Supermarkets

This topic came to mind when I went shopping recently in the new Wegmans supermarket in Prince Georges county in Maryland. When it opened last year it was heralded as a big "win" for the county - proof that "high-end stores" if they chose to locate there, could make it in this predominantly African-American population. Amazing how far we have come from the good old days.

In the 50's and early 60's we did all our family grocery shopping at the Acme in Westgate Plaza (R.I.P.). Since Westgate opened in 1958, and we moved to Chili in 1954, I'm guessing we still shopped somewhere in the West side of Rochester before the plaza was built. There was also an A&P at Westgate.

In the 60's a new grocery store came to Chili Center (Star Supermarket?). I really don't remember any Wegmans stores except for the ones at Midtown and Pittsford plaza although I am sure there were many more.

Acme gave out stamps that you could save up and redeem for all kinds of things. As they were probably worth about 1%, it took a lot of shopping dollars to get anything "free". One of the cruelest stories of my childhood was when the happiness of getting a new bicycle (my one and only) was mocked by one of the neighborhood boys who said "you can't ride on stamps!". Where do such thoughts and cruelties come from?

I can remember my Mom taking me with her to Acme and me keeping tabs of the total bill as she filled the cart to overflowing. I would usually be accurate to within the tax on the few non-food items. Yep - the human calculator.

Anyway, grocery shopping in those days was not glamorous and the stores were just grocery stores. Most are still that way but I have to hand it to Wegmans. They have become a phenomena in the mid-Atlantic area with communities pleading for stores and jubilant when they land one. We travel 15 miles to the nearest one to get my two favorite things that only they sell.....pop-open hot dogs and sugar/cinnamon/plain fried cakes. For me, they are the closest fried cake competitors to the all-time best which were sold at Sibley's.