WinCo Foods

This is how lame my life is...haha. A new grocery store opens up and it is the highlight of my weekend. Okay, so it wasn't the highlight, but it was kind of a big deal. Arizona got its first two WinCo Foods and they opened up this past Sunday. One of them is like 4 minutes from my house and my Mom really wanted to check it out as well so we decided to go, despite the fact that my husband discouraged it after driving by it on his way to work and seeing the madness! The WinCo by me took over an old WalMart and so it had a really big parking lot. Parking was not a problem at all. Once you got up to the door, however, you had to wait in a line just to get a shopping cart. My mom had gotten there before me (no surprise as I am late for EVERYTHING) and so I did not actually have to wait in line for a cart since we just shared one. It was extremely crowded when we first went in and they had all of their super good deals right in the front of the store. For example, they had cans of bumble bee tuna for like .78 a can and Kraft Mac and Cheese for .48 a box. I don't drink soda, but they had 24 packs of Pepsi for 3.98 and I know that is a good deal! The great deals was one of the things I liked about it. I also liked their large produce section. Not everything was the BEST price, but it wasn't horrible and they had EVERYTHING. I even saw white asparagus and fresh garbanzo beans which you don't see at every store. One of the things I absolutely loved was the bulk section! We grew up going to a store called Wegman's in New York and we just loved their bulk candy section. WinCo has a pretty good candy section too. 

They also had a section for bulk spices which was awesome as well. I have heard of places that have this but I have never seen it before. It is a nice option, especially if you are just looking for a small amount of a spice for one dish! 

I even got my dogs some sweet potato treats from the bulk section. That was probably my favorite part. The store is very large. I imagine it is overwhelming to a lot of people. The nice thing is that it has bulk items like Costco, but it also has regular daily items as well. 

Some of the things I didn't like about the store was obviously the craziness! It was insane in there and the checkout lines were ridiculous! If you had ice cream in your cart, which I usually do, it would have melted before you checked out. Thankfully my mom pulled some ninja moves and snuck into a line so we barely waited. I also didn't like the other shoppers. I know that sounds mean, but it is true. Most of them were the same group of shoppers that you will find in your local Wal-Mart. I HATE my local Wal-Mart. I know this does not apply to ALL Wal-Mart shoppers, but I have experienced it enough to make this generalization. I'm sorry to you decent Wal-Mart shoppers out there. The rest of them have earned you a bad reputation. I also do not like that the store only accepts cash or debit. I get why they do it, but I am a credit girl so I don't like it. Also, during checkout we discovered that their systems were not accepting Wells Fargo debit cards. That is what my mom uses so thankfully I was there. They should have made an announcement on the PA system because I would have been angry if I waited in line and then couldn't even buy my groceries! 

All in all, it was a good trip, and I recommend you check it out if you haven't already. It is always nice to have another option and yay for all the jobs it created for people!