Jacob Smith ‘23
Professor Liaison Editor
Kroger
We are discussing which grocery store is best, and, in that respect, there are several good reasons to prefer Kroger to Harris Teeter. Let’s start with size. Kroger is smaller, and smallness is an advantage for a grocery store. You want to get your food quickly, not spend thirty minutes circling the aisles. Then, there is the target clientele. Harris Teeter explicitly targets students. The five percent discount is nice, but do you really want to be lumped in with undergraduates? Finally, there is the cool stuff: the GameStop next door, and the toy cars available for about a dollar throughout Kroger. I have two young siblings who like Hot Wheels, and every time I visit, I buy them each a car. You can’t get that joy from Harris Teeter.
One of the most important things about choosing a grocery store is its prices, however, and here I must admit I was wrong. I used to think Kroger’s prices were lower. But after a price comparison, I have discovered that Harris Teeter actually has better prices (although Kroger still has much better deals on apples and bagels). Price matters a lot, and so I will concur with Will that Harris Teeter is the better grocery store. Kroger still wins, however, since Harris Teeter is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Kroger.
You will notice I have not yet discussed Walmart. Walmart should not be thought of as a grocery store, just as Amazon is not a bookstore. Still, here are two other reasons Walmart loses. On an ethical level, Walmart is always getting in trouble. Within the last year, Walmart has settled four lawsuits for millions of dollars, and it gets sued nearly twenty times a day. More practically, in keeping with its habit of hollowing out downtowns, Walmart skulks on the outskirts of Charlottesville, five times farther from the law school than Kroger.
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Will Holt ‘23
Reviews Editor
Harris Teeter
Writing this article, I am both content in my allegiance to Harris Teeter and proud to have the opportunity to extol its virtues to the UVA community. Since arriving on grounds, the chain’s nearby location has provided me with all I could ever want. Where else can one find wagyu steaks and Teddy Grahams under the same roof? Yet, there exists a small pang in my heart. I am troubled that my esteemed colleagues, Jacob and Sai, have chosen to raise their pens against Harris Teeter, the obvious choice for all consumption needs, in favor of Kroger and Walmart, respectively. I fear they are beyond redemption. I will do what I must.
Harris Teeter combines high quality products, cleanliness, and convenience (it is but a few steps from the Pavilion at North Grounds, after all) with the intangible quality of neighborliness to create a thoroughly comforting shopping experience. Friendly staff never fail to offer assistance, and generous student deals even make it economically reasonable to purchase luxury foodstuffs like dry-aged ribeyes and fresh crab. True, Kroger and Walmart may be a bit cheaper, but there are other costs to consider.
Kroger, in addition to being on the other side of Barracks Road Shopping Center from the Pavilion, exudes the aura of a stale national chain, fostering none of Harris Teeter’s neighborly charm. In addition, I have personally found that although it features largely the same selection of processed foods, its produce compares unfavorably in terms of quality and presentation. As for Walmart, the massive international corporation is notorious for its exploitative business practices. In exchange for a few extra bucks in your wallet, you will be supporting widespread and unfettered corporate tyranny. Let’s face it, you might as well order your chips and guac straight from Mordor.
I hope it is clear at this point that Harris Teeter is the only real choice when it comes to your daily consumable needs. It may not be the absolute cheapest, but by Jove it’s the best.
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Sai Kulkarni ‘23
Culture Editor
Wal-Mart
Look, I am not here to make any normative arguments about which grocery store is better. I’ve always been a proponent of investing more in smaller grocery stores, especially ethnic stores as you never know what you can find there. But in this discussion of Harris Teeters v. Kroger, I find myself advocating for a third option. A certain friend of mine always points out that I tend to take a way out rather than choose one definitive side of an equation (she says it’s centrism, I say it’s pragmatism). But here, I feel like my two colleagues are missing something important. Call it a panorama, a panflute, or a panhellenic, that-which-shall-not-be-named has taken over all aspects of our lives. Wal-Mart has the most extensive selection of goods (a function of it being one of the largest corporations in the country—make of that what you will) among the three stores and provides a robust delivery and pickup option for groceries. Shopping there will keep you and others safe when shopping for any kind of goods. While Kroger also provides delivery, ordering delivery at Wal-Mart gets rid of the guilt of getting delivery at a short distance and leaves you with only the guilt you have at all three stores (whatever you define that as; I want to be in Big Law at least for some time, so I am not asserting anything about these nice corporations). So, keep your friends safe, order from afar, and order a wide range of goods at Wal-Mart rather than giving into Kroger or Harris Teeter.
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