Fry’s _Kroger’s

Fry’s Supermarkets is an Arizona subdivision of Kroger’s. By and large it’s a fairly downscale chain, catering to the (non-union) working class and the immobile. But recently this outfit decided it wanted to take out AJ’s, a ludicrously upscale outfit that had a store in Moon Valley, a district of mixed fortunes (one minute it’s all ritzy and titzy, the next it’s chez pitz). Right on the border of Phoenix (downscale), Scottsdale (mid- to upscale in that part of town), and Paradise Valley (Richistan!), they installed a wildly upscale outlet across the street from a small Whole Foods and within easy driving distance of the offending AJs.

Within weeks, the AJ’s closed.  The Whole Foods has hung on, but it’s no longer the WF of choice. It’s weak. Very weak.

Normally I don’t shop in Fry’s, for these reasons:

1) The one in our neighborhood, now mercifully defunct, was an exceptionally bad corporate citizen, seemingly trashing our area on purpose. The bastards.

2) Fry’s stores in general tend to appear in or very close to working-poor (or even nonworking-poor) neighborhoods, where they exploit the residents’ inability to own cars by jacking prices through the stratosphere. The bastards.

3) The meat’s terrible.

4) The typical store’s ambience is best described as grim.

5) I really, really, REALLY resent it when a huge national chain comes in and drives out local businesses. The bastards.

 This morning, though, I made an exception. Here is what I knew:

a) Ruby the Corgi Pup needed some more of her radically expensive dog food (more about which later).

b) Some branches of Fry’s carry said radically expensive dog food. This can be translated to read “the upscale Fry’s in Paradise Valley probably carries the radically expensive dog food.”

c) I also needed a bottle of contact lens chemicals, not available at a Petsmart (the other outfit in town that carries said radically expensive dog food, other than Whole Foods, which does not carry the totally unorganic, environmentally unfriendly contact lens chemical).

d) I had a doctor’s appointment about six blocks up the road from the invasive Fry’s.

So I decided to swallow my scruples and drop by the Paradise Valley Fry’s on the way back to the Funny Farm, by way of avoiding a lengthy drive into the central city, out of my way and annoyingly time-consuming.

Hence: I surface at the Fry’s at Tatum and Shea.

o

m

g

!

They were having an amazing sale. Pile that on top of the fact that this store melds upscale grocery store with Target with Cost Plus/World Market with  Bevmo…and the mind boggles.

Found the dog food: $8 less than I’ve been paying at Whole Foods and PetSmart (the Whole Foods of the dog food world).

Found the contact lens solution. Price: who knows. Didn’t have to drive to a Walgreen’s, park, search, and stand in line at yet another cash register to get it.

Found a Bodum French Press coffeemaker: $10 off the usual $39.99 price. Having been alerted to certain shortcomings by critics at Amazon, I busted open a package, pulled the thing out of the box, and inspected. It did NOT have any plastic parts in the plunger. SOLD!

Found sets of sheer curtains, two to a package, for 50% off. These, I need to replace the sheers purchased two or three years ago at Target and installed to shelter the patio plants from summer’s blasting morning sun. SOLD!

Found squirt bottles in various colors and sizes. CLEANING LADY JOY!  I make my own glass cleaner, which drives CL nuts. This is stored in a Home Depot squirt bottle. Also dilute and store Simple Green: into the HD squirt bottle, difficult to distinguish, except by the solution’s toxic-looking color, from the bottle of clear glass cleaner. And I place dish detergent (slightly diluted) in another HD squirt bottle, utterly indistinguishable from the clear glass cleaner, except by the label inked on with a Sharpie, ink that readily washes off. Cleaning Lady Craziness. To add to that: I keep a bottle of clean, clear water to squirt on the dogs when they get out of hand, also in an HD squirt bottle. Cleaning Lady and Proprietor Craziness.

Purchased a blue bottle for the glass cleaner (heh…Windex, get it?). Purchased a small fist-sized squirt bottle for Dog Squirt. Fifty cents off each of the above.

Grabbed a much-needed medium-sized French canning jar for storage. A dollah-fifty off.

Found some of those flocked coat hangers that keep your slimpsy blouses from sliding off onto the floor. No cents off, but didn’t have to drive way to Hell and gone across town to the Container Store.

Found GE three-way INCANDESCENT light bulbs. Grabbed. Haven’t seen those at HD for awhile. Will buy more (probably lots more) the next time I’m in the vicinity.

Found stainless-steel teaballs, $1.99, in a bulk container. Need. Haven’t seen for a long time, certainly not at that price. Certainly not free of nasty consumer-proof packaging.

Found package of three mesh laundry bags, now needed to do laundry in the HATED high-efficiency goddamn washing machine, for a mere six bucks. Two of these are excellent sizes. One will hold a bra or a couple of pairs of underpants. I guess.

Found REAL LIVE GREEN TOMATOES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OMG. Paid price of regular tomatoes. GRABBED! Raced home, sliced, dunked in egg, cornmeal, and flour, cooked deliciously in a lake of butter. Ate.

Attained Nirvana.