Archive for July 14th, 2009

I have to admit the truth — I’ve gone from hating going grocery shopping, to looking for opportunities to go. The reason? Free ice cream every time you stop by City Market on Alton Drive in Bluebonnet Hills.

I was over there yesterday, then I decided, accidentally on purpose, that  I had to go again this morning. I stepped out of the car at the store, and a mark of spilled chocolate ice cream was by my foot. Evidently, someone else had stopped by and gotten a cone. As I walked up to the store, I noticed it has become increasingly busy of late. And everyone coming out had either a chocolate or vanilla soft serve ice cream in hand.

You have to understand, this store was, up until recently, practically abandoned, the kind of place that you worry is going to shut down. But this spring, after a redesign, things began to pick up.

Old fashioned service was provided, in terms of getting things out of your cart, and bagging them, and taking them to your car. You could find someone to help you in the aisles, and they seemed to want to help you, not as if you were bothering them. And then there was the ice cream. If, like me, you hate grocery shopping, you could galvanize yourself or the experience by promising yourself a free ice cream at the end of the trip.

Yesterday, I went at 5:30, there were four registers open and a line. This was getting crazy. And every customer, from the old ladies to the plumber to the college students, was getting ice cream.

“They’ve got me,” my husband, Dean told me last weekend, admitting that he goes there instead of Albertson’s now. Albertson’s doesn’t have the ice cream. Apparently they’ve got a lot of people lately. You might want to stop by yourself. And you can relax, because, after all is said and done, you’re getting free ice cream.