Saturday, May 2, 2015

Maybe it was Just a Bad Dream




The birds woke me this morning, chattering in the kwanzan cherry tree outside my bedoom window. Their incessant chirping was followed immediately by a few friendly smacks from the resident feline.

Just another Saturday morning in Southeast Michigan. A day to be spent working in the yard, going for a bike ride and then late afternoon grocery shopping, wandering the aisles of my favorite grocery store until I found something fresh and unusual for dinner. And then it hit me.

I won't have too many more Saturdays like that.

Hiller's Markets announced yesterday that they were selling all 7 of their stores to Kroger.  Anyone who knows me can tell you that I spent an inordinate amount of my food budget at this family-owned, Detroit-based supermarket chain.  When you consider there are 2 other stores closer to my house and that I also, like many Hiller's shoppers, shopped at other stores for some basic items, I still spent the majority of my food budget on my weekend visit to Hiller's.

And that's not because it's expensive.  Hiller's prices were competitive on many items...and not so much on others. Sometimes it costs a little more to "buy locally" and I always felt good about sliding my debit card there.  I'll miss the premium meats (hamburger meat ground fresh every day and sourced from their own herd), the unparalleled selection in the deli and best fish and seafood of any grocer in town.

Sorry, Kroger, no matter how much you attempt to up your game, your meats are still mediocre, your chicken isn't what you claim it is, and I wouldn't eat fish from your store if it was free.  Your produce doesn't turn over fast enough for my taste, and I am pretty sure I couldn't find juicy frozen duck breasts, bison meat, rattlesnake and 40 kinds of pickles in your store.

Foodie life as I know it is over. I woke up this morning thinking, "maybe this is all a bad dream."  And I almost believed it until I checked social media this morning.  I can't imagine the closing of a few grocery stores causing such a media frenzy in any other city. Or rather, I can't imagine any community so distraught over it.

There are bigger problems in the world and right here in our own community than the closing of a grocery store.  But when the announcement was made, my inbox was flooded with emails, mostly asking if it was really true. "Say it isn't so," seemed to be a recurring theme.

I'd love to say it isn't so.  Jim Hiller is a good man; philanthropic, warm, funny and damn smart. It's my pleasure to consider him a friend, and I worked for him on a free lance basis for a short time. He was generous and fun to work with.  He wanted nothing more than for his stores to thrive and to be able to continue to employ the best people in town.

The Jim I know and love would not have taken this decision lightly, nor would he have sold the stores if it wasn't best for the people in the community, including the 800 or so people he employed here in Oakland and northwestern Wayne counties. This I know for a fact.

Part of me doesn't want to go to Hiller's today. Let it go, move on. Find a new place to shop.

But the way I figure it, I have about 6 more Saturdays in life that I can spend marveling at 30 kinds of extra virgin olive oil.  Six more Saturdays that I can spend wandering aimlessly through a world of ingredients that the folks at Kroger have never even heard of.

When those six Saturdays are in my rearview window, I'll do what most other shoppers do.  Make a list, run into Kroger, dump everything in my cart, and pay at the U-Scan.  No familiar face greeting me by name.  No new discovery from the produce department in my bag.

But I bet my grocery bill will be a few bucks less than it would have been at Hiller's.  Bittersweet savings, this.  And what will I do with that money I saved today?  I'll do what Jim would do....I'll donate it to charity.



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