Thing 2: Super 1 Foods

 

Today, for the first time, I visited the non-Wal-Mart grocery store closest to our apartment: Super 1 Foods. With a name like that, you know it's got to be awesome. (It is.) And it's on the way home from my school.

The awesome begins even before you enter the store. This place is situated in a prime commercial center, featuring such trendy businesses as:

1.) Dollar Tree, where everything (I assume) is "only a $1.00". (Or, $1.06 plus tax, I assume.) I wonder if they sell $1 hubcaps?

2.) "Anytime Fitness". Fitness. Anytime. Just think of the possibilities!

and 3.) A closed-down Wal-Mart right next door. Any place that closes down a Wal-Mart, man, they've got some staying power. They must doing something right!

Inside, the awesome just keeps getting awesomer. The first section I need to highlight is the flower section. Or the floral department. Or the herbarium. It looks a little something like this:

Bam! What is that? A floral section within another floral section? Floral-section-ception. Seriously, they have two entire rows of flowers. I couldn't even fit a few of them in the shot. Helps that they're in the "Rose Capital of the Country", I suppose. Speaking of...

Yes, you read that correctly. For only $9.99, you can walk home with a DOZEN ROSE CONSUMERS!! Now, I'm not 100% sure what rose consumers are, but considering they're only 83¼ cents each, they've got to be worth it. But wait, if you buy these, do you then become a rose consumer, thereby adding your very self to the list of items eligible to be bought by the dozen? I don't know. I guess the point it, there are perfectly good flowers - nay, two rows of them - in November, about half a mile from where we live.

Let's move on. The other highlight among highlights at this classy joint is the "Mexican" aisle. They didn't even label it the "Potentially Undocumented Eaters' Aisle", and this is Tejas, so that's saying something.

This aisle has everything an America-loving, documented foreign national from the near-south could want, starting, of course, with this:

That's right, chicos and chicas: 80 glorious ounces of kosher dill pickles. 80 OUNCES! This thing was huge. Only someone with a gigantic appetite for pickles would consider buying this monster. I see the phrase "Since 1926" at the top, and assume it is either a best-by date, or the date they were put on the shelf. Either way, I am impressed.

This is by far the best Mexican tradition ever. I know you can read this in the image above, but I need to type out these words anyway. "El Mexicano Pork Cracklins - Fried out pork fat with attached skin". And the little dude on the package has a sombrero. Need I say more?... Great for cooking, indeed.

And what Mexican section would be complete without a "Virgen De San Juan" candle? That's Mexican for "Innards of the Osprey". Gorgeous.

So, all in all, this Super 1 Foods is pretty spectacular. The prices are reasonable, the culturally-diverse selection can't be beat, and the location is perfect. Oh, and did I mention the location?

One parting point about the exterior: this beauty is also in the same parking lot:

In case you can't read it above, that does say "Card & Party Factory".That's the place parties come from. (And cards.) And Super 1 Foods is a few feet away. How awesome is that?