Wegmans Trumps All
Delhaize America, the Belgian owners of the Food Lion, Bloom and Bottom Dollar Food grocery chains, are closing 126 under-preforming stores around the country. Click here for a list of closing stores. They are also “retiring” the Bloom banner and converting 64 Bloom and Bottom Dollar stores into Food Lions. Click here for a list of converting stores. The Blooms here in Locust Grove is one of the stores slotted to be converted to a Food Lion. Ironically, when we moved here in 2006, they were in the process of converting it from a Food Lion to a Blooms and now six years later it is being made back into a Food Lion.
Hmm… I still prefer to shop at Wegmans! Wegman’s is “a major regional supermarket chain, and one of the largest private companies in the U.S.”, according to their website, and is headquartered in Rochester, New York. I will drive 25-30 minutes to the store in Federicksburg for a number of reasons: the reasonable prices, fresh fruits and vegetables including organic and locally grown options, carry a wide assortment of gluten-free and vegan products, and the shopping experience thanks to the unique atmosphere in the store as well as the Marketplace, which is set up like an indoor market place where you can buy freshly prepared food from a handful of mini “restaurants”. As I am a wheat-free vegan, being able to buy the food that I eat at a decent price and a decent quality is worth the drive. And it is important to mention that we drive nearly an hour and a half up to the Adventist Book Center in Silver Spring, Maryland, (part of the Washington, D.C., area) to get our dried goods like TVP. We have tried a few local stores but their products were questionable.
So what grocery store(s) do you shop at? Why do you use that particular store?