overall it has been a quiet month, which has led to few posts by me as i can't say i have had many overly profound thoughts or doings.
after an irritating day at work on friday (someone who had planned to take the day off decided not to, so i could have had the day off, but didn't find out until i got to work), i stopped by atlantic to pick a few things up (milk, etc) and was surprised to see the parking lot packed. usually it gets pretty full during rush hour, but i managed to get there long before that rush so i wondered what was going on. after wandering into the store, i noticed the sushi bar was closed and wondered why that was, but at this point the 25% off total purchase print outs didn't register. after a few more moments, i realized that the little supermarket with the full liquor license that i liked going to was closing. there's no indication of when it will finally close, but at the rate people were attacking the shelves, i don't think it will be much longer.
so yesterday, M & i went back to do a more thorough browse of the wine aisle. 25% off booze is pretty good. on friday, people were practically fighting over the large bottles of vodka and the like, and the wines had been pretty well picked over. but we started looking and decided that if we saw something that looked interesting, grab it. for a supermarket, atlantic had a reasonable selection of wines. some cheap, some more expensive, but certainly a better selection than some places, so we looked and grabbed 9 various bottles. 2 of them were an El Coto Rioja which we had tried earlier this month and enjoyed. but the rest were this or that. afterwards, we did something i had yet to do since i started shopping there - we went up and down every aisle looking to see what else might be of interest. there wasn't a whole lot left that was of interest, but we were able to find stuff that we needed. and with heavy hearts, we paid for everything. 25% made a pretty big difference, knocking just over $50 off the bill, and to our delight, the $20 gift certificate was still valid, so we saved just over $70. not a bad haul.
on friday i gave it some thought as to why they were closing on the way home, and my suspicions were confirmed when i found a few articles on the closing.
more competition, the economy and energy prices. in the last year, both stop & shop and market basket opened in town (right next to each other) and they have pulled business away. i knew this would happen when they opened, but i obviously didn't know how much business was being pulled away. according to one of the articles i found, it costs atlantic ~$300,000/year for energy costs. that's a ton of money. in part it was due to their equipment, but with rising energy costs, increased competition, it made it harder for them to stay afloat. they still are, but the question would be 'for how much longer?' would they keep their heads above water.
for me, it means i have to plan my shopping trips a bit more. no longer can i just swing over to atlantic to grab milk or pistachios (that really depresses me - i liked their pistachios). both MB & S&S are out of the way for me. and i'm now kind of in the middle of the surrounding supermarkets. i've always had several choices, but i really did like the ability to literally roll down the hill to atlantic for when i needed something. plus it was easy when M&i were cooking if we needed something, i'd just run out and get it. no longer.
i don't know if i'll be back in atlantic before it closes. i may make another attempt at a wine run later this week, but i wouldn't be surprised if it was finally closed. i'm not sure if i'm mourning the loss of a friend, or whether i'm mourning the loss of convenience.
i am certainly going to miss the ability to buy beer & wine there. there are so few supermarkets that sell beer and wine in this state (talk about your draconian liquor laws, i voted yes to wine in supermarkets when it was a ballot question a few years back). the 3 trader joe's that sell wine are all out of my way (cambridge, framingham and i forget, but i've been to it). whole foods doesn't sell wine (have seen it tho in sonoma).
oh well. there isn't anything i can do about it, but i guess this means that market basket will be getting more of my money. even if it is a pain in the ass to get out of their parking lot. (light at the main entrance does not allow for left turns which i need - goes back to long before they moved in and the town (surprise) does not appear to want to change that)
farewell my friend. farewell to the first supermarket i had ever been in that had genuine carpeting.
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