A 'storm' not for the ages, thankfully

It had been 2022 when the Triangle (the shorthand term locals use to refer to the metro area of Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill) last saw any snow or ice to speak of.

So there was a bit of suspense, curiosity and even a hint of excitement when local meteorologists late last week amped up forecasts of the storm system that was heading this way after dumping snow and ice on the country’s midsection earlier in the week.

I’m sure local folks made the traditional stampede to grocery stores to stock up on the usual pre-storm essentials. We did not do that; we’d made our usual periodic grocery shopping several days beforehand. We were grateful the next day when the first of the ominous forecasts started hitting the airwaves, as it’s crazy being in a grocery store when frenzied folk go staple-stockpile shopping. 

And as it turned out, the Triangle did not get any serious bad weather. Snowfall and sleet accumulation was minimal (less than an inch, I’d say, which is a mere cough compared to what I remember getting in Wisconsin during “a storm” in my childhood/adolescent years). And there were minimal power outages, none of which affected us. 

We live south of Raleigh proper, so we probably got even less than those who live north of us received. 

As a precaution, I did park the car I usually drive in the detached garage overnight Friday so there wouldn’t be ice to scrape off windshields the next day if I had to use the vehicle. And even that, technically, proved to be unnecessary, as next-day post-storm temperatures reached the 40s, so any snow or ice that stuck to asphalt or concrete Friday night and was not in the vicinity of tree shade the following morning was melted by the time I went outside for my daily walk around 11:30 a.m. 

Shade was a safety concern on our property, though. It is heavily treed and is situated next door to a 93-acre woods, so while the snow/sleet did melt everything on our driveways by the time I began my walk, all had not melted from other areas of my circular house walk route (about one-tenth of a mile in one loop). So, I elected to do my entire walk on the neighborhood streets, almost all of which were sun-cleared and dried by the time I started the sojourn.

When I finished, I used my iPhone 13 Pro to take the photos of our property that you see in this post. There wasn’t a whole lot of snow and/or ice, but there was some still sticking to grass, concrete and pavers because those areas were blocked from sunlight by trees and branches, as you'll note viewing the images. 

You can see the dusting of snow and sleet on the stairs to the back deck (above) and on the patio at left as well as on the ground in front of the stairs. This area in front of the stairs is part of my walking path when weather is not an issue and I elect to use some or all of the circular house path for my walk. You can see the path better in the first two photos below. While portions of the pavers were cleared, they were not fully cleared, and any step that didn't hit squarely in the fully cleared portions would risk striking snow/ice, so that's why I did not use this path for even a portion of my walk. The pavers in the second photo below are a part of the path also seen in the right foreground of the photo leading off the post. That's the driveway to the detached garage in the background of the first photo below, which also illustrates how the sundry tree blockage splayed sunlight hitting the ground. 

Above and below: Shots of the north side yard, the area of our property that is least open to sunlight during the day in winter. 

Above: One treed area in the front of the property alongside the driveway (and apron) to the attached garage. This view looks southeast. 

Above: Stairs to the sundeck along the south side of the house. We rarely use this access, so it was not an issue for us after the storm. But the concrete walk in front of the stairs is part of my house walk route.  

Above: A chair off to the side of the detached garage driveway. 

Above: I used the iPhone's portrait feature for this closeup of the leaf with icicle. The portrait feature adjusts the camera's aperature setting to allow for enhanced background bokeh (blur). 

Wegmans big-box grocer comes to Raleigh

There had been a weird buzz of anticipation in Raleigh for a few months. Then two weeks ago, a front-page story on the Raleigh News-Observer warned readers of an expected daylong traffic snarl near the junction of Wake Forest Road and the I-440 exit ramps to that street.

Why?

The grand opening of Wegmans, a store I would describe as a big-box grocery -- on steroids. Think Costco, only more decorative ... and loaded with attractions and amenities, all revolving around groceries, prepared food and beverages.

I first heard of Wegmans a few years ago when I was still living in Indiana, but there were no such stores there, so I didn't pay much attention or think much of it. And ... there were any Wegmans in North Carolina when we moved here.

Then a year ago, the local news media reported that the franchise was planning to open its first store in the state sometime in 2019. They spoke in such superlative terms, that I'm sure it piqued the interest of anyone who was paying attention. Wegmans has its origins in the state of New York, and all of its stores are in the East. The overwhelming majority are located in New York, with 46. Next highest are Pennsylvania (18) and Virginia (12). There are also Wegmans in Maryland, Massachusetts and New Jersey.

At the same time Wegmans announced plans to open the Raleigh store, it said it would eventually open several others in the Triangle area -- two in Cary (Raleigh's largest and most affluent suburb), one in Durham and one in the far-north suburb of Wake Forest. Of all these stores, the one that just opened is probably the closest to where Lee Ann and I live, which is on the southside of Raleigh.

The day after the store opening here (adding to the notoriety was that the Raleigh store was Wegmans 100th), the local newspaper, the Raleigh News and Observer, confirmed there was quite a hub at the store site. This week, a couple weeks after the official opening, Lee Ann and I decided to give it a look-see after a stop at Costco (one of which is about a city block and a half away from the new Wegmans). There was still heavy traffic into and out of the store, but fortunately, not nearly what I saw described in the newspaper article after the first day.

As for my impression of the store? Ohhhhh my.

I have never been in a grocery quite like this. It's hard to figure out how to explain it. Yes, there are groceries. Tons of them. And there are prepared food bars galore -- salads, Mediterranean fare, vegetarian offerings, and there was even an extensive Asian fare bar. Along a nearby wall, there were shops with more prepared foods -- one for subs and sandwiches, another for pizza and still another for burgers, where visitors also could grab beer (both bottled and on tap) and wine if they wanted to sit in the dining area and eat there.

There were separate "markets" (essentially, set aside areas where store workers helped customers) for meat, seafood, cheese, baked goods, and even one for charcuterie.

Wegmans has extensive organic options for many of its groceries, and organic offerings are clearly labeled. It also has vast displays of bottled wine and bottled and canned beer, traditional domestic, imports and -- my favorite -- craft brews. The day we were there, a store employee was offering samples of a Belgium amber ale and an IPA made by different North Carolina breweries.

Both Lee Ann and I decided to dine there, and we also both hit the Asian bars hard, veering only to sample nearby friend chicken. Lee Ann drank water with her meal; I had a draft IPA. And, yeah ... we may have bought a few things (groceries) to take home.

I still marvel at all I saw inside a "grocery" stores. I'm sure in the not too distant future, some linguist will come up with a new term to attach to stores like this ... is many more chains move in the same direction.

As always, if you want to view a larger, sharper version of a photo, simply click on the image. This is particularly helpful if you access the blog using a mobile device. To see a full gallery of images from my visit to Raleigh's first Wegmans, click on the link in this sentence.

Above is first view of one of the open areas of Wegmans after walking in. Looking at the ceiling, you can understand it when people describe this as a big box grocery. The first two photos below are from the coffee station area (think Starbucks in a Target store).     

Very near the front of the store, the sundry prepared food bars begin, including the vegetarian bar (above),  and a closeup (below) of one of the pans in the Asian fare bar.

Against the wall are a string of counter-service prepared food speciality "shops. Above, the subs and sandwich shop is in the foreground. Further down is the pizza shop on the same side of the aisle as the sub shop and the burger bar (below), on the opposite side of the aisle. Somewhere in between there was a refrigerator case of a lot of sushi offerings (second below). 

 

Above and below: Different shots of some of the full-fish offerings in the seafood market, including lionfish (above) and snapper (below). 

The bakery market (above) included a selection of the zebra-striped yummies stuffed with a buttercream filling that you see below. I admit that I was lured by the zebra string and had to buy one. It was pretty good. 

I wrote above that there was a charcuterie market at Wegmans, and I include the photo above to prove it. The two photos below are closeups from the display windows there. It includes a sign indicating the store does not add nitrates to the prosciutto seen in its display windows. 
 

The produce section includes a large display (above) of organic salads and greens, mostly kale, spinach and mixed greens. If you want Mediterranean fare but don't want it from the prepared food bars, you can also select from the small "grab-n-go" case (first photo below) or ask a server to help you select what you want from the larger offerings (second photo below).  

Perspective (above) and closeup (below) shots of the store's floral shop. 

Closeups of an autumn squash (above) and fresh broccoli florets (below). 
 

As recent as a year ago or so, it was difficult to find organic coffees in grocery stores. That has change in such a short amount of time. The above is just a small section of Wegmans' organic coffee (beans and/or ground) offerings. 

Lee Ann has been looking for organic San Marzano peeled tomatoes for a sauce recipe, and was dazzled when she saw this at Wegmans. 

Above: Just a slice of the wine offerings at Wegmans. An employee told us that the store was waiting for shipments of several hundred other wines, and if you notice the storage space from halfway up to the ceiling, it has quite a bit of room to display it. These shelves give yet another example of the "big box" description of the store. 

Above, Wegmans gives customers an idea of the various North Carolina breweries represented in its craft beer bottle and can displays. A closeup of some of the offerings is shown in the first image below. The second image below shows that Wegmans carries Tuffy, a lager affiliated with the North Carolina State University athletics teams. A growing number of Division I schools are gravitating toward stamping their name and logo on beers like this. 

Above: Organic citrus that Wegmans organizes in an aisle. 

Above and below are shots from display sections of the fresh-cut meats department, including the one above -- another industry "trend" in which "meat" made from plants is packed like ground beef.

Back to the bakery market, I came across the pretzel bites (above) and a sampling of a sourdough bread (below). 

Above: I saw a couple of these kinds of signs near the checkout aisles, where (you can probably guess) there was an assortment of snack goods available to grab and toss into the car while waiting in line.

Kroger grocer is exiting Raleigh market

For as long as I can remember -- certainly since I've lived in Indianapolis, where I moved in 1978 -- there has always been a Kroger grocery in the vicinity of where I lived. Next Tuesday marks my first anniversary in Raleigh, where like in Indianapolis, there was a Kroger among the grocery options ...

Until Aug. 14. That's when Kroger will shutter all 14 of its stores in the Raleigh area, citing a glut of grocery stores. A story in today's Raleigh News and Observer says the closings will result in the layoffs of 1,652 employees.

The story didn't say how long Kroger had been in the Triangle, but I know Kroger is one of the oldest grocery chains in the country, so it no doubt has had a presence here for some time.

A News and Observer story from two weeks ago opines that Kroger might not be the only grocer leaving the area, where the current grocery market seems to be shaking out with low-budget stores on the one side (e.g., Aldi, Lidl, Walmart) and "unique experience" and slightly pricier stores (e.g., Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Harris-Teeter, Lowes) on the other. Kroger, the article says, finds itself stuck in the no-win middle. Also in the mix are the popular wholesale membership stores Sam's Club and Costco.

Kroger owns the Harris-Teeter grocery chain, which is popular in this area, and Harris-Teeters will remain open here. In fact, Harris-Teeter will take over eight of the closing Kroger stores. Food Lion (which I've personally viewed as one of those Kroger-like "in the middle" store chains) has made arrangements to take over two others.

Publix also has a presence in the Triangle grocery market, but I've never visited any of those, although I have mixed up my shopping destinations quite a bit through the years. And even though I possess a Kroger shopper loyalty card, I can't say that I have been a strictly loyal Kroger shopper in that period.

With Lee Ann's daughter, son-in-law and two grandsons heading here to visit, we needed to restock the kitchen supplies today, so ... in a mini-wave of nostalgia, we stopped at the Kroger nearest to us, which is in Garner. I took these pictures during the stop. This store is 7 miles or so from home; the nearest Harris-Teeter and Food Lion are just a mile away (we prefer the former). So it's not likely we'll be back to Kroger again.

To view a larger, sharper version of a photo, just click on the image. This is particularly helpful when accessing the blog from a mobile device. All pictures in this post a few others can be found in a gallery accessible by following the link in this sentence.

Photo geek stuff: All of the photos were taken with my iPhone X.

The front facade of the store in Garner (above), which is not one of the stores that Harris-Teeter will move into. Fortunately, there is a Harris-Teeter only a mile from our home. The store shots out its discount to customers who near the main doors (below). If you look at the window reflection below the 50% discount sign, you'll see the legs of the photographer.

The yellow and orange ticketed items are discounted items. Peanut butter had been on these shelves that are empty now.  

Above: The bakery isn't producing sweet treats anymore, but I did see some breads on display elsewhere.

Above: There were several aisles with gaping emptiness like this throughout the store.

Even a lot of the beers were being discounted. The craft brew Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (in the green cases) was marked down from $17.89 to $12.99, among the largest discounts in the beers. There were markdowns on some mainstream brands, but not this much.  

A confluence of shelf emptiness (above) and the empty packaged seafood refrigerators (below). 

Above: I think this aisle is where cookware items (knives, pots, pans, spoons, spatulas, etc.) had been stocked, but I'm not positive. 

Above and below: For now, at this store, Kroger is keeping its produce section fresh and fully stocked. We even found some organic cauliflower heads.