Destination Shopping

I love a great grocery store. When I visit my parents or my grandmother I can go visit their Ukrops. A trip to Ukrops is quite exciting! Ukrops is fun because they have all sorts of fun stuff - prepared foods, a very nice produce section with all types of fruits and veggies, a nice salad bar, special products you can't get elsewhere. I thought Ukrops was the greatest. That is until Wegman's opened. That place is amazing! They have everything under the sun. They have a food court! They have a cookie bar where you can pick your cookies and mix and match. They all sorts of prepared-cook-it-yourself foods. They have the best low-fat veggie cream cheese that reminds of the veggie cream cheese from Marx Hot Bagels in Cincinnati. I would go out of my way to go to Wegman's. Then I discovered Whole Foods. I like Whole Foods for all the same reasons as Wegman's, but shopping at Whole Foods feel like I'm buying nutrious food, something about it being super fresh and brightly colored and prepared for me makes it easier.

Until recently though none of these fabulous stores were near me. It was always a field trip to go to the fun stores and it would be an all day affair. So I lived with my little Giant. It might not be as flashy or as bright or sell healthy organic food, but it was cozy and I think I know every checker and manager there! Enter Harris Teeter.

The area where I live is somewhat up and coming. They are building new houses by the dozen and there are more and more people. Out by one of these new developments they built a brand new Harris Teeter. It opened on Wednesday. I have been there twice.

I'm 100% addicted. One of my favorite parts is the salad bar. On Wednesday when I was there I got some spinach salad. It was a yummy combo of fresh spinach, blueberries, raspberries, mandrian oranges and red onions. It was so yummy I needed more. I went back today. They didn't have that spinach salad. This time they had a traditional spinach salad with hard boiled egg, carrots, mushrooms and onions. It looked soooooo good, bright green, and fresh. It was really yummy too! Tonight I got some fruit also - it was the best pineapple I'd had in a long time. Another favorite of mine is the bread slicing station. They have loaves of bakery fresh bread and they pay an employee to stand there and slice what you want. This means I can get backery fresh bread and portion control! If I slice it myself I usually make the slices really big and eat them, pre-sliced I'll only eat 1 or 2 slices. Also, they had mini loaves, so I can buy less.

I'm so thrilled that at long last I have a super grocery store near me to shop at all the time! Rumor has it Wegeman's is coming in 2008...