Breaking Away From "Wal Mart"

I had a pretty disastrous trip to Wal Mart a couple weeks ago.

Where we used to live, our Wal Mart was great. Not too busy, everything in stock, and tidy. Now that we live in a new city, I get to experience a new Wal Mart. With a new store comes a hoard of bad experiences. Imagine a super Wal Mart twice as big as what you are used to, and it has to service thousands of people in a large metro area, including two LARGE military bases. So you can imagine that it is very messy sometimes, and every time you go, something will be out of stock.

I live 20 minutes away with good traffic, on a bad day it could take me up to a half hour to get home, so I can't run to Wal Mart for every little thing like I used to be able to do. The last time I was there, the two most important things I needed were out of stock and they didn't know when they would have them again. Cat food and Cat litter. If you have a pet, you know you can't just switch things up on them because something is out of stock. So what was I to do? I had to go to Pet Smart and get some there.

I am so flippin' tired of that crap. So we decided to break away from Wal Mart. It has been a little difficult, but not too bad. I actually buy all of my non-grocery items at Target now, which I prefer to Wal Mart anyway. I go to a different grocery store, and just yesterday went to The Grocery Outlet (they didnt have everything I needed, but I can get all the canned stuff we need, bread, some dairy, dry goods, most beef and chicken, and snacks). The Grocery outlet is right by Wal Mart, but I don't mind driving there because they are CHEAP, cheaper than Wal Mart! And I have two Safeway's within 5 minutes of my house, so I shop there for stuff that I need in between large grocery trips, or items I can not find at The Grocery Outlet (such as certain brands I refuse to stray from, like Jif PB, or some of the meat and dairy I can't find elsewhere).

And on the weekend I did even more. I shopped at the Farmers Market for produce. Yeah, it is a bit more expensive than some grocery stores. I spent $10 on apples, $10on cherries, and $13 on pears, and $5 on some awesome, kick-ass, fresh salsa. I don't normally buy cherries, because they are so expensive and just a treat for us. The farmers market prices are comparable to Safeway "not on sale".

Yeah, I do a bit more shopping, but I prefer it this way.

I hate Wal Mart. Not saying I won't ever shop there again, I do like their cheap prices on certain items. I might buy toys there for X-mas, or maybe not. Probably not. I'd like to say I won't ever shop there again unless I am desperate and have no other option. And it is better to support the small businesses at the farmers market anyway.