Many of you may remember the blog I wrote about an experience I had while shopping at my local Springville REAMS grocery store. If you don't have any idea as to what I'm talking about, click here to be brought up to speed. Oh, and it's the paragraph just below the pictures of joyful snow dogs...in case you're thinking I gave you the wrong link. Well, I'm happy to announce that since my post, some faithful Lola readers (from Provo) have made maiden voyages of their very own to check out the Springville Reams for themselves! One even took the time to give them a review, and I wanted to let you all know what she had to say:
"I was inspired by Laura D to go check out Reams for grocery shopping. So today I headed over there for my weekly Monday afternoon grocery shopping trip instead of the super wally world, which I have grocery shopped at for years. So the general consensus was that that most of their food is a little more expensive then wal-mart, and their non-food items are quite a bit more expensive, don't even think about buying diapers there, 7.99 for 20 size 6 diapers, no thanx. BUT their produce department totally makes up for it, yes I was in fruit and veggie heaven. They have great produce and its very inexpensive, much cheaper than walmart. Here are some items I bought today and the prices:
*Large Avocados: $.69 each
*All varieties of apples: $.69 per pound
*Blackberry's & Blueberry's: 2 for $3 (the small cartons)
*Green bell peppers: 3 for a buck
*and my personal favorite 2 lb bags of carrots for $.89
(that's cheaper than the bulk carrots at costco that I get for my juicing)
So the savings in the produce department definitely made up for the bit of extra money paid for non-produce items, so it evens out.
But reams won me over for the following other reasons:
-The person at the checkout stand actually asked me how I was doing and was very friendly, weird I know.
-I didn't wait in line for a zillion years at the checkout stand
-I didn't have to walk a mile to and from my car
-If I forget something I don't have to walk a mile to the other side of the store
-I am supporting a local business instead of a huge corporation
-Their meat and produce is higher quality and tastes better
-I felt like I was in Mayberry mingling amongst the county folk
-The people that work there actually are knowledgeable about their products and can answer your questions.
Side story on this: I was at Wal-mart a couple months ago to buy a car seat. I had some questions about some of the car seats ie... safety ratings, benefits of this one versus that one etc... so I started asking the girl working in the baby department, she cuts me off mid sentence and blurts out "I don't know anything" that's it, who says that? ok I said is the manager available to talk to, yes she said. So the manager comes out and I proceed to ask her my questions, she couldn't answer anything for me, the baby department manager knew nothing about any of the car seats. I've been sucked in by Wal-mart in the past due to its low prices and the fact that they have almost everything, but now that I know I can get out of Reams for the same price and have a much better experience, I will be going there from now on.
Yessss! Go Ash! I totally agree with you on the produce - and I agree even more on the meat front! Ha ha! I personally prefer to eat Beef that has been slaughtered and packaged within the same week too! I would honestly love to know how long Walmart's meat has been on the truck...actually it doesn't matter. I made the mistake of buying meat there ONCE, and I never made that mistake again! Ew. ew. ew.
So who wants to be in the REAMS club? We could even get t-shirts or something.
What should they say?
Buy local?
I'm a Reams Girl?
Got preservative/hormone/antibiotic free beef?
You guys are smarter than me...what should our t-shirts say?
Who wants to be in the club?
(p.s. you can still go to Costco and Sam's club and be in my club.
I am passionate about Reams, but I am SO not giving up the thrill
I get from buying a year's supply of toilet paper for $19.99.)
Oh, AND I just bought big, deep cases of Blueberries there for .89 cents a case! Are you kidding me? Walmart, eat your heart out. I hope Lisa and Jen are getting excited for St. George 5K oatmeal now that BLUEBERRIES are being added to the pot! Yay! Antioxidants for all!
