First in California

ah, the subtle differences between the westwood ralphs and the university park ralphs. after venturing out into ucla territory for dinner, we dropped into the neighborhood ralphs grocery store. after walking through the vegetation-adorned entryway, i was struck by the utter cleanliness and order of the store. the vegetables and fruit looked fresh and healthy, the aisles were spotless and the carts and baskets functioned properly and were not cluttered with newspaper inserts and plastic bags. at the checkout, the line progressed quickly. no managers were called over to unlock the register to correct a clerk's mistake and the credit card swipe machine managed not to malfunction once. it was everything i've missed about a grocery store since being forced by locale and lack of vehicular mobility to frequent the university park ralphs, a subpar version of the westwood paradigm. it was the epitome of the classism of american society that has become increasingly apparent as i've moved from a small farming town in central california to fresno and finally to los angeles.