Where Albertson’s Failed, SuperValu Could Redeem Benefits

By Emily Esterson, 1-24-06

Over the years I've grown used to the sometimes glacial pace of supermarket checkers, quick-oil-change guys, even fastfood drive-throughs. It's part of living in the southwest, and I've come to appreciate it. When the checkers are chatting, I get to read recipes in foodie magazines and try to commit them to memory (saving myself the cost of the magazine). I bring a book with me to the oil-change place. I have learned to breathe out deeply when I feel my New Yorker bile rising up in my throat.

The Albertson's (which was sold yesterday--read Shea Andersen's Boise page with links to many stories, here. )in my neighborhood has been particularly guilty of poor service. At times, there will be only one or two checkers on duty, and the lines will stretch all the way down the frozen foods aisle. In the past year, though, things have gotten slightly better--and sadly, the reasons why service has improved point directly to the state of the supermarket industry. (If you're looking for the impact on New Mexico's 1200 Albertson's employees, you're out of luck. The Albuquerque Journal picked up a short Associated Press brief, and the New Mexican only discusses Santa Fe stores).

Consider that a super Wal-Mart opened just a mile from my local Albertson's a year ago. For the first four or five months, Albertson's aisles were eerily empty, even on Saturday afternoon. The entire shopping population of my 30,000 neighbors seemed to have migrated from one supermarket to the other. We, too, tried Wal-Mart, only after we'd showed up at Albertson's one Saturday, and feeling disgusted by the place and too lazy to drive to Wild Oats, we gave in to the Wal-Mart temptation. It was a mistake. Wal-Mart was just as crowded and slow. The prices only marginally better on certain items, and the food, well, sort of franken-foodish in its cheerful coats of wax and cellophane.

As an amatuer foodie, I find myself continually disappointed by the food in both places. The steak at Wal-Mart is eerily red. Like, dyed, maybe. The green peppers, rubbery and tasteless. The cucumbers bitter. At Albertson's, processed food rules the day--there is hardly any meat in the case that is not pre-seasoned, injected, or treated. The vegetables are routinely tasteless, spring, summer, winter, and fall.

So what choice does that leave me? Drive 30 miles to Whole Paycheck. Deal with the prices at Wild Oats (and make a second stop for toilet paper, paper towels and dog food?). We don't have the income to spend $5 on organic carrots, or $9.99 for a pound of ranch-raised organic beef. Nor are we interested in buying bulk pork chops (although the dogs would be happy if we did.) Somewhere between Wal-Mart and Whole Foods there is a happy medium--but supermarkets like Albertson's have yet to figure out how to thrive in their middle place. Perhaps the sale of Albertson's signals a new era. We can only hope.

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