Jay Gaulard Blog

Costco Wholesale in Enfield, CT

Wednesday, May 28th, 2008

We took the leap. The leap to Costco (finally) up in Enfield, CT…near the border of MA. We have been meaning to do this for a very long time, but never got around to it.

Back at our old house, we were members of Sam’s Club, which is just an extension of Wal-Mart. We got pretty sick of it and didn’t renew our yearly plan. It seemed like there was some sort of stagnation with its stock. My father kept telling me that Costco is much better. I remember Costco from the Danbury location and it was pretty good. My father and I are a little different when it comes to shopping at Costco though. He likes to look at tools and equipment, while I like to look at the heads of lettuce.

One of the main things I was looking for was high quality food, mainly produce, and a big store. We visited BJs in Willimantic earlier in the week and were disappointed. It seemed like an older store and was much smaller than the others. I like to feel like I am in a stadium.

The Enfield Cosco was built in 2004, which means it has all the latest perks, groceries, tire changes, pharmacy, etc…and for those people who need to have dessert while they go food shopping, there is a fast food place. It’s almost sad.

Anyway, membership is $50 and good for a year, so we did it.

Yes, that is the actual Enfield store.

We filled our cart up last night and made out like bandits. I got a 2 1/2 pound bag of spinach and a huge box of veggie burgers, among other things. The prices were pretty good, but you can never really tell. On some stuff, they are definitely better. On other stuff, it’s a little tricky. The good thing is that we don’t need to keep running out to the grocery store for every little thing, like we used to. Now, we just load up the trunk and that’s that. Of course, we are still going to have to go to the regular grocery store for some stuff, but this place helps out a bunch.

Food Shopping at Shaw’s in East Hampton, CT

Saturday, May 17th, 2008

In an effort to learn more about the area we now sleep in, I have been suggesting that we visit different grocery stores for our food shopping. So far, we have been to Whole Foods in Glastonbury (very nice, but expensive), our local grocery store (pretty ok), Super Stop and Shop in Colchester (big and very well priced, but nothing wowed me) and today, Shaw’s in East Hampton.

We have been seeing quite a few Shaw’s grocery stores around in various towns. I haven’t really wanted to go in any of them because I prefer those jumbo super-stores. I like a wide variety. Well, today was different. Laura needed to deposit a check and her bank is in East Hampton, so Shaw’s was the store of choice.

We parked in the parking lot and began walking into the store. I turned to Laura an told her I really liked what I saw. Everyone seemed to be in a good mood and the store looked great. We shopped around for a little while, when I turned to say something to Laura. She kind of had a weird look on her face and hadn’t been putting any groceries in the cart for some time. I asked her what was wrong and she told me that the place had crazy high prices. I started to look around and I quickly agreed. Things were way out of whack. I understand that food prices are going up, but this was a little up, up and away. We did what we had to do and left.

After leaving the store, I stopped on the side of the road to grab some photos of Lake Pocotopaug in East Hampton. It looks like a really cool lake and it might be good for the canoe I want to get.

Pretty cool, huh?

After mentioning the canoe idea, I have been informed that this wouldn’t be the best place to go. Apparently the Connecticut River offers some sort of a canoe rental. I will let you know what we find.

We Met Whole Foods Today

Monday, April 28th, 2008

If there is one thing that should motivate you to move to a new town, it should be Whole Foods.

I remember a few weeks ago when the realtor was showing us houses in this area, she said, “Ooh, and they are building a brand new Whole Foods here. It should be open in a few days. We are all VERY excited.” Laura and I were sitting there like, “Uh huh. What in the heck is Whole Foods?” Of course we nodded because we knew our realtor wouldn’t lead us astray.

So, what is Whole Foods? Here is a clip from their website: “Our motto — Whole Foods, Whole People, Whole Planet — emphasizes that our vision reaches far beyond just being a food retailer. Our success in fulfilling our vision is measured by customer satisfaction, Team Member excellence and happiness, return on capital investment, improvement in the state of the environment, and local and larger community support.” Let me just tell you, they live up to their motto.

A few days ago, Laura informed me that we should make a visit to this new grocery store. We still don’t have natural gas (next Monday), so we have to eat items that can be cooked in the microwave or cold, such as our famous wraps or sandwiches. You really should try them. I was pretty excited because Whole Foods is located in Glastonbury and if you have never visited, Glastonbury is my kind of town…well off.

Well, today was the day. We drove over to the store and started walking to the entrance. One of our all time most favorite stores in the world is Wegmans. We were wondering if this one would be better or worse. When we got inside, I asked a woman from the florist section if they have plastic bag recycling. I have had a pile in my back seat for a few weeks now. She walked me over to the recycling area. I put the bags in the bin and from that point on, we were in heaven. You should see the place. Ok, you know the organic section at regular supermarkets? Well, this whole store is like that. Up and down every single isle is the highest quality food you have ever seen. We were looking for Folgers coffee and they didn’t have it…too regular. We had to buy a different (twice as expensive) brand. I will say that the shopping experience unexpectedly cost much more than anticipated, but it is kind of worth it. I don’t think we will be doing all our food shopping there, but as far as fun and healthy food shopping goes, this is the place. What a niche.

When we were done putting all our items in our cart, we wandered over to the check out register. The first question the girl asked us was how many bags we had, meaning reusable bags. Man, what a trip. Just the way she assumed that we had them told me I was among my kind of folk. Unfortunately, we only had one bag. As it turned out, that was all we needed because we stuffed it to the gills.

Oh, before I forget, Whole Foods has a realy good micro brew area. I was looking through it when I said that we should leave the isle before I buy something. Just as we turned around and started to leave, something sucked me back to the beer like it was a huge magnet and I had an iron plate in my chest. I bought “Fuel Cafe Coffee Flavored Stout” by Lakefront Brewery. I am drinking it right now and it tastes a lot like Brooklyn Brewery Black Chocolate Stout, but without that bite. It’s much smoother and very good.

After we left the food store, we drove over to Home Depot for a few things. Then, we traveled back to the hometown to drop something off at the post office. What a pleasant day. Over and out.