Publix Wins Again...

I was so excited a week ago when I found out that a new Super Walmart was opening up just 10 minutes from my house. Wow, we have everything within 10 minutes now, I never have to drive more than a couple miles for anything. The furthest I drive on a regular basis is to church and that's only like 5 miles away or something. Anyways, I was super excited about the new Walmart because in Texas I did all my shopping there, food and everything and loved it. But I've been spoiled since moving to Florida and going to Publix, especially because it's practically across the street from me. I thought that I'd probably start shopping at Walmart now to save money, it's only a little farther away and I thought it would be a lot cheaper to buy stuff, but well, it didn't seem like it today when I went. I've grown accustomed to my Publix and what it has and doesn't have and where everything is in the store. I felt totally lost in Walmart looking for food and not knowing exactly where to find it, or even being able to find it at all. The brands that I've gotten used to aren't all at Walmart and neither is the selection of most things. Also, I found that while the produce was a little cheaper (with most items) they didn't have the selection and they had no organic stuff. I don't buy that much organic, at least not as much as I'd like because of the price, but I still buy a few things and missed them today.

So I've come to the conclusion that I like my Publix. Their staff is awesome, the selection is great, their location is great, I know where to find what I want and they even give my kids (at least Sydney) a bakery cookie and balloon when she looks extra cute (all the time). Publix obviously is a little scared of the new competition in town with all the new updates they've done in the last couple weeks, new registers with big computer screens so you can see the price of everything as it goes through, new signs on all the isles, new closed circuit TV monitoring thing (although that doesn't really do much for making me want to shop there more, but it's still an improvement), and the most obvious thing they've added to try to keep their customers, a huge sign that you can't miss as you enter the store "We appreciate our customers". Also one last thing that really wins me over is the shopping carts that have built in cars to keep Sydney entertained and give me more room for Noah, a definite advantage for them. So Publix has won in my eyes and I'll be continuing to do most of my shopping there from now on, only entering Walmart when the need for non-food items out weighs the need for food items.