Yoke's Field Trip

Abby's second field trip of the year was to a local grocery store, Yoke's. Think of a higher end grocery store where you'd go to buy yummy wines, cheeses, and meats but it'd be crazy expensive to do your day-to-day grocery shopping there (at least on our budget!). I was excited to go (as usual) because I've never been in the "behind the scenes" parts of a grocery store, that I recall at least.

Forgetting about the kid's experience and totally focusing on mine alone for a second...I was surprised at how small the back rooms were. I came into the store thinking that to house all the food that the store sells there would need to be these gigantic rooms piled high with boxes and crates of food. Sort of like a mini Costco in back. So imagine how blown away I was to realize that all that food that flows through this store stops first in just a few rooms that are way smaller than expected. Our tour guide also said that the stock gets rotated out almost every night. The supply chain system in place to make that happen must be simply amazing to see. Okay, back to the kids!

The first stop was at the Coffee Shop for an Apple Cider taste testing. Abby so eagerly waited in line for her drink, took a sip, and promptly walked back to me to tell me it was yucky and could I take her drink. :-)

Then we went to the produce area to find different colored fruits, learn their names, and some interesting tidbits about fruit (the big hit was learning that the top of a pineapple is called its crown).

We then took a detour to the bank within the store. This part of the tour was actually comical as the kids were told about budgets, checking accounts, and payday. Most of the kids were completely enthralled with the candy jar. :-)

Here we toured my favorite part of the store - cheese! They got to do a taste test between a mild and sharp cheese and a sweet and tart apple. I think Abby was hungry because she kept getting in line to get more samples. :-) I finally had to cut her off when she shoved a bunch of cheese in her mouth and then decided she didn't like it and spit this wad of chewed up yuck in my hand. It's the finer parenting moments in life. 

Our first "behind the scenes" room! This was the produce refrigeration section. Abby had fun touching the walls and jumping back while giggling. :-)

Demonstrating the cardboard recycler. I thought it hilarious that, per WA law, you have to be over the age of 18 to operate this machinery. Which is literally pulling down the guard gate and pushing the green button. Literally.

The aforementioned dry goods store room. There were two loading dock bay doors and that was pretty much the width of the room. The recycler was on the other side of this room as well (I'm taking this picture from just a few feet in front of the recycling machine) so hopefully that gives you an idea of the size of this room.

 

I was both impressed and "icked" out with the meat department tour. The gal who was wrapping and tagging the meat cuts had her job down to an art. It took mere seconds to grab a piece of meat, weigh it, wrap it in plastic, seal the plastic, and price the product. The "ick" part was that there were all these hunks of meat just laying around with their smells just out there. Ugh. I know where my meat comes from (I've seen cows butchered, pigs slaughtered, etc) but I purposefully do NOT live on a farm for a reason.

Thankfully we moved on to the dairy refrigeration section quickly. This was such a cute moment! As soon as our tour guide said that the kids would be able to see the people on the other side of the refrigeration doors they made a beeline to check this our. I think they loved being able to "spy" on the other shoppers out there.

Singing kids are ADORABLE! They sang Slippery Fish in the fish department. I love Abby's face here. She's just having so much fun!

In the bakery department they got to see cookies being made, rolls being formed, and bread being sliced. All the kids were told to hug their bodies to keep their hands away from the slicing machine. Then they got to taste test the bread. 

Everyone got a chance to scan a product across the scanner as well.

And finally it was up the stairs to the grocery's office department where they got to take in a view of the whole store. 

I think Abby's favorite moments of the tour was spying on shoppers through the dairy refrigerators, singing Slippery Fish, and scanning the Beef Jerky. Oh, and the lifesaver candy she got as a parting gift. :-) Next field trip is in March to the Mid-Columbia Gymnastics Cheer Gym, a place she loves and knows well! We can't wait!!