Just in Case

We have a very upscale grocery store chain based out of Charlotte, NC. Their flagship store is the Moorcroft section of town near my office. This store is like no other grocery store that I have ever seen. The store is located in a wealthy section of town so you find the best varieties of everything. People even dress up there to shop here.

The produce at this store is very extensive, likewise the wine department, bakery, the butcher, whatever. It is a pleasure to shop there.

I stopped by this afternoon to pick up some fresh fruit, a sourdough loaf, and a bottle of wine. I stood at the bakery and marveled over the mountains of fresh baked bread loaves and wanted to burst out in song singing, “God Bless America”, when suddenly I thought about the tiny store I was in last week in St Croix. It was a little Store called the “Just in Case Deli”.

At the Just in Case Deli an enthusiastic black woman with a very thick accent bragged about their fresh baked bread after I had professed my love for their brownies. She only had one type of bread but it was warm and smelled good. She promised I would like it as much as her brownies. I did.

She didn’t cook either the bread or the brownies, but she was an ambassador for both. I miss the simplicity of that place.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

The simplicity of this place is a lot more complicated than it used to be. Recently I was at Schooner Bay Market looking at wines and a guy came up and said, "Remember the good old days when we only had three wines to choose from?" I couldn't say "yes" since I was not a big wine drinker at that time, but I remember having to not be so obsessed about finding everything I wanted because it was impossible. You just have to be flexible to live on an island. But it is a lot better in a lot of ways now, the broccoli is no longer yellow when it arrives in the store (although yesterday we had some really sandy broccoli that tasted like it had been dragged along the beach before getting to the store). So we got our "internal exfoliation" out of the way until next time. So after twelve years here, we just go with the flow.....