The new Kroger - and visits to two other stores in the same day

Again I ask, what other site would give you a review of a new grocery store? That's why the Road is here, my friends.

Yesterday morning, after church, we decided to take a family field trip to the new Kroger Signature store at FM3040 and Morriss. Normally, my wife and I try to do the shopping by ourselves -- if you take the kiddos, it takes twice as long, and you spend twice as much. But this was a special occasion, so we made a day of it.

The parking lot at 11:15am on a holiday-weekend Sunday was unexpectedly crowded, but because the store is quite large inside, the crowd was pretty well dispersed.

Size matters in grocery stores, doesn't it? I've always been partial to our southside Tom Thumb store, which is a big store, though not as big as the larger Tom Thumb on FM407. The new Kroger is probably 1/4 to 1/3 bigger than my Tom Thumb. Inside it's bright and open, with a mix of artificial lighting and natural lighting provided by a few skylights spread across the ceiling. The mix works, and it gives the store a more open-air feeling. In contrast, the southside Tom Thumb went from all-fluorescent (or something similar) lighting to a more cool lighting scheme in its summer makeover. Tom Thumb's lighting is designed to be more calming, I suppose, but Kroger's feels more natural. I'm happy with either. At least they're paying attention to the lighting, which is subtly important.

Once you notice the larger, brighter physical space, the next thing you see is the army of people Kroger has hired. Despite a good crowd of shoppers, the store seemed to have more employees than customers. Staffers were quite friendly, but the service was still a bit clumsy. I'm sure they're still training most of the people I saw working there, and you could tell everything was brand new to them. More about this later.

We first went to the fresh foods area. In the deli, the most notable features were the large-scale branding of Boars Head meats and all the hairnets. Every employee had a hairnet on, and most were of the white sanitary disposable type. Even if I was reassured by the fact I'd not likely have a hair in my ham (which has never happened at Tom Thumb, by the way), it was a little off-putting to see all these happy, smiling people with these very unattractive hairnets. Perhaps Kroger will invest in a more attractive variety of head gear. If I were an employee there, I'd demand it.

Anyway, the deli and bakery sections were quite nice, though not significantly different from/better than the post-upgrade Tom Thumb. Kroger has a sushi bar near the deli, which may interest some of you, but not me.

Product selection is a big factor in choosing a favorite grocery store. One of my big gripes about Tom Thumb over the years is that they've reduced the number of products they've offered, and they've also cut back on some of the brand choices. Kroger has more brand choice, from what I can see.

Kroger appears to have more space for meat and dairy products, and while we took advantage of some of the specials they offered, we didn't spend a lot of time on this first visit surveying all the options.

Back to lighting. My wife loved the lighted shelves in the cosmetics aisle. Very nice touch.

Prices? Both stores are going out of their way to win on price, and in the short-term and long-term, this will only help Flower Mounders. Having the apparently-secret 10% across-the-board discount from Tom Thumb the past month made a nice bonus dent in our grocery bill, but that expired September 1st. If you use the store's incentive card, you'll save a lot of their regular prices. But are you getting a good deal? Hard to say, but I think we'll be better off in the end with the extra competition.

Back to service. At the checkout stand, there were three people there to greet us. There was an experienced checker and two baggers -- I assume one or both of the baggers were training. Service was quick and efficient, but the checker left about 7 items in the bottom of the grocery basket. The baggers loaded our checked goods into a second basket, so we never knew the checker had failed to ring up everything we had put into our shopping cart. They were never rung up, so we didn't pay for them, but we'll have to make a second trip now.

Bottom line: The new Kroger's nice, so check it out. Will I switch from the my old/new-again Tom Thumb? I think on a regular basis I'll stick with my store. It's closer to my home, and it's served me well for a long time. But I will watch the ads more closely, and I'll be hoping for more price/service/selection competition in the weeks to come.

Later that day -- back to the old Tom Thumb

I knew I'd have to go back to my old store later in the day. Tom Thumb is the only place around here where you can get your license tags renewed on a Sunday. After the Kroger experience, it was nice to step back into the old familiar store for a benchmark. Things were definitely a lot quieter at Tom Thumb than they had been at Kroger, so I'm sure they're taking notice.

I bought a few of the items that Kroger had forgot to ring up, got my license tag renewed, and off I went.

Still later that the same day

I had to make a quick run to Kohl's. As I was driving back home south on 2499, I remembered that I had forgotten to get aluminum foil at any of my previous stops. Not preferring to cross 2499 twice to get back to Tom Thumb, I made a quick right into Albertson's on the northwest corner of 2499 and 3040. How depressing. After seeing the revamped Tom Thumb and the brand-new Kroger in quick succession, the dated look of the 10-year-old Albertson's was quite stark. The color schemes in shades of blue are long out of style. Kroger and Tom Thumb both borrow from the more contemporary earth-tone palette. I've never been a big fan of Albertsons' service, but thanks to the fact I had only one item to buy, and thanks to the fact Albertsons (like Kroger) has self-service checkout, I was in and out very quickly. A good thing, considering how little I like that store. I wonder if this new competition will spell the end for Albertsons' at that location. Certainly you'd think the company would have to put up (upgrade, remodel) or shut up (close).