No longer the best of evils
Thursday, June 01, 2006
For four years, starting on the first of the new millennium, I successfully avoided nearly all chains. Then, after an income loss, I slowly allowed QFC and other supermarkets to replace the smaller, often more expensive grocers I’d started choosing exclusively.
Now I can't imagine why I chose QFC except out of habit (from the '80s and '90s) and a tendency to do my shopping at 3 a.m., when most other supermarkets are closed. Though QFC's prices are drastically lower than those of the independent convenience stores on my block, they're much higher than Safeway's and Fred Meyer's. And though I used to avoid Safeway because of their policies toward their employees, now I'm hearing awful things about the management of QFC. To top it off, several years ago QFC was bought by Kroger, the owners of Fred Meyer; they’re no longer the smallest of the chain supermarkets as they once were.
The four stars are for the pleasant shopping experience at QFC minus the medium-high prices (not quite as high as at Larry's). I still buy things there that I can’t get elsewhere, but I aim to stop doing even that. Since I live near the waterfront, my goal is to learn to do my shopping before 6 p.m. and fill all or most of my needs at Pike Place Market.