Have you ever had a chance to tour your favorite grocery store? I don’t mean running down the aisles grabbing your items off the grocery list. I mean an opportunity where you get to connect with those that make grocery shopping an experience not an errand we dread.
Recently, I had the privilege of attending a tour at a local
Harmons grocery store here in Salt Lake City, Utah. Well, Draper, Utah to be exact.
One might think, what could there possibly be to see at the grocery store? Well Harmons is not your ordinary chain grocery store. As their slogan states: “We’re Not Normal, We’re Harmons”
They are truly anything but your normal grocery store.
Harmons is Utah’s oldest and largest family owned grocer. Their cheese aisle alone offers over 100 different cheeses imported from all around the world. The cool thing is whichever cheese you are interested in they let you sample it right there and then. Is that heaven on earth or what?
With 30 people on the tour, the noisy environment in the grocery store, and the need to move from department to department posed a challenge for the chefs to be able to hear the presentations clearly. Ken Krause, Cooking School Coordinator understood how important hearing the presentations would be to the chefs in training. A Listen Technologies
tour guide system made that possible.
Chef Evan Francois was our tour guide. The tour started at what they call their “WOW” area. We started in the Delicatessen area, where they had us sample some cheese, with a presentation on all the different cheeses they offer.
After that we were taken to the Chef Prepared aisle. Here you can find delicious recipes that are created by Harmons’ chefs. Anything from a potato salad, chicken fingers and sushi is available. A perfect solution for a take home meal and you will still get the freshness as if you had it made at home.
Next stop the bakery; walking by here is hard. The aromas of the different breads that are baking are hard to resist. This is not your standard grocery aisle with donuts, and a French baguette. Here all the baked goods are made fresh daily from scratch.
While we were taken from department to department, the amazing chefs showed us how they prepare the items daily, and how important the freshness of the meat, seafood and delicatessen is.I wasn’t the only one impressed; all 27 chefs from the Art Institute were amazed by the service Harmons provides.
With
Harmons that is not all they offer, after the tour at the grocery store we were taken by Chef Evan to the Cooking School. Yes they have a cooking school! They teach both hands-on and demonstration classes.
From baking pizzas from scratch, to a three course meal and wine classes! The cooking school is available for beginners, families, private classes, parties and business. It’s a great way to socialize, while enjoying some delicious food!
So next time you are at your favorite grocery store, ask for a tour. You will be amazed how much you will learn!
Before we started the tour, all the chefs in training and the tour guide were equipped with a Listen Technologies portable tour guide system. Each chef was provided with an LR-400 Portable Display Receiver and a LA-164 Ear Speaker. The tour guides where provided with LT-700 Portable Display Transmitter and an LA-274 Hand-Held Microphone.
