I have this love/hate relationship with Meijer. Catch me on a good, tolerable, no kids along day, and I love Meijer. Catch me on a bad, irritated, 4 kids along trip, and I HATE IT!! The other day happened to be the later of the two--hence the HATE relationship I feel at this moment. In honor of my friend, Dana,- www.citygrace.blogspot.com, I am going to use bullets for this post:
Reasons I hate Meijer:
- The ultimate--#1 reason--why the heck do they have to have ALL their bathroom stuff clear across the store from their groceries? I just don't get it. How often do you actually go to a store for just bathroom items, and not have to get grocery items as well? Enough said about that one--this one alone is getting my heart rate up.
- At any given time you go there, there are 1000 people in the grocery section, all out for themselves. At least the one I go to--everyone is focused on one thing alone, and I swear they have x-ray vision and just don't even see me or my kids standing in the middle of the isle. We go out of there with at least one skinned up heel every trip.
- Why are grocery carts made for either 1 child or 3 children (the ones with the HUGE red seats.)? What about us folk who have 4 kids? And 4 that need to be restrained, harnessed , and at times straight jacketed! I usually get the awesome tantrums about who gets to sit in what seat and for how long before its time to trade, or I get two children who want to stand on the sides of the cart and at any given moment one steps off and the whole cart about tips over from the weight of the other one on the other side, causing another tantrum from the one who about gets the weight of the entire cart plus Tessa (in the front seat) on top of them. My instinct to lash out is stopped by 15 eyes (30 times 2) all on ME--"what is she thinking bringing 4 kids to the grocery store", all the while the 4th child gets rear ended by my cart into the heel. (yes, another tantrum begins).
- The self check out NEVER goes as smooth as you think it is going to. I don't think I have ever had a time where I could scan all my items and not have the light go off and start beeping (and keep beeping) until the "attendee" stops helping the 3 other "self check-out" lanes and come over and help me. I think the employees must draw straws at the beginning of their shifts, and the short straw has to work the self check-out lanes.
There are a few things I LOVE about Meijer (hence the love part of the love/hate relationship).
- Meijer always has the newest International Delight coffee creamer on their shelves. I can guarantee that I can go to Meijer and get the new Coconut Cream, Carmel Delight, or Peppermint Mocha whenever I go there.
- Without kids along, I can spend hours roaming from department to department.
- Without kids along, I can spend plenty of time catching up on my smutty People Magazine, Star Magazine... and find out what all my celebrity friends have been seen doing around town, while I willingly let others go ahead of me in the checkout to allow myself more time to find out what adventures and adoptions Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are up to now.
- Without kids along (do we see a theme going on here) I can be guaranteed a good Carmel Macchioto from Starbucks.
I may just have to stay with the local Dicks Market here in Dorr. There, I can walk in the door with all 4 kids and yes, I get the occasional "oh no, she is here again with ALL FOUR--hold down the shelves before the spaghetti cans fall again", but at least they only have 5 aisles that the kids can get lost in (not 20), they have day old warmed up coffee, but its better than nothing, the only smutty magazine they have is People, but who needs anything else, and I only have the choice between French Vanilla or Hazelnut creamer, but good thing I like both. The cashiers are friendly (all are 60 years old or above!!) and think my kids are adorable (who wouldn't be flattered by that), the choices are limited--but that helps with my indecisiveness. There are no self check-out lanes ( they only have 3 lanes in the whole store). I think I am becoming a country girl!!! Or just a tired old mommy who treasures the empty stores where no one cares or hears my kids fighting about who gets to sit where and when.
5 comments:
Thanks for the bullet point shout-out.
Funny thing is, I just told Steve today that I would give almost anything to have a Meijer here. I'm lucky if my store has any creamer on the shelf at all...and if they do, it's probably kosher and tastes not so good.
I love reading your blog - I can almost always relate to something you are saying (as a mom of three)and us moms do have to stick together. I feel the same way about Walmart Supercenters - if I ever do go by myself I usually spend no less than four hours total including one hour total driving. Let's not forget stopping by our new neighborhood coffee shop for my "reward" for being able to escape alone! I usually go at night when only the stockers are around and I spend forever going from department to department just because I can. And I love being able to look without having the kiddos hanging off from wherever. Their new favorite thing is to find these automatic coupon printers, you know the ones that hang on the shelves between products? Maddie can climb a freezer door like she's climbing a tree and then she hands me tons of rumpled up, crinkled coupons for items that I am never going to buy!
Quinn and I just took the kids to Family Fare last night after church to get some things and by the time we left I swear I was having nervous breakdown! I left him at the self checkout and took the kids to the car - only after the bagger boy kept giving me looks for going off on husband and kids as I was about to meltdown. Point proven that when left to choice - I'll choose no kids, thank you. (Even though I love mine to death) Hopefully that doesn't make me a crummy mom, just a human one!!
I think this is possibly the longest comment ever left on a blog - anyways, thanks for sharing and making me feel a bit more normal! And I Love your new blog header - it looks great!
Choose Dick's. I will save you all my ranting about corporate America, etc. Independent, local is almost always going to be better...for many reasons. Unless it is too expensive and it makes you choose between feeding the 4 kids or not. Then pick the kids. :) Thanks for letting me eavesdrop! I check out your blog often (get here from Dana's). It's nice to keep up with people from high school even if I am really only keeping up on you. Take care, Tina!
nothing wrong with being a country girl--you know I grew up in your neck of the woods :)
Make it easy on yourself-- choose Dick's Market.
I too welcome the long line at the checkout, grab the People Magazine and read as I shuffle closer to the register. Yeah I don't have to buy it then. Agreed on the self check out - sucks. Agreed on the bathroom products - location makes no sense. I can't relate to having to take kids with me, but my biggest annoyance when shopping at Meijer is running into people I've had cases on at work. I remember trying to look very busy in the shreddred cheese section to avoid talking to someone about work. I didn't work. How rude...I was very busy weighing my shredded cheese options:) P.S. I tried the White Chocolate Macadamia Creamer the other day. Highly recommend it!
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