Cows help deliver the news

I was going through my evergrowing inbox of emails earlier today and happened to open a recent email newsletter from Sprouts Marketplace. Sprouts recently merged with Henry’s Marketplace, my favorite produce store, so now my Henry’s newsletter is a Sprouts newsletter with a new design to get used to. I think this should be an easy transition for me. Take a look at the email header – what do you think?

Email newsletter for Sprouts Marketplace with cows

I was also looking for something “fall like” to do with the kids this weekend and our local pumpkin patch came to mind. It’s called Oma’s Pumpkin Patch and look, their logo has a cow on it!

Oma's pumpkin patch logo

Unfortunately I was planning to go on Sunday and they’re closed on Sundays so I guess we’ll be doing something else!

It’s another shopping bag with a cow!

My favorite produce store, Henry’s Marketplace, recently merged with a very similar store called Sprouts. I say very similar because the only thing separating the two stores is their names. You see, about 20 years ago, Sprouts was the one produce store around here. I’m not sure what happened but some members of management decide to leave and create their own produce store, calling it Henry’s Marketplace. The store logos are very similar, everything inside looks the same, except for the branding. If all the branding signs were removed and someone made you step into one of the stores, I bet you wouldn’t be able to tell if you’re in a Henry’s or a Sprouts store.

Well, it seems the divorce phase is over and Henry’s and Sprouts are getting remarried. The couple will be renamed Sprouts, so my local Henry’s is going through some rebranding of its own, little by little, starting with the grocery bags. There’s not much to say about the plastic bags, which display the Sprouts logo, but today I got my groceries put in paper bags, and this is what they look like:

Sprouts shopping paper bag with cows

 These are some pretty big cows, wouldn’t you say? Even though Henry’s is changing its name, it’s still one of my favorite stores, and now for another reason!

Cows at the grocery store, cows at the party store

I took my kids to Henry’s Marketplace this morning to stock up on fresh fruit and vegetables. You know it’s the middle of summer when your cart is full of fragrant white nectarines, plump honeydew melon, sun-reddened apricots and juicy plums.

As I was picking a couple dozens of eggs (and my youngest decided to grab an egg carton and drop half of its contents on the floor – oops!) I looked up and noticed these prepackaged rolls of buttermilk biscuits from the Immaculate Baking Company:

Buttermilk biscuits with cow from Immaculate Baking Company

Is it me or that cow looked pretty crossed? It’s just looks like it’s telling me, don’t even think about grabbing these biscuits or else! I think my oldest can draw a friendlier-looking cow.

Talking about my oldest, he’s turning five tomorrow (yikes!) so we also went to Party City to grab some birthday wrapping paper, candles and balloons. While waiting in line, we spotted another LED cow keychain, with different shape and hide patterns from the cow keychain I recently found at Michael’s. This cow’s nostrils still light up as a handy flashlight and makes a weird moo sound.

LED cow keychain at Party City

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some birthday presents to wrap up…

A whole new take on barbecue and cows

It’s another month in the Henry’s flyer cow saga! The designing staff at Henry’s Marketplace finds new inspiration and they don’t fail to entertain me every month. If you missed the previous flyers, here are the links for you:

- May 2011 flyer – honoring Mother’s Day
- April 2011 flyer – celebrating Earth Day
- March 2011 flyer – getting ready for St Patrick’s Day
- January 2011 flyer – making new year’s health resolutions

This month, Mrs Cow and Mr Pig are getting ready to kick off the summer with a barbecue in their barnyard. What a brilliant idea!

Henry's Marketplace June 2011 flyer

I can see Mr Pig is being… a typical pig, pigging out on watermelon while the cow does all the work. By the way, I know corn is a popular item to throw on the grill, but seriously, we should stop feeding corn to our cows. Bovines were made to graze on grass and are healthiest that way. There, I said it.

I love the apron caption, “Don’t milk the cook!”, although I believe a more appropriate caption should have been “Don’t grill the cook!”. Unless you can come up with a better caption than that. Come on, you know I’m waiting…

Shop in style with this new cow cooler bag

It was just a few days ago when I spotted new reusable shopping bags at Henry’s Marketplace on sale by the registers. Well, the reusable bags now have company! While paying for fresh produce this afternoon, I saw these new cooler bags hanging by the register:

Henry's Marketplace new cooler bag

Doesn’t this cow look cool? Or hot, depending on which side you’re looking at. I’m really starting to think Henry’s is embracing the daily cow spotting theory. Between their monthly flyers, store signage and now two new bags, they’re catching on to the subliminal purchasing power of the cow. Buyers beware!