I hope I'm not being too negative on this store -- it does have what is by far my favorite piece of grocery store artwork I've seen anywhere! I think I'm just projecting the fact that I'm still a little uncomfortable in wealthy people's spaces from having grown up in a rural poor area and really never having encountered that growing up. If I were to shop at a natural foods store, I'd rather it look like this old ramshackle place that I loved when I was growing up -- I still can't afford some of the stuff they're selling there, but at least I wouldn't feel uncomfortable shopping there the way I would here. I know some of you have found my comments about these upper-class stores a bit weird -- hopefully this explains that a little bit better. That's also why I've said that I prefer visiting stores in lower-income neighborhoods to those in fancy suburbs, something which I know some of you have also found a bit unusual.
Wow, aside from the polished floors maybe, this looks like what a grocery store would look like if I set it up in my garage, lol. It's funny how the colorful Kroger 'Food 4 Less' decor is said to be mostly used at discount, diverse locations and how more plain decor is used at more upscale grocery stores. I'm not sure what to make of that. Maybe the decor trends fit with the ideas that poorer people buy food products with artificial colors and such while more wealthy people want more natural food that correlates with very plain, stripped-down decor?
ReplyDeleteIn many ways, my favorite retailers were stores like Montgomery Ward and Sears back in their glory years. They were stores for all kinds of people, but mainly they were middle-class stores for middle-class shoppers and middle-class employees. Someone working at Sears or Wards could live a middle-class life with their stable full-time jobs with benefits at those retailers. Of course, those days are mostly over and what we're left with are a lot of extreme discount stores with relatively poor shopping experiences and then a handful of some very wealthy stores for those who want to spend thousands on attire and such. Even some of those retailers are struggling, but the likes of Ross and such seem to be doing well for the most part.
I will say that while high-end grocers have never intimidated me, high-end clothing/department stores (Neiman Marcus and stuff like that) are usually places I try to avoid for a few reasons. I suppose some reasons are similar to yours.
Although Food Town here in Houston is very much a discount grocery store, I much appreciate that their employees seem to put a little more effort into going the extra mile for their customers than the big chain store employees. The employees dress a little more formally and they don't have self-checkouts and such. Although Food Town locations are usually older locations, they do seem to maintain the stores relatively well. It's nice that they give their working class and middle-class customers some professionalism. Of course, PCC and Food Town are almost on the total opposite ends of the grocery segment! I'm not at all suggesting that PCC isn't professional because I wouldn't have a clue about that, but certainly some retailers in the middle between the two are lacking somewhat in that regard. That's my opinion at least.
There are some people in Seattle who are partially responsible for the degraded state for B&M retail, but we won't even get into that messy subject, lol.