Bel Air had its grand opening on November 10th, 2004. This was a really big deal in Woodland- at least in the South East section of town, where the store is. The store is located at Pioneer and Gibson, across from Pioneer High School.

Walking up to the store on opening morning, the first thing I saw and heard was the Pioneer High School band. I'm proud to live in a town where the high school band plays at the grocery store grand opening. While I was outside, I heard the band play two different songs- 'Rock and Roll Part 1' by Gary Glitter, and 'Rock Around the Clock' (performed by many different artists, including Jerry Lee Lewis). Interestingly, Gary Glitter was convicted of child pornography and Jerry Lee Lewis married his 13 year old cousin. What kind of message are we trying to send to the children? Anyway, the band sounded great.

Inside the store was the Pioneer High School jazz band. Below is a picture of Spencer, getting ready to jam on the sax. The jazz band sounded very, very good. And as far as I know none of the music they played was written by pedophiles.

The store looked fantastic. This is by far the nicest grocery store in Woodland. Walking into the store we were showered with gifts- well, actually a 'chip clip' to keep chip bags closed, and free scratcher lottery ticket. My lottery ticket was not a winner.

The store was keeping us fed with some snacks. Danishes, muffins, juice, and some really good quiche. They also had 'tortilla wraps' those strange turkey sandwiches, with mayonnaise, rolled up in a tortilla. I've never understood those things, but I had one anyway, to get my daily supply of mayonnaise...because you know that us white people just can't get enough mayonnaise. We walked around the store a bit, and made a very important pit-stop before the official ceremony began.

While making this pit-stop, my photographer took a few pictures of the 'ladies room'.

Raleys executives were out in full-force for the grand opening. I haven't seen that many people in suits since the last time I got sued for slander. We were introduced to a lot of the employees, and were told about some of the features in the store. Earlier in the week, the Raleys PR group sent me some information about the store (because InsideWoodland.com is a credible news organization) and this is what they had to say about the store:

Store Director - Dave Ramey - 14 years as a store director, has opened 4 stores.

Woodland’s newest Bel Air store features state-of-the-art amenities and convenient services, including:

• Ozark Grill & BBQ, featuring healthy, home-style meals (mashed potatoes with bacon are good)
• Sizzling Wok, offering hot Chinese food
• Java City Café, serving specialty coffee drinks
• Well for Life, a concept encouraging healthy living (as boring as it sounds)
• Play Care, a fun environment for children ages 2-8 to play while parents shop (with Las Vegas style gaming!)
• Postal Center, filling all mailing and customer service needs
• Tri Counties Bank, an in-store branch that allows customers to “bank where they shop”
• Aisle 1, our signature gas station

I would also like to say that in general the guys in the grocery industry are thin, and wear nice suits. The suits, okay- that's fine. The thin part worries me. If they are in the food industry, they should spend more time getting to know their product. My grandfather always said "never trust a bald barber, or a skinny cook."

Store Employees being introduced, we've all been there, and we all know that this sucks.

It takes some big tools to cut a ribbon

I grew up in Southern California. So whenever I hear 'Bel Air', I think of the city. I thought it would be a good idea to contrast the city of Bel Air, with the grocery store in Woodland. Let's see how they stack up.

I think it is a fairly new thing for a supermarket to have on-site babysitting. Bel Air calls this 'Play Care' and it is free for children ages 2 to 8. They've got security monitors, certified staff, and educational toys. You can have your child in Play Care for up to 2 hours- but you must stay in the store.

Looking into the Play Care room, it seemed nice, but it was full of balloons, so it was hard to see too much. But looking a little more closely, I saw some of the toys they have.

Yes- that's a roulette wheel. I'm not sure what the numbers correspond to, but maybe it's things like 'change your diaper' 'give me back my bottle' or 'make mommy come back'. Spin the wheel, take your chances. At least you would be able to teach kids about real life. "No, Bobby, your mommy won't come back because you bet it all on double zero."

One of the big advantages of Bel Air over a store like Food For Less, is the service counters. They've got a deli, a BBQ area, a coffee area, a bakery, chinese food, etc. I've eaten some of the food from the BBQ area 'Ozark Grill & BBQ' and it was pretty good. I highly recommend that you order the 'plate' or 'platter' instead of getting individual items. Also, please check out the 'Chili Boat' which is chili, served over Fritos, with onion and cheese. Let us all know how it turns out- sounds good, but I don't think my gut is up to it. Most of the prepared meals will run about $5-$6.

Java City inside the building- and just in case you need another fix, there will be a Starbucks in the parking lot.

Because this is a new store, you might have a hard time finding you way around. Here's a map to get you acquainted. Click on the small image to see a larger one.

They've got a large bakery area with breads, desserts, birthday cakes, donuts and lot of sweets.

The meat department looks good. They've got everything, including the pre-marinated meats. I'm sure that this will become a very popular part of the store.	This is the natural foods section. This is where they sell all the goodies like 'millet', 'soy flour' and meatless turkey. Mmmm.. I'm guessing that this will be about as crowded as the aisle gets. I don't think I would feed most of that stuff to my goat. (Of course I don't have a goat, but if I did...I wouldn't feed it this stuff)

The cheese is also near the Ozark BBQ. This is also where they put the
pre-made meals.

The produce department looked fantastic. They said that they were proud of this part of the store, and they should be. I wonder how many kids in Woodland will grow up thinking that this is what a banana tree looks like. Check out the artfully arranged onions.

My wife was very excited to see that every item, on every shelf was completely stocked. Not a thing missing, and not a thing out of place- grocery store heaven. What a way to open up! This store has just about everything I could imagine (but I couldn't find the Yoohoo chocolate drink). It's a big store, but even with all of the products they do have, I don't understand why they would waste an entire aisle on greeting cards. Do people really buy that many?

Speaking of stocked shelves. We went up and down every aisle, and I noticed a few things.

• Old people park their cart in the middle of the aisle. Why? Because people naturally become far-sighted as they get older (really, your eye becomes less elastic, and you can't focus on things that are close to you). So they park their cart in the center, so they can be far away from what they are looking at. Old people should be given special glasses at the front of the store, or maybe they should have 'old folks hours' at a certain time of the day (after Matlock). During that time, old people get priority- but at any other time of the day it is okay to push them out of the way, and yell "move it grandma!"
• My wife hates the new trend of pasta being packed in boxes. She said that boxes take up more room in the cupboard, even when they are only half full. Also, when they come in a bag, you can re-seal the half full bag- but a box just sits there on the shelf, going stale, and waiting to be spilled.

A nearby florist is good for those times when you end up in the doghouse.

And if you screw up around Christmas, they've got you covered there too.
What woman wouldn't just melt if you brought her a dancing Santa?

A grocery store with a gas station! They were offering 'full service' when I filled up my car.

I'm telling you, that this store opening really was a big deal in town. When I went back to the store later that same night, they had searchlights dancing in the sky- letting the whole town know that something was happening down here.

The cash registers were busy on opening night.

My third and final trip of the day was to get dessert. Now that I've got a bakery within walking distance to my house, I can just imagine how fat I'll get. The dessert on the left was an eclair for my wife and daughter. I ate the dessert on the right. It's called 'mini decadence', and it is really, really good- if you like super-rich chocolate desserts. I would recommend you split this with someone! I of course ate the whole thing myself, because I was still pissed about them not having Yoohoo.

And that's it- the first day of Bel Air in Woodland. It looks like a fantastic store. I'm really excited that it finally opened, because as our mayor Matt Rexroad said "Woodland is a better place as a result of this opening today."

Bel Air Contact Information: 1885 East Gibson Road - 530-668-4422

	From:  eRiK sHeRmAn - Date: 12-Dec-04
	Bel Air is my favorite grocery store. I just dont like the mascots.
	From:  Steve - Date: 12-Nov-04
	When I look at this entire "Mini Mall," why am I reminded of the Safeway "Mall" on Cowell Blvd. in Davis?? Only the names and colors were changed to prevent plagarism. Either that or they hired the same architect, and he had no new ideas. Well, maybe the different colors was the archies idea. Although, they did add a gas station. Does the gas station offer 3 cents less per gallon of gas like the Safeway chain? I like the sound of the fully stocked florist. Sounds like only one vowel was changed so the comparison to the Playboy Mansion wouldn't be too obvious. Big question...how do their prices compare to other markets in Woodland? Don't matter how dadburned fancy it is if'n I cain't afford it.
	From:  Jenny - Date: 16-Mar-06
	I LOVE this store! I drive from Davis just to shop there. It has a wonderful ambiance, it is nice & roomy, the displays are nice and clear to read & understand, the workers are quite friendly, and overall it is simply a comforting experience as all the food inside.
	From:  david - Date: 08-Apr-06
	As a longtime Nugget shopper, we decided to give Bel Air a shot. And that shot lasted all of 5 minutes. The produce section, while pretty, was to the Nugget how you compared Woodland-grown strawberries to Dole strawberries. Which is to say, Bel Air is expensive, not that good, and flash over substance. As for driving from Davis to Woodland just for Bel Air... Do you not realize that you have the best grocery store in the area in the Davis Food Co-op? Seriously. And I'm not a hippie by any means. Anyway. for local grocers, the winning order is, without question: 1) Davis Foor Co-Op 2) Nugget 3) Bel Air
	From:  bob - Date: 30-Apr-06
	i love bel air and aisle 1 !
	From:  KAREN TREJO - Date: 13-Nov-06
	I USE TO BE A LONG LONG TIME CUSTOMER OF NUGGET MARKET BUT, YOUR NOT ONLY CLOSE TO MY HOME YOU'VE MADE ME FEEL LIKE IM AT HOME WHILE SHOPPING AT YOUR CLEAN, CURTIOUS, GREAT SELECTION GROCERY STORE AND I CANNOT FORGET HOW YOUR EMPLOYEES ARE SO RESPECTFUL AND HELPFUL..
	From:  to Karen - Date: 14-Nov-06
	you do know this isn't the Bel-Air site, right? Also, unlock the Caps key on your keyboard, please.
	From:  anoymous - Date: 24-Dec-07
	i no they're the same but raley's is better
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