H.E.Buddy

This morning I ventured over to the new **Sunflower Farmer's Market that's just up the street from our house. We've been super excited since construction began, not just for the access to cheap fresh produce, but also because that empty building has been something of an eyesore since we moved back to town. Granted, I think they could have tried harder choosing an exterior paint color but what are you going to do.

I waited until this morning as the opening week has seen cars in their parking lot spilling out onto Manchaca and pedestrians dangerously Froggering across the street in search of fresh produce. (Seriously, people? I commend your conservation efforts by walking, but I almost hit 2 people darting out from behind oncoming cars. The crosswalk is like, 50 feet away - use it.) I was shocked at how deserted the parking lot was today, though. Maybe it was because it was a rainy Tuesday morning, but there was NO one there.

So, the store's pitch is "Serious Food, Silly Prices". Now, agreed - their produce was super cheap and looked great. But I have other things on my grocery list that don't just include veggies and meat, so afterwards I had to make a side trip to HEB. That's not how I want to do my shopping. Also, when I got to the Heeb, I noticed their vegetables were exactly the same price.

I'm not saying I'll never go back to Sunflower. In fact, I think it would be a fun place to go if you didn't have a specific recipe in mind just to browse the produce that's in season. Maybe I'll take Ryan with me on the weekend sometime and we can buy some foods to throw on the grill. But for my weekday shopping I think I'm sticking with HEB.

Nightmare fuel, now conveniently in your grocer's check out line
So, this won't mean anything to those of you not living in the Texas area, but HEB has recently taken on a new mascot in the form of an anthropomorphic grocery bag. You may have seen it, it's kind of unimaginative and horrifying. If I saw my grocery bag suddenly start waving to me I would never go shopping again. Anyhoo, so I'm standing in line to check out, kind of spacing out and minding my own business when I see something huge and brown flailing out of the corner of my eye.

It's the HEBuddy mascot, lifesize.


Please don't follow me into my dreams, paper bag

Luckily I was able to avoid eye contact and escape with my groceries. Maybe I will stick to Sunflower after all.

**Ok, so Ryan tells me in the comments that the name is actually Newflower, and he is correct. I thought that (Sunflower) sounded wrong. However, upon further investigation, it is actually the same company and Sunflower is the name in other states. That is why their website says Sunflower. Why they changed the name here I don't know, perhaps there was a conflict with the other Sunflower.