Starting Off Right

I’ll be nice since the holidays are coming; I’ll begin my new Pittsburgh blog with a short post, but lest you worry that you’ll be caught in the lurch, I’ll pen something longer soon.

First off, praise goes to Right By Nature, Pittsburgh’s new organic grocery in the Strip. I haven’t been there yet. They opened last week and according to the press coverage, the store intends to supply organic food, including freshly cooked items, at very reasonable prices.

Made aware of Right By Nature through a recent Post-Gazette article, I called to ask if they had electric scooter carts for those of us who can’t navigate on our own. My phone call was answered by a (gasp!) human, and a nice, friendly human to boot. This person told me that they were still in the throes of opening week hubbub, and the carts haven’t arrived yet, although they are on order.

She offered to check on the ETA, put me on hold briefly until another human, equally cordial and helpful, picked up and assured me that she would keep my name and phone number and call me when the carts arrived. If this is the way Right By Nature intends to do business, all I can say is whooopppeee!

Experience leads us to expect corporate-speak idiocy or indifference from customer service most of the time. Cheerful, bright people who actually know how to communicate are so rare that this call left me bubbly with good feelings toward Right By Nature.

Reasonable prices for organic food are almost too much to expect and I can’t wait to shop there. Sure, Whole Foods is grand; the produce, bakery and prepared foods sections make me delirious, but who can afford to shop there? Well, I guess the Shadyside 30-somethings whose BMWs jam the parking lot can, but I can’t.

I’ve limited my shopping to the Giant Eagle Market District for more than a year, and they do many things well. Their staff is a cut above other Giant Eagle employees. Once, when I thanked a bagger for his helpful attitude, he told me that only one out of 100 Giant Eagle employees qualified to work at the Market District. It’s great to shop where the cream of the crop works, but unfortunately, that also means the whey populates the other Iggles.

On my last trip to the Market District, I was stunned by a $1.99 price for a single grapefruit. This was for a conventional, not organic grapefruit, so I was really dumbfounded. Last week, my son and I gazed at lovely, plump oranges priced at 2 for $3.00, and, feeling like a Dickensian orphan, I asked him if he might try to save up and give me one for Christmas.

I understand that the pervasive economic horrors have as much to do with prices for both organic and non-organic foods as any corporate Giant Eagle policies, but as a result, I have to reluctantly turn away from most of the organic offerings at the Market District. Earlier in the year, I got into the habit of treating myself to rarities like chicken and beef unsullied by antibiotics and growth hormones, but I can no longer afford to eat food that isn’t killing me.

Now that Right By Nature has opened, maybe that will change. Clean, wholesome food for the masses: what a concept!