It's the first real renovation in thirty-odd years. They had repainted the exterior on occasion, added a freezer here and there, and a couple of years ago put in a bakery at the front door.
For five weeks, they literally tore the guts out of the interior. New tile floor, fancy lighting, new display areas. It's a million-dollar look now.
The odd thing about my grocery? For a village of roughly four thousand, it's the only one. If you drive over.....there's only thirty spots in the lot. The entire interior is about the three-quarters the size of a college basketball court. In comparison to your typical Piggly Wiggly? It's maybe half the size.
They run an interesting concept. In the chips area, there's only sixteen types of chips to pick from, and rarely more than ten bags of each to pick from. The beer area? Maybe forty types of beer, but never more than four six-packs of each on display. There's no warehouse in the back to restock from.
Sometime after they close each evening....there's a tractor trailer vehicle that pulls up, and dumps out a computerized load from a warehouse in the region. From the dozen-odd pallets coming off....the stock guys run through the place in an hour or two....tossing up replacement chips, beef, pork, wine, beer, and everything else.
If there ever was a run on pork chips....the place would be sold out in thirty seconds. For some reason, this method tends to work. A tiny grocery, for your basic needs.
The distance from my place to the grocery? A two-minute walk. Shockingly enough....the store now stays open till eight in the evening. Twenty years ago....they would have been shutdown by six in the evening.
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