Bless Your Heart

I promised y’all a while back that I’d post about my favorite grocery store. This may not be interesting to some of you, but grocery stores are a big deal in the Bless Your Heart house. CSP is a co-manager of one and has been working for that company since 1990. And I worked for 4 different grocery store chains. Because of this background, I’m a tough customer. And I usually don’t like grocery shopping too much. Reminded me of work. Until we moved into our new house and I started shopping at Bloom. I love shopping there. It’s unlike any other grocery store. Lisa will tell you. The last time she visited we shopped there and she couldn’t believe it. Employees waving to us and shouting hellos from acrosss the departments. We didn’t know these people, they’re just friendly. And this may sound weird, but the store smells good.
Here are some other reasons why I love it:
-good looking produce department. also nice size organic & vegetarian sections
-items grouped where they make sense
-they have this one section at the front of the store where you can run in and grab all the essentials right there- milk, eggs, juice, bread, etc. without going all over the store.
-2 different kinds of buggies to choose from (small and large) or you can carry a basket
-you don’t need a loyalty card to get the sale price. But they do have a Breeze card and if you use it they’ll send you 1% back in the form of a check to use in-store. Plus they send a ton of great coupons that you’ll use because they are for items you’ve bought before.
-recipe kiosks. You just scan the item and it tells you what you can make with it.
-all kinds of in-store services like a fax machine and copier and you can even pay your utility bills.
-They sell Method, have a great selection of hair products, bath and body products, and even a big candle selection.
-They have a beer cave. That’s CSP’s favorite part.

-Ok, now this one is way cool. You can go online and enter in your shopping list (they save them for you) and then when you get to the store they’ll print it out and it will be ordered by aisle. Or you can print it at home or access it via your pda. So cool.

The other day while shopping I took this photo for y’all. When I go shopping I take my canvas Bloom bags ($1 each) and re-use them as to not waste plastic bags. I scan my Breeze card at the scanner kiosk. It says hello to me and lights up a scanner gun. Each buggy is outfitted with a gun holster. Then I shop. As I choose items (I’m never searching for items because there’s a store map on the handle bar of the buggy) I scan them and drop them into my bag. I know all my cold stuff is together and my bread won’t get squished. If I get produce I put it on the scale and mash a few buttons then a sticker comes out that I scan. My gun keeps a running total for me. When I’m finished I go to the self check-out (or a cashier, but the self check-outs are usually faster) and I scan this bar code that says “End of trip”. Then I put my gun in the holder on the register and swipe my Breeze card on the register scanner. My order comes up, I pay and I leave. Super fast. No unloading of the buggy just so the cashier can scan then the bagger has to bag. It’s awesome. In and out.

I’m sure some of you are thinking, well, then how do they know you aren’t stealing? I suppose they don’t. But randomly you’re chosen for a check-out review. They scan a few random items and make sure you paid for them. I’ve been reviewed maybe 4-5 times. I’m sure they know they’re taking a risk but I doubt many people are gonna rip them off. I like being able to use the scanner guns too much and I’m sure other people do too. Plus, I believe most people are good, non-thieving shoppers.

So click and see if they have a
store near you, or you can come visit and we’ll go shopping!