Month: February 2024

I’m officially looking for a new grocery store.

I’d been shopping at the local Stater Brothers but that was getting to the point that they never had anything that I wanted in stock.

So I started going to Ralphs (a.k.a.) Kroger

I started today with the intention to have a short grocery trip and went to the Staters. They were literally out of the first three items on my shopping list.

I grabbed my bags and walked out of the store. I drove the 45 minutes to the Ralphs. It’s in a shopping center with a Lowes, Costco, Home Depot, Pet Co, and Boot Barn.

Before shopping for groceries, I did a little shopping at the pet co and boot barn. I’m looking for a good leather belt, and Im also looking for a non-hooded water resistant winter jacket. Something like a Carhart or whatever. I just want something that’s going to last.

I was singularly disappointed. Shopping for stuff like that used to be fun. Now, not so much. Maybe I’ll try REI but I doubt I’ll find anything at a price I want to pay.

Giving up I headed to the grocery store and began shopping. It’s nice to be able to just go down my list and get the items on the list without it turning into an exercise in futility.

All was going well, there were the usual moronic people blocking the aisles but that’s become so typical I almost don’t notice it anymore. I did notice that a lot more men were shopping I think I noticed because it typically wasn’t the men who were blocking the aisles but we were all shaking our heads waiting for a woman to wake the hell up.

Then I found that I couldn’t get all the way down 2 aisles because they were blocked by the store employees. In this case they were restructuring the seasonal section. But they’d managed to obstruct access to Kleenex and Toilet paper. Ahem, bad Idea. 

Annoying but I finally managed to get the items I needed.

Moving along, I was happy because my list was rapidly being crossed off. Then I wandered into the section that had soap, shampoo etc. except that entire area was under construction because now they’re going to lock these items in a large cage and if you want one of these Items you enter the cage, make your selection, and have to PAY for it before leaving the cage. Then you can continue your shopping for food.

Great! Inconvenient! This is because of increasing theft.

I am not shopping in a shit hole neighborhood. Well it wasn’t a shit hole.

I don’t think I’ll be shopping at this particular Ralphs anymore. I was trying to figure out why this disturbed me so much.

On the way home I came up with a partial explanation. 

I don’t like being treated as if I’m a thief. I don’t like associating with people who are thieves. I don’t like shopping in crime ridden areas, and for a grocery store to be taking this action, suggests that this neighborhood is crime ridden and dangerous. 

Perhaps this is California in general these days. I can suggest a solution. Make Crime Illegal again, MCIA! (That’s mine!) I’m to the point where cops shooting criminals in the streets would be fine!

I firmly believe that when thieves bodies start stacking up on the sidewalks, crime will drop to freaking zero over night.

That will never happen! California seems to think that 900 bucks of theft per person per store is perfectly fine and moreover it is a sustainable business model.

We’ve already seen where this ends up. Stores closing. 

I’m very disappointed, I thought I was far enough away from the shit, I guess the entire state is going to shit. I also think this means I need to sell my home.  It’s time to leave before this gets really ugly and destroys my home value.