We do our weekly grocery shopping at the local Super Target in the mall formerly known as Christown. We've been going there for years, and have generally been happy. Heck, when the store first opened it was amazing. Lately, however, it seems that they've either completely discontinued something we love and have purchased for years (Archer Farms brand multi-grain bread, for instance), or products suddenly appear with a marked-down tag, signaling their imminent demise. It doesn't matter what it is; if we develop a fondness for something it seems to invariably disappear from the shelves.
Today we wanted to pick up some Ben & Jerry's ice cream. The entire fucking freezer case was empty. "Oh we're rearranging things."
Another pastime of this store's managers, it seems.
Kraft cheese? Gone. You can now only buy Market Pantry (Target's own brand). A dozen eggs? Nope. You can now only purchase packs of 18, unless you want to pay through the nose to buy only 12. Target used to carry a huge assortment of frozen, ready-to-bake pies. Not any more. Two or three varieties available now.
When checking out, we're usually asked, "Did you find everything you wanted?" but today we weren't. It's a blessing, I suppose. The poor checkout girl would've gotten a lot more than she bargained for if she'd asked. (And it's not like they care, anyway. In the past when we've responded in the negative, we always get an "I'm sorry to hear that." Not, "What were you looking for?" or even "What can we do to help?"
Why don't we shop elsewhere? Well, there is both a Safeway and a Fry's (Kroger) approximately equally distant—and closer to our house—than Target, but Safeway is a clusterfuck of the first order. The store will be overflowing with customers and they usually have only two or if you're lucky, three checkout lanes open. They used to have self-checkout but I guess too many things were walking out the door.
Fry's lot is hell to get in and out of, they don't always have everything we need (as bad as Target), prices are higher, and the quality of the meat—surprisingly—is not as good. To their credit, both Safeway and Fry's have a better selection of fresh fruit and vegetables than Target, but that's not enough to offset all the negatives.
First world problems to be sure, but still annoying as hell.
My nearest Target is similarly changing everything to its now private brands. T shirts used to be Merona, Mossimo, now Goodfellow or similar.
Prices have risen sharply in past year in the food section.
And because the store is 2 floors, god help you if you want to buy fruit or veggies or peanut butter on one floor and need toilet paper or paper towels on the other floor.
But Trader Joe's is the worst at removing items from the shelves forever if you happen to like them. I could write a dissertation on that subject. In fact, simmer sauces of the Indian kind have recently disappeared as have balsamic veggies.
I would go on and on….
I really miss Merona Polos. I originally started wearing them because they were inexpensive; now I can't find any other Polo that fit me as well as they did. The Goodfellows are much cheaper (typically around $10) but they fit like hell.
Agreed about TJs. I still haven't forgiven them for discontinuing the frozen bowtie pasta dish; we used to throw in some chopped chicken breast and you'd have a meal.