My New Grocery Store

I don't ever remember being as excited about the opening of a business as I am about the fact that on Wednesday our town is getting a Coborn's grocery store. Not when IKEA opened in the Chicago area, or even when Trader Joe's opened in Minneapolis. I mean they were nice, but neither changed my life. But living in a town with no real grocery store (there is a dusty old market downtown and two gas station mini-marts, but that's it) has been a total pain. Have I mentioned how important cooking and food are to me? The nearest grocery store right now is a fifteen-minute drive away, and I know that isn't much, but when you live in a small town it seems very far away. It is in "town," and means going into town. Town is St. Cloud, where there's traffic and too many stoplights, and basically aggravation. Going into town is a trip. When I come home from work, which is 5 minutes away, the last thing I want to do is go to town!

Wednesday, we'll have a major chain grocery in St. Joseph. I can send Steve to pick up things (in the last month we've had an urgent need for barley and for black beans, for which I've been lucky to have Annie to borrow from next door). I can stop there on the way home. I need not worry when I go on the weekly shopping trip that I'll forget something important.

It's seriously like entering civilization. Now all I need is for our renter to move out so I can do laundry in the house, and I'll be set.

Of course, it will mean the end of Loso's, the dusty market downtown. It's a beautiful building, and Loso is a founding name in this town. I've maybe bought things there four or five times. Overpriced, not-the-right-brand things. I have very little sentimentality when it comes to basic needs. And despite the fact that the overstocked shelves of bright, shiny too-many-choices and too-much-to-consume grocery stores have caused me more than one anxiety attack, I'm so glad one is moving to my neighborhood.