Wed, Jan 10, 2007
Shopping
Posted to Miscellaneous category
I am not a recreational shopper, but after being snowed-in for most of the past week it was refreshing to get out for a while today.
I had to go into Boulder to the Post Office to pick up a package, so I went by McGuckin's Hardware while I was down there. McGuckin's is allied with one of the big hardware chains (Ace, maybe?) but it still run the same way it was when it was still a family business. Their motto is "If we don't have it, you don't need it" and they are full of very helpful people to help you a) figure out what you need and b) find it. And occasional dogs on leashes.
McGuckin's has a wonderful Christmas section every year, (I always spend a lot there. This year I bought Christmas ornaments for my relatives at Indochine, which shares McGuckin's parking lot, but I bought a lot of other stuff at McGuckin's.) They have live music during the holiday shopping season, too: flutists or harpists.
Today I bought shovels. My nice ergonomic shovel is developing cracks in the blade, and I don't want to risk being stuck with just the flat snowshovel. They were out of most garden shovels and just restocking a few models of snow shovels, but I was able to get a garden spade (for breaking through crusty snow) and a grain-scoop-style snowshovel for the light fluffy stuff.
After I put the shovels in the truck, I went back into the store and attacked the kitchen department: McGuckins is probably the best place in Boulder to buy kitchen stuff like small appliances, cast iron cookware, good knives and odd kitchen utensils at decent prices. (There are restaurant supply places in Denver for the really hard-core that are probably even more economical, but less convenient for Boulderites). I bought a half-sheet pan, a large loaf pan, and a new muffin tin, to replace old ones I discarded during the de-mousification of the kitchen last month (ick). I'm coming to the end of the Christmas baked-goods, and in the mood to do some more baking. And Alton Brown of Good Eats recommends cooking bacon on a rack on a half-sheet pan in the oven, and I want to give that a try.
Then I headed back up across the mesa to the shopping center nearest my house. When I bought the house in '85 the nearest gas station was 9 miles away, and it was a big relief a few years later when a 7-11 with gas pumps was built a few miles from here on the other side of the highway. Now I have have a big-box center just south of the mesa.
I picked up some drycleaning that was ready last friday, then bought flour and perishable groceries at Wild Oats Natural Food Market, which is actually my closest grocery store, though I sometimes pick up more mundane grocery items at SuperTarget nearby
Then I went to Costco (which is actually the store that is closest to my house), to refill my prescriptions and stock up on paper towels, cheese and a few canned staples. I spent a lot longer in Costco than I had planned: I think half the rest of the county must have also been refilling their prescriptions before the next storm. While I was killing time, I noted that the tables where books are sold were very empty: the AMS bankruptcy is emptying the distribution channel.
I went over to SuperTarget for a few items I couldn't find at Wild Oats or Costco (which have some odd gaps), then, on the way home, stopped at the Costco gas pumps, just a mile and a half from my house: quite a change from nine miles, and some of the cheapest gas in the county besides.
It's nice to be able to buy most of what I need so close to home these days. There'a a Petsmart (source of my cat's preferred kitty-litter), Michael's Arts and Craft Store, and OfficeMax in the complex, as well as many smaller stores including branches of unique Boulder stores like Lighthouse (esoteric books and objets d'art) and GrandRabbit's Toy Store. And a UPS store, which was very helpful at Christmas time.
Half the stuff I bought is still out in the truck at the end of the driveway. The path from the truck to the house is long and narrow and slippery. I brought the shovels and perishable groceries up to the house. It will give me some incentive to get back out to the truck...