New Store Report: Wal Mart at 1604 & Potranco

I'm always a sport for checking out something new. So on our way to the HEB Plus on Potranco for our Sunday ritual, my wife suggested that we stop into the new Wal Mart that has just opened up on the other side of 1604.

By Google Map standards, both the new HEB Plus (Inside of 1604 on Potranco) and the Wal Mart (Outside of 1604 on Potranco) are too new to give you an exact satellite view, but if you click here, you can see a map of the place and just imagine it!

So anyway, if you are keeping track, the friendly developers of San Antonio are creating new Bandera Pointe-like intersections all around 1604. For example, my intersection of interest is 1604 and Culebra. We already have an HEB, Chili's, SSFCU, a Home Depot, a Walmart and an assload of other stores I can't remember or expect to ever shop in. Plus, they are getting ready to build a Jim's, a Best Buy, a Dicks Sports and another assload of stores on the other side of HEB.

Moving on down to Potranco, they have the aforementioned Wal Mart and HEB Plus, and they are building a Kohls, more banks than you can shake a stick at and I hear, a movie theater.

So, I'm cool with all this. Aside from the aquifer recharge not far from here, what is all this development going to hurt? Nothing like a lot more cut down trees to help with the additional vehicle traffic and smog, and of course, the rising blood pressure from sitting in traffic watching the stupid girl in front of you put on make-up while talking on the cell phone. But enough of my environmentalist-like babbling.

I'm happy to report that the new Wal Mart was efficient, clean and full of the usual people who shop there; people like me, happy to save a buck while getting to see the free showing of circus-freaks who also frequent the place.

I'm sorry to report I didn't get a picture (my wife insisted I holster the camera fearing the subject may have a gun), but the people parked in their well-used Chevy Celebrity were taking a break before entering the store at 11AM on a Sunday morning. Who says you can't purchase beer before noon around here? I was amused that the pleasant lady was making sure that she got her half of the quart sized Miller High Life before turning it over to her man while she carefully unstrapped the newborn from the car seat. Ah, young couples in love.

Anyway, our trip into the Wal Mart was brief as we only had one quick item to pick up and it was off to HEB Plus. But I did notice as I was pulling out of the lot back onto Potranco that they were building some sort of strip center in across the street. A little note of caution for the people who happen to live in those neighborhoods just beyond there: Two-lanes ain't gonna cut it. I'd start planning the double-decker toll road now, or you people are going to be stuck like chuck in a year or so.

Oh, no need for a long report about our trip to HEB Plus - you know the drill by now: We go in, we see Carol, the cooking lady who gives us the samples of seriously delicious food. I mean - she was giving out awesome Fillet Mignon on Sunday. You ought to go there just for that.

Anyway, like normal we got our usual fruits and veggies and such and stopped in Spoonz Grill for a nutritious Ice Cream based Malted shake. It may have had vitamins in it. I think.

Anyway, while waiting, my wife asked the man at the register for a cup so she could get a water while waiting.

If you have ever seen those fountain drink dispenser's, they usually have at least one spigot where they serve a fruit drink or something non-carbonated. In this spigot, the fruit syrup is mixed with regular water vice the carbonated water from tanks. This is important to understand to appreciate this story.

So, of course, my wife went over to the fountain machine, got some ice then started looking for the little tab which usually sticks out next to the fruit drink. You see, if you push this little tab, you can get fresh water without the fruit juice. This beats paying a buck for a bottle of water or placing the mouth that kisses my kids next to the germ infested water fountain near the restrooms, which more often than not, has been the scene of some sordid homeless person spit bath, or worse, a young prankster violating it in some unspeakable fashion, just waiting for someone to come on by for a refreshing turn of the silver handle.

We'll pass on that, thanks.

So you have to understand, I'm leaning up against the shopping cart staring into space thinking of the fine lunch I just had, courtesy of Carol and Mr. Butt, and my wife is walking from one end of the drink counter to the next, looking for the little tab for fresh water. When she interrupts me from my post lunch haze to report that there is no sign of water, I of course immediately begin inspecting the same very machines that she herself has investigated only seconds earlier.

(I have done a quick search of national and local Blogs, and thankfully, nobody snapped a picture of us looking like complete circus-freaks, or at least they have yet to post same on Al Gore's World Wide Web.)

Just as I was prepared to seek the highest ranking Spoonz employee or possibly a member of management to make a big stink about how HEB was trying to force people into purchasing bottled water at prices not unlike a visit to Disney, my wife was able to stop me from a certain embarrassment that might have made the KENS-5, 10 PM newscast. (Is it just me, or has Karen Grace had a boob job?)

Turns out that the sneeky people at HEB Plus had forgone the standard "water only" tab placed near the fruit drink on most fountain dispensers, and instead, offered a shiny, free-standing water and ice dispenser.

So then we collected our Malts and promptly left, not looking back for fear that people sitting in the dining area may have witnessed the momentary loss of our minds.