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Big isn't always better

Saturday, July 14 at 12:01 AM

This Speakout has not been edited

By Michael Duane Archer, Golden

It appears the Wild Oats - Whole Foods merger is dead. I think that’s good; big isn’t always better. But I wonder why mergers between two minor food players is not allowed but mergers between oil giants is fine and dandy?

The retail food industry has evolved enormously since I was a child. Grocery stores have changed a lot over the last two generations or so. They are better in many ways, of course. Better selection of foods and lower prices because of volume wholesale purchasing. The grocery shopping experience has changed, too. It’s worse.

The first store I remember, in the 1950’s, was Nick’s on the corner of 32nd and Tejon in Northwest Denver. It was technically Nigro Bros Grocery. Nick ran it with his two brothers. Nick was the GM, his younger brother, Jerry, worked the meat counter at the rear of the store and his older brother took care of maintenance detail. But they were all cross-trained, so you might see Jerry behind the meat counter one day and running the check-out line the next.

The entire store was smaller than the produce department of today’s large chains. But it was very efficiently laid out, everything always neat as a pin. There was plenty of variety as far as I could tell. I remember my mom sending me to the store for syrup and being slightly overwhelmed by the number of brands, three of them, and the two different sizes.

Nick was a happy-go-lucky sort of guy and obviously enjoyed working with the public. He was kind, also. Our family mostly just made ends meet in those days and Nick would occasionally carry us an entire month. I’m sure he did the same for others and I’m equally sure it was a strain on the store’s finances. He was not just a store GM but also a friend and neighbor; more cross-training!

I remember my mother buying meat at Nick’s — pork chops, chicken, shoulder steak and hamburger. I can’t swear to it, but I’m fairly sure they all tasted better then than they do now. Nick’s brother would always give me several feet of that wonderful white meat wrapping paper as a bonus for drawing and making things. If I ran out, he would always give me a few feet, even if we weren’t buying any meat that trip.

I had my first job at Nick’s, sweeping the floor at closing time, which was 5:00PM. Nick and his brothers had family and they wanted to spend time with them. Nick’s older brother, Carmen, showed me how to sweep but I was very short and none too coordinated. He was also quite fastidious and was the one responsible for the store always looking so clean and neat. Pay for fifteen minutes work was a ten-cent bullet ice-pop that tasted great and lasted a long time. In the late 1950’s we moved a few blocks away and started going to bigger stores — Musso’s and Polidori’s. Polidori’s on 34th and Shoshone was a very nice store. The cheese and meat department was to die for and would hold its own with the finest of today’s delis. Some good things do stick; the Polidori family still makes sausage and it is every bit as tasty as it was so many years ago.

The Mussos were our next-door neighbors — Mike and Louise. They made items such as ground red pepper, pepperocini and olives, bottled them in their home then sold them at the store. I doubt they needed a wall full of licenses to do that in those days. They were the entrepreneurial type and also ran the neighborhood tavern, the Alpine Inn.

The first King Soopers was on 38th and Irving, if memory serves. That was the beginning of the big chains in Denver. In the early 1960’s I spent most of Saturday with my Uncle Johnny traveling to all the northwest Denver grocery stores picking up the ad specials and carefully collecting trading stamps — Blue, Green and Gold Bond. Gold Bond was the favorite, for a reason to which I was never privy. Besides Polidori’s and Musso’s we went to: Shutto’s, Miller’s, Piggly-Wiggly, Furr’s and the really big King Soopers in the Lakeside shopping center. I remember Uncle Johnny’s fascination with the then state-of-the-art electric light door opening mechanism.

So many stores made for a long day. But the grocery shopping was an experience; an end-in-itself, not just a means-to-an-end.

Today in the Denver area the number of stores has been pared down to Safeway’s and King Soopers. All the smaller chains - much less the mom and pop operations such as Nick’s — are dead or dying. Other retailers have entered the arena — Target and Wal-Mart. I’m not so sure that is a good idea, but I don’t make the rules. Costco and Sam’s Club are also food players now.

You can see the trend, of course. The stores are getting bigger and bigger, less and less personal; more of a means-to-an-end and less of an end-in-itself experience. Everything is ‘super this’ or ‘mega that’ today.

Forget the cross-training, too. You won’t see the meat cutter running a check-out register.

The big stores are part of our never-ending quest to save time. But it often seems we are saving time to just save more time. These days we never really have time for anything else! Now there is now a Brobdingnagian vending machine called ‘Shop2000’ dispensing everything from aspirin and sushi to soap and eggs.

Say goodnight, Nick.

READER COMMENTS

Wow, a stream of consciousness with no point..... yes, the mega stores sell a ton-o-stuff. The small meat markets and markets still exist. You can still go to them. No one from Wal-mart is holding a gun to your head.

You can shop wherever you like. I often shop at a small store near me. The selection isnt good and the prices higher, but it saves me time going there and not having to wait in a mega line. I also drop by a meat market and grab some chops. I also shop at the mega stores as well. Better selection and prices... again, what is the point here.

Movies used to be well written and cost a nickle. Well, now they aren't. I guess I can cry alot and reminisce about the "old days" or I can shop with my money and buy only thethings that I want from the people I want.

So, welcome to reality. Now, get out there and live life.

Posted by Dravur on July 30, 2007 10:38 AM

Because oil and natural gas drive the economy of the planet and the 100s of millions of jobs and incomes that depend on Big Oil's ability to find, pump, process and deliver their vital goods.

Meanwhile, at your local "organic emporium," granola bars and bean sprouts power absolutely nothing but the $5/hr jobs of a few spikey-haired, tongue pierced, tatooed, Birkenstoick wearing geeks who worship at the altar of global warming.

Posted by hank on July 23, 2007 08:36 AM