My NEW local grocery store

So the files are still copying...

I've mentioned before that the grocery store seems to provoke a lot of these posts... here I go again.

I used to have a Loblaws a block from my house.

It was a strange store, shoved onto a too small lot. They worked hard to make it work though, building it on stilts above it's own parking lot. It was strange but it worked. The store was accessed via stairs, elevator or, if you had a cart (especially on the way out), via a long ramp which granted access to the store proper.

About 10 months ago it closed under the guise of renovations. It re-opened recently as a Fortinos (still in the Loblaw family). The renovations are very nice, but I don't like what they've done with the entrances.

Both the stairs and ramp are gone. They still have an elevator, but people are discouraged from using it. Now to get in you use the escalator and they have a special conveyance for carts (I think they call it a cart-veyor). It's kind of like a cross between an escalator and a roller coaster, there's a linkage a the bottom of the cart which drops into a track and the cart is pulled up or eased down. The actual shape of the device is such that the cart stays level at all times. It's very cool, but it's energy intensive.

The new entry/exit features of the store annoy me. I can't enter or exit without riding some electircal appliance. I have to take an escalator up and down. These escalators and cartveyors are running all the time, whether someone is on them or not. Continually sucking up power, be it from fossil fuels, uranium or falling water. Wherever it comes from it's energy we'll never see again. I don't like to see this kind of coddling continuing wherever you go these devices "make your life easier". Heaven forbid we might have to climb a flight of stairs, open a door or push a grocery cart up a gentle incline.

This has to be contributing to the epidemic levels of obesiety in Canada. Recent statisics show that 1/3 of Canadians are overweight or obese (I'm one of them). The fact that they don't have to exert themselves isn't helping.

I, for one, will continue to do most of my shopping elsewhere.