So, the Farm Fresh FINALLY opened today. Two years in the making.

{photo I took in October of last year}
I was planning on being there right when they opened at 8 a.m., but I pulled up…NO parking spots. Line around the outside of the store. I honestly didn’t think people out here would take this opening that seriously. I was wrong!
So I came back at 9 a.m. — another bad time. People were just standing around waiting for the five $100 gift card drawings. I walked around, mainly around the beverage aisles, since I love the fact that Farm Fresh has a vast array of beverages. I took some iPhone photos:

Look at all that Honest tea!
The “Vitamin Water” cooler has … Life Water in it though. fail.

They had Nantucket Nectars half and half!!! I’ve never had that before! I’ve only heard about it in Babysitters Club books!
Look at all that Inkos tea too.
I’m surprised Enviga is still being made.

oooo Big Cranberry Nantucket Nectars and Jolt. Sorry that picture didn’t come out right. I took it in a hurry.

I was standing in LINE. HERE. I was in line for an hour. The line didn’t even more until the final 20 minutes I was in line. This was next to the makeup, and the lady in front of me started to play with this pump of glitter gel and she got it all over her hands. Farm Freshes aisle descriptions are always odd. Like the first three signs make sense, you know a general description of what is on the line, and then the last line is totally way too much detail — in this case, Vagasil.
You can see Starbucks in the distance. Ok, so after being in line for an hour, I went to Starbucks, where there was only one woman ahead of me. Boy, the baristas need more training. The “handlers” from other Farm Freshes had to help them with everything. You would’ve thought they would’ve handled this last week.
Which brings me to my second visit to Farm Fresh later on this day, at around 4 p.m. MUCH quieter than it was this morning. Like a normal day in a grocery store. I had more time to explore around the store. I found this!

This little guy used to be on the farm fresh logo back in the day when I was a little kid. I still remember vividly a jar of Peanut Butter we bought when I was like four, with a drawing of him on the label.
//edit, August 8, 2008//
Here is a blog entry about the making of one of these guys
So like I said, I went back to Starbucks after class and workstudy, because I wanted something to drink on my long drive home (50 minutes). They totally forgot about my order. One of the handlers had to make me my drink. I don’t think this Starbucks is going to be so great. We’ll see.
So like the article under the cut says, this store has NO plastic bags. I think this is a good idea because I used to be a bagger at The Fresh Market and I hated bagging in plastic, it was always so messy. I hate it when we go to Wal Mart and we have to put all our stuff in my Xterra, and its flopping around everywhere because its bagged in plastic. The store was giving away reusable grocery bags this morning, I got one. I don’t know how the general public is going to deal with no plastic bags. These paper bags are different than the usual ones Farm Fresh has, no handles, no logo.
Other than the iffy service at Starbucks, I can’t wait to shop in this store on a regular basis. It feels so nice to have a um, nice store in Franklin–and it was before I graduated. I always thought that Farm Fresh wasn’t going to open until after I graduated.
Tidewater News article:
(more…)