Supermarkets not so super!

In the days before Thanksgiving the supermarkets are crowded with dazed shoppers who couldn't think of a clever way to get someone else to make the turkey this year. I of course just wanted my normal weekly groceries and some Ice-cream. I attempted to find a time when everyone would not be at the store, but didn't want to spend my Saturday night shopping so I gave up and went out.

Actually I wanted some Lactaid Double Chocolate Chip ice cream for reasons that are self-explanatory. Note how specific I am being on the ice cream, a particular brand a particular type. There are only two grocery store that I carry it in my area. Super G, which ain't that super and the Acme. My adventure started at the Super G where of course they didn't''t have the ice cream in the case or the ten other things I needed. On to the next store, because any shopping adventure requires two stores.

The Acme at Rt202 and Rt141 just north of Wilmington, Delaware has seen better days. Because of the general seediness and decline of the store it earned a few nicknames from me: The Crapme for how crappy it is, the Crackme for the drug of choice of its clientele, and the Smackme, which is what you should do to me every time I insist on shopping there.

I found my ice cream after actually stuffing my body into the freezer to get to the very back of the shelf where it was stashed. Do the stores expect to sell the stuff that is behind everything? Did the self-evident thought that "out of sight out of mind" is not a way to move product off of the shelves never occur to them? And because no trip to the Smackme is complete without it, I again suffered in the only line they have open and I pined for the pure simplicity of self-serve checkout with no human interaction.

Here is what the perfect super market should be:

1.) Have everything I am looking for.
2.) Have it at low prices, without all of the shopper card and coupon nonsense.
3.) Be clean and neat, and make it easy to find things.
4.) Did I saw low prices? I really mean that several times.

Don't tell me about the stores that have all of this, there are none! For all of the "consumers are important", "customers are number one" attitude - I must admit that I am not feeling it. I suspect that they just want to make as much money on me as they can. I like the "power of the consumer" part of capitalism more than the "There ain't no such things as a free lunch" and "all the market will bear" part.