Beachcombing

The big secret has been exposed: The grocery store at 6235 E. Spring St. will be an Amazon Fresh, with plans to officially open in December. Although we’ve known the identity for the past year through our sources, Councilwoman Stacy Mungo made it official in her Neighborly News on Sept. 28.

The building was previously occupied by Haggen Food & Pharmacy before closing five years ago.

Amazon Fresh will provide hundreds of jobs locally, low-priced groceries and will donate surplus food to local food banks. Much like those Amazon products that we already purchase online, grocery shoppers will be able to get low prices with free, same-day delivery for Prime members.

The Amazon Dash Cart enables customers to skip the checkout line. Alexa – which responds to many queries for information at my home computer – promises to help customers manage their shopping lists and better navigate the aisles.

Not to be outdone, Walmart is rolling out a new look and swifter checkout at 200 of its Supercenters this fiscal year (including stores in Downey, Santa Ana and Anaheim). Another 1,000 Supercenters will get the upgrade by next fiscal year.

Walmart’s upgrades will include better signage that encourages app use, self-checkout kiosks and contactless payment solutions, such as Walmart Pay. Select locations will also have Scan & Go to help customers manage their checkout directly.

Our Best of Long Beach contest this year names Stater Brothers as our reader’s favorite grocery store. My wife is in complete agreement as she navigates the aisles and dictates what items I should pull from the shelves (due to her limited eyesight). When solo shopping, I prefer Smart & Final bulk items that are used at our offices, smaller crowds and their delicious rotisserie chickens.

This edition of the Beachcomber contains the product-oriented winners in our 19th annual Best of Long Beach contest as well as the prize winners, who submitted ballots and had their ballots randomly drawn. The contest would not be possible without the support of these sponsors: Aquarium of the Pacific, Belmont Athletic Club, Belmont Pet & LaunderPet, Buonos Pizza, Emery & Emery DDS, Harbor Breeze Yacht Charters and Cruises, Hof’s Hut, Home Instead Senior Care, J&L Fine Jewelry, LBCC Senior Studies, Long Beach Playhouse, Long Beach State Athletics, Lucille’s BBQ, TLD Law, (Jennifer N. Sawday), Tom’s Automotive and Wags to Whiskers.

Thank these businesses with your patronage. And thanks to those readers who submitted a ballot to be eligible for $6,000 in prizes.

The contest was delayed this year due to the coronavirus. We’ll get back on track next year with a services ballot in our February issues and the winners announced in April.

Our online poll asked readers who won the first presidential debate. Biden got 38%, Trump received 50%, 4% said it was a tie and 8% said neither one. Another poll is online for the vice presidential candidates at www.beachcomber.news.

Funny stuff:

• To me, “drink responsibly” means don’t spill it.
• When I say, “The other day,” I could be referring to any time between yesterday and 15 years ago.
• I remember being able to get up without making sound effects.

publisher@beachcomber.news