What's super about Super 1

I’m not in the business of reviews; that’s not what this column is about. I don’t like to promote a particular business (with occasional exceptions for nonprofits). Yet as a customer who happens to be a writer, rather than the other way around for once, this bears saying:

Thanks, Super 1, for going against the grain. For resisting temptation.

That temptation has to be intense to track my purchases for targeted marketing. To force me into it by having two prices: The “club” or discount card price, and the price for refusing (whether now or later, in the form of rewards).

Just about anywhere else, to buy food, toilet paper, clothes, or other items without throwing money away, I need a store card of some variety. And I’m pushed to get yet more inbox-clogging, time-sucking junk email by sharing my address.

Privacy? Forget about it. A thin wallet? What’s that? I need two now — one for cash and debit card, one for all those damned (sorry, Mom) store cards of both the credit (gotta get that lowest price!) and tracking varieties.

Not so with Super 1. No games. No double-price system of any kind. Nothing to figure out. No pressure.

The other thing that really chaps our family is empty checker stands at other stores that favor those job-killing, do-it-yourself machines. I’m all for computer efficiencies, but I want to see local people employed, and I don’t want to check myself out. Frankly, it takes longer; the checkout staff is much faster than I am. Elsewhere, I’m forced to choose between doing it myself, and a long line to deal with a human being. It’s rare at Super 1 if I’m not the next person in line; they keep the stands staffed. And they don’t have those infernal machines. (Oh, and there’s no obnoxiously loud music piped in; my ears get a break.)

So, Mr. McIntire, thanks for that, too.

Plus the Super 1 chain is locally owned by a family who regularly makes big donations to local charities. So I can feel really good about shopping there. Today’s shopper increasingly has a social conscience.

Readers, thanks for bearing with me; this uncharacteristic, uncompensated, unsolicited testimonial is over. And no, the owners, managers, and staff don’t know me. I just really appreciate having one fewer card in my overstuffed wallet, and all that represents. Please, Super 1, don’t ever change.

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Sholeh Patrick is a columnist for the Hagadone News Network who appreciates businesses which resist the call of pied pipers with magnetic stripes. No, I won’t write about any others, but feel free to contact me at Sholeh@cdapress.com.