paperweights and winged things

The Whole Foods in Cherry Creek is a unique microcosm of the larger Cherry Creek community. The store is always busy-to a point where you often spend more time trying to find a parking space than actually shopping for groceries. The people are always beautiful--even fifty year old men seem to carry themselves with a natural grace. And the food, of course, is tantalizing and expensive.

The shoppers at Whole Foods often know each other. Business partners run into each other, yoga moms chat while buying granola, and even neighborhood nannies recognize other care-providers from the park. There is a sense of community when you walk into Whole Foods: a shared space where wealthy Denverites can all enjoy the bounty of organic food stuff that Whole Foods so beautifully displays. Even the children in Whole Foods seem to embrace this connection. I have seen little girls with perfectly coifed hair and adorable dresses run up to other children and bring them to the colorful display case of freshly prepped sushi.

And then there is the King Soopers on 9th and Corona. Less than a mile away from the heaven that is Whole Foods, there sits a grocery store versed in my sense of reality. King Soopers is also very busy and parking is a nightmare--but mostly from the fact that the lot is remarkably small and congested with both cars and bikes and random people just walking around. I have seen beautiful people enter and leave this King Soopers, but not the type of "beautiful" that chokes Whole Foods. This "beautiful" is unaffected by an excess of money; style is regulated by cost and produces a far more creative expression of personal taste. I like it. I enjoy seeing the creativity. But there are a lot of other people that mingle through the store. People that sometimes scare me. There is not the homogeny of Whole Foods but instead a diversity that mirrors the community this King Soopers feeds. When you are trying to buy brown rice, it is likely you will bump into someone very different from yourself--and I enjoy that exposure and acknowledgement of difference.

Although Whole Foods always holds a place in my heart, I find myself preferring King Soopers on most days. I find myself wanting to be exposed and challenged by people who live and think differently than I do. And more than even that...I like spending less than 100 dollars on my groceries.