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ONE MOM'S OPINION

Grocery shoppers here, as elsewhere, are dividing their food-shopping trips among several retailers. SN touched base with one such customer, a working mother of three in suburban Richmond. Anita said she used to shop most often at the Food Lion closest to her home, but recently has sought out what she feels is a better product selection and overall offer at Kroger. They have a really

RICHMOND, Va. — Grocery shoppers here, as elsewhere, are dividing their food-shopping trips among several retailers. SN touched base with one such customer, “Anita,” a working mother of three in suburban Richmond. Anita said she used to shop most often at the Food Lion closest to her home, but recently has sought out what she feels is a better product selection and overall offer at Kroger. “They have a really good weekly circular that makes it easy to plan my weekly menu around their sale items and my coupons on-hand,” she said. “Plus they offer the widest selection of all the chains.”

But Anita is by no means loyal to one store only. She has shopped Whole Foods, particularly for produce, meats and bread (“They are one of the few stores that I just don't want to leave”), Ellwood Thompson's (“I like this little store and for some reason feel like I'm supporting the community when I shop there”), Ukrop's (“because of their service, prepared-food section and a great deli”) and Wal-Mart (“I go here during those weeks when I'm running a little short on cash”).

She said she would shop Ukrop's more often but its policy of closing on Sundays interferes with her preferred shopping day, and offering no beer or wine for sale means she has to make another stop. Her local Food Lion recently completed a renovation, but she admits she hasn't given it another chance after finding wider selection elsewhere. Kroger, she said, occasionally runs out of sale products, and produce is “just OK,” but has in her opinion the fastest checkout. She said she found Wal-Mart the least convenient to shop.

TAGS: Kroger Walmart