we have a local (regional) grocer where we get staples from (Jewel) that's about 10 minutes away from our house. I swear to God, every time I walk into that place, I feel like I'm on the set of Star Wars filming the Mos Eisley scene. The people there are otherworldly. I can't explain it.

Jewel definitely attracts a certain demographic, even in the city. Still better then shopping for groceries at Walmart.

Stopped off at our neighborhood fishmonger to pick up lobster tails for dinner. Turns out their shop has doubled in size.

Hopefully it doesn't keep doubling in size. That would get out of hand quickly.

Stopped off at our neighborhood fishmonger to pick up lobster tails for dinner. Turns out their shop has doubled in size.

which one?

Dirk’s

ever have any of their prepared foods (e.g., chowder or lobster rolls)? the boy and i will be in the city saturday and if it's worth it we'll head up there.

I have not. Head’s up, they don’t have much seating.

Since Amazon took over WF, I had been there just once, to grab a hot meal on the road in VA. So today was my first time actually grocery shopping at WF since the Bezos takeoff and my gosh, what a pitiful shadow of its former self.

what were you major complaints about it?

Enters store.
Immediately in front are berries.
Then dates.
Then white onions.
Then gourds.
Then some oranges.
Then the rest of the alliums.
Then apples and bananas.

The whole shop was like this, just the worst iteration of the standard "We're gonna make your browse everything to find the one thing you want."

And then on top of that, much of their produce was super common variety (gala and pink lady apples only), and much wasn't ripe (mangos that were hard as rocks) or too ripe (grapes that were literally oozing post-split).

I wanted mango salsa to go with some halibut. They were all out of WF brand, all out of third-party brand, and all out of ripe mangos. So I had to go to another store.

Freezer aisle was just as bad. They didn't have the pitaya dragon fruit you turned me onto, but they had pitaya watermelon. WTF? And the whore freezer case was like 2/3 365 brand, 1/3 brands I can get at any other store in town. Just no sense of product discovery like I used to enjoy when I shopped WF regularly.

I will say that the staff was uniformly happier and more helpful than any of the other shops, which I equate to their $25/hr starting rate. But in their effort to streamline supply chains and maximize their margin, and the inventory has suffered to the extent that it's not worth my ever going there again.*

*For groceries. When I ate their buffet in VA last year, I was surprised to find that it was still as good as before the acquisition.