All the Wizer

Mr. Jones and I took a car ride to Lake Oswego, a suburb of Portland, a few weeks ago. There's an English shop(pe) there and we like to stock up on our favorite imports. We needed some "regular" food too, so we stopped in to a local grocery store, Wizer's. It was amazing. It had all the original features of grocery stores I grew up with, like these old steel cabinets to hold the food:

Refrigerated endcaps, so heavy and sturdy:

Holding soda sold individually in bottles.

A lot is said these day about patronizing local fabric and yarn stores, but besides the massive grocery stores I think we sometimes we get enticed by "health food" chains that offer everything organic, and prepared, and overpriced. I loved being in a locally owned store, with a bakery like this, and a photo of the store's original owner above it:

They also had a vast array of products that are probably available in my chain food store, but that I could appreciate more in a smaller place like Wizer's.

There were a good amount of people shopping on this Sunday, but the old steel carts were the right size so that we never had to make room for one another in the aisles.

Lake Oswego is not close enough to make Wizer's my regular food store, but I count those who can very lucky. We actually felt a sense of lightness in there. I enjoyed food shopping much more, if only for the sense of sentimentality it gave me for the neighborhood grocery store I used to walk to as a kid.

I had a lovely conversation with the checkout woman, who saw me taking photos. "It's almost one of a kind, isn't it", she said, and I nodded. "We've been here a long time. Please do come back!"