it’s a “shopping experience” to discover new items, new flavor and new brands. I drove by today and it now says it will open in April so I’m counting down the days. Don’t count on the Americans coming around. Too many of us stick like glue to the things we’ve known forever and never try new things . . therefore missing out on so many discoveries.
AmyM says
We were just discussing this at dinner last night as Consumer Reports rated grocery chains… the northern chain Wegmans, came in first again ( I have been in a couple and they are totally amazing… nothing compares)… Publix second, etc.
The thing is in our last home I was never impressed with Publix, and Kroger’s was one of the best stores around.. great meat, produce, lovely staff.
Piggly Wiggly was just awful… old, smelly.. Yet the new Piggly Wiggly near our son is amazingly beautiful and lovely products.
So I think it is not only the chain but the management as well… I have a friend in Florida who has 3 publix near her and says they are all different as far as quality.
But the main thing is I hope your new store is great, and Aldi will be a helpful addition.
Amy says
You will like United. That’s the only grocery stores we have in Amarillo. Yes, Albertson’s bought the company last year. Well, we had one Albertson’s store here but they were forced to sell it as part of the buy of United. Smelly old store, can’t even think of the name of it now, as I won’t go in it. United is nice! Prices reflect it, though.