One of the truly great things about our new house is the location. Among many other things, there is a beautiful Safeway grocery store within walking distance of our home. I just need to look out the window and I can see it. Talk about convenience!

But can I make a confession? I miss Walmart.

It felt so nice to be back in Walmart this past weekend that I felt the need to take a photo of the experience.

The price difference between Walmart and Safeway is extreme. However, I can’t justify driving 10 minutes to Walmart when I can drive to Safeway in one. That is 20 minutes vs. two minutes for a round trip. My desire for convenience and gas conservation obviously trumps the grocery savings I would bank.

However, as I think about it more critically, maybe I should gladly drive the greater distance to Walmart. Why? There are a few things that irk me about my neighborhood grocery store like…

– The sky-high prices. It is offensive what grocery chains are charging these days and I think Safeway is the worst here locally.

– The out of control loyalty/membership cards. Just give all customers the sale price regardless of whether they have a card or not.

– The even more enraging “digital deals.” At Safeway, my silly loyalty status is now only good for scoring half the deals in the store. For the other half, I have to use my Safeway app to scan the bar code of the sale item.
At Walmart, there aren’t different colored tags on the products designating regular price, loyalty price, or digital price…there is just one single low price for everyone and it is already much cheaper than whatever deal Safeway is boasting.

Over the weekend I went to Walmart for the first time in months. I was only in need of three simple items (graham crackers, marshmallows, Hershey chocolate…guess what we were making?) but I wanted to return to a place that offers low prices and no gimmicks. It was nice and I saved a lot. But will I do this next time as well? Doubt it. Like I said, the laziness…I mean convenience…is just too great to pass up.

Am I doing the right thing? Don’t Blink.