Between a Trader Joe’s and a Whole Foods Place

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It’s really interesting that property values soar if either Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods sets up in a neighborhood. When I heard this information, it dawned on me that the reporters had it backwards. Both Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s check the demographics in an area, and then set up where it fits their target market. I’m pretty lucky. My home is almost equidistant between two of them. Less than a ten minute drive on neighborhood streets gets me to my local Trader Joe’s. If I turn my car in the opposite direction, it takes about the same length of time to arrive in the Whole Foods parking lot. I shop at both of them. I like the produce at Trader Joe’s and several of their other food items, raisin bran, nuts, seeds, all sorts of healthy stuff. Whole Foods has a large variety of food, but what I buy there is single serving entrees made by Michael Angelo’s. I buy the four cheese lasagna, turkey meatballs with ziti, chicken parmigiana and eggplant parmigiana. Regular supermarkets don’t carry the varieties that I enjoy. They often only have the eggplant or beef lasagna (ick). This morning, however, there is a new store opening. As you can see from the photo above, Smart & Final Extra is opening today. It is going into a location that seems to have had hard luck lately. It was a Vons Supermarket when I moved here two years ago. I went there a few times to pick up yogurt, but they were often out of stock. This happened so often, and the store was so rundown, that I avoided going there at all. Then Haggen came to town, bought the location and set up shop. But they didn’t do much to improve the store itself. I went there once to check it out, and only returned when they had their going out of business 70% off sale. But now Smart & Final is opening. My sister swears that their prices are the best of all places to buy food, and household goods. I’ll check it out, and see if she is right. From the photo in the flyer, they have remodeled the store. It also says they sell lots of organic produce. Great. They will have to do something special to lure me away from Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods, but since it is super close, if the store is as nice as the ad, and my sister’s estimation of their prices is correct, I’m open to switching. Do you have any of these three stores near your home? What do you think about them?