
While Dallas and I had the Ford Escape Hybrid over the weekend we ran many errands. Some of those errands took us to Elston Avenue where we popped into Strack & Van Til. This is a supermarket I’d only passed by before. The Elston location is the only of their stores that is in Chicago.
So, how was Strack & Van Til? I liked it a lot. The store was very new inside and set up well. Spacious, nice displays. Nothing was a mess. They had some great samples out (fried clams, yum!). All the name brands were there as well as some main brands of meat and stuff that we’d never heard of. The prices seemed about the same as other stores, although I must admit I don’t pay super close attention because we usually don’t have the transportation means to shop around.
Strack and Van Til’s “thing” seemed to be that they offer bagging and carry out service for no cost, no tipping. We turned down the service, but it was almost like they weren’t asking… like the guy was just going to take our stuff out automatically. We did ok on our own, heh. I do really like the carts they use for taking groceries out to the car. The carts have hooks so you can hang your groceries in the bags instead of trying to stack them up in a regular cart. If I was still in Roscoe Village and walking to all the markets, I’d have totally wanted to swipe one of these carts!
Oh.. and .. I spotted this: Asian Helper. Bought everything off the shelf. Dallas could use a bit of help!

heh, asian helper.
you forgot to mention how Target was inexplicably closed on your trip
oh right. easter. i didnt think stores would be closed, especially not target!
We always had automatic carry out service at the grocery store where I worked at in high school in Iowa. Customers generally never took carts out on their own – we always had carry out boys – but the cashiers/girls sometimes did it as well, too. It seems strange to me to not have it.
Stores this nice need more than one bathroom with only one stall.