Guy in front of me at Publix tried to buy a 12-pack of beer with an EBT card.

It goes without saying,

All your base are belong to Kroger.

PCC FTW.

Kroger and Food City are the biggies here. There's a small local chain called Whites. Once in awhile I see a Piggly Wiggly, but that seems to be more up in Virginia. An occasional Food Lion around.

I blame Obama.

See, Kroger owns everything else. Been on the Left Coast for awhile, so I'm not up on a lot of the other regions--and I've never been in the South, really. But Kroger owns Fred Meyer, Safeway, and I'm pretty sure Albertsons. I think Kroger owns Food Lion as well. I suppose I could go look up all the supermarket chains they own, but I don't care enough.

Actually, God's the reason you're stupid, not the O-man. Can't blame him for that one.



In NY there are a ton of grocery stores competing - Key Food, Walbaums, King Kullen, Pathmark, Shop Rite, and I'm almost certainly missing a couple.

When I was shopping around Atlanta I first saw the Publix and what little I saw echoes what everyone said - clean, well run. And big.

In contrast, in San Antonio the only grocery stores for 50 miles in every direction except for grocerias are all called H.E.B. But they've all been adequate to my needs, though it's not like they have any direct competition (except that most of the Target and Walmarts also sell groceries and there is probably another 'club' store or two around in addition to Sam's Club).

Kroger tried to get their meathooks via Fred Meyer into Albertsons but didn't pull it off. They don't own Safeway. That's another conglomeration.

What's interesting is who owns what within Kroger -- Kroger owns Fred Meyer, who owns QFC, Smith's, Ralph's and other various local grocery outfits. Kroger also seemingly owns Fry's -- and while Fry's Electronics seems to operate independently from the Kroger umbrella, the Fry's grocery stores has the same logo as Fry's Electronics.

It's kind of ridiculous when I think about it...within a ten mile radius of here there are 2 Shaw's stores, 2 Hannaford's, Wal-Mart SuperCenter, Target, Morning Glory Natural Foods, Brackett's Market, Bisson's Meat Market, three different Farmer's Markets, scads of produce stands and several fresh seafood purveyors.

Frick, you can't throw a rock in any direction without hitting a food market of some kind around here!

I know for awhile Publix was concerned about losing market share to Walmart, but then everyone realized that a Publix shopper would never jump ship to Walmart of all places. Publix gets my vote for best bakery ever.

And some make the stump look like a valedictorian at an ivy league college.

Wow, we agree on something.

Wal-Mart can't hold a candle to Publix in the bakery section or IMHO the meat section.

Sure it might be more expensive but the quality is worth it.

We had two Winn Dixies here in Augusta (that I know of).
The ghetto Winn Dixie is still now just a vacant building. The other Winn Dixie (just down the road) was converted into some weird office building or something. All the windows are dark, and there are no signs anywhere indicating what goes on there.

It could be some weird "Men In Black" research shit or something - hiding in plain sight basically. Eventually people wrote to the newspaper asking what went on in the building. They said something about some kind of railroad security or some such. I'm not buying it.

You see cars in the parking lot but you never actually see people going in or out of the building.

Yeah you might want to move before one or more monsters breaks out and smashes up your town.

My mom works part time at the Wal-Mart in my hometown and the baked goods are partially prepared elsewhere, frozen and then shipped to the stores to complete their cooking.

Agreed about the meat section. They must send all the good meat to Sam's Club because, back when we used to have a membership there, the meat section rocked.

I don't buy my groceries at Wal-Mart because the food just doesn't look apetizing to me. I think it's the lighting, or the color scheme in the grocery section or something. Even the packaged food looks unappealing.

The local grocery chain here (HEB) kicks ass for the most part. They ran their biggest competitor (Albertson's) out of town nearly ten years ago and now only compet with Wal-Mart Supercenters and SuperTargets. My only complaint with HEB is a professional one because since their last PR director left, it's impossible to get in their stores to shoot video for stories.

Or just go in and ask what they do. The worst they can do is wipe your mind.

I can think of a lot worse things then that.

Maybe he already has and just doesn't remember. THAT's probably annoying.

I'd move to the Carolinas to shop at Bloom.

Last time I mentioned something like this on Facebook, one of my socialist friends started accusing me of not wanting the poor to be able to enjoy life. The berating was impressive.

The same thing happens to me over at TNZ.

Really? As far as I'm concerned Food Stamps are for FOOD! I have no problem with someone who needs it getting help feeding a family, but if you want to buy booze, panhandle for it or collect bottles for the deposit or something...

To tell how tough the grocery biz is...I shopped a couple of times at Sweet Bay in South Tampa, which has a reputation for upscale pricing. The store was decent and the selection was adequate for a single guy, but I didn't like it for some reason. Then I realized the problem was that the shopping carts were old, beat up and nasty looking. Doesn't sound like much, but it was enough to get me to go a mile down the road Publix.

Ramen, was the guy white or black?

I'll let Ramen decide if he wants to answer that or not, but speaking for myself, I dont' give a shit. It doesn't change the impact of the story at all. Anyone trying to buy booze with Food Stamps is a low life regardless of color.

I read something a couple of weeks ago where grocery carts were testing positive for E. Coli and all kinds of mean and nasty things.

We also have a Save-A-Lot grocery, which is the lowest of the low as far as grocery stores go. I went in there once and was not impressed. No fresh vegetables and processed food as far as the eye could see.

And now the grocery stores are putting those bactericidal wipes at the door so you can wipe the cart down before you put the screaming kid into it and the food.

In Oregon it is illegal to pump your own gas. Allegedly this is because gas pumping is a skilled and dangerous trade that requires specialized training. But really it is a form of welfare that forces gas stations to pay minimum wage to people too stupid for any other job.

Oregon used to have a slick bottle deposit program--any store that sold deposit containers had a bank of machines that took your cans and bottles and gave you a receipt that you took into the cashier. A lot of stores still have this, but my Fred Meyer got rid of it and now you need to go to some consolidated facility and wait in line forever during regular business hours.

They've made it so that if you have any sort of job it is cheaper to just put the bottles in the recycle bin for the hobos to rummage through. An hour of a hobo's time is worth $1.50. Mine isn't.

55% agree!1!!!111111!!!!!11!!!1!!