Central Market & Whole Foods Market

We drove downtown late this morning to do some grocery shopping at the huge Central Market. We hadn't been there but our friends K and B say it's an entirely different shopping experience than just going to Kroger.

I love our friends, but give me Kroger any old time. The Central Market is run by HEB, which owns smaller supermarket chains in the area. The problem with the Central Market is that it's just too darn big.... makes you feel like you're shopping in a warehouse, except you're paying top-dollar downtown prices, not warehouse-discount prices. And the layout of that store was just too stupid for words (just like the smaller HEBs)... we felt like mice in a maze, circling this way and that way, and sometimes ending up at the beginning of the circle.

Granted, the Central Market carries foods you won't find anywhere else, but unless you have a map of that store, you might not be able to find them anyway. The floors are dark concrete, and very hard to walk on. Thankfully, just before we left here, I took off my heels and put on flatter shoes.... otherwise, my husband would've been pushing me around in that cart.

We ended up with a cart filled with groceries, and spent $160. (The carts there are smaller than your average grocery cart). I would bet the same amount of groceries bought here in Kroger would've cost us about $90... big difference, plus we had to drive forty minutes downtown to get there.

Before we drove home, we went to the other side of downtown and stopped at the Whole Foods Market. We'd been there once before, and loved that store because of its smaller size-- plus they have a wide variety of foods that you don't find in our neighborhood supermarkets. Both my husband and I said we'd never go back to the Central Market, but we do like the Whole Foods Market, so that ride downtown is worth it to us. The Whole Foods Market isn't too big, and it's bright and cheery in there-- no warehouse decor in that store. Before we left the Whole Foods Market, we bought some hot soup and ate it there before getting into the car. The soup was delicious--- Parmesean Crab Artichoke Bisque. Delicious..... makes me want to start experimenting with soup recipes. The Whole Foods Market has a hot-foods section in the store. You can buy any amount of hot prepared food that you want, and either eat it in their little cafe, or bring it home. I swear, if we lived in that area, I'd never cook again.... I would just drive there every day and pick out their pre-cooked foods. (Their hot foods aren't filled with salt and sugar and junk... they're cooked as you would cook them yourself, if you felt like cooking.)

We were going to leave early this morning for downtown, but there was a racoon in our yard last night, at three o'clock in the morning.... Gracie heard the racoon in the yard, so she woke us up barking. We shooed the racoon away, but then Gracie barked an hour later. Needless to say, we didn't get a very good night's sleep, and didn't wake up this morning till after 9:30. When I looked at the clock, I couldn't believe what time it was. We're early risers here, so sleeping until that hour is like losing half of the day.

Speaking of the day..... we had 80 degrees here yesterday. Today, right now, feels like 40 degrees. It has been getting progressively colder as the day goes on, and the wind has been kicking up so it feels even colder. The cats will have to sleep in the house tonight... much too cold for them on the screen-porch. Oh goodie-- another night when we won't get a good sleep.