A new supermarket

For a city with a plethora of restaurants of all kinds, Vegas has what seems to me to be a lot of supermarkets. Major chains include Albertson's, Smith's and Vons. There's a low-price chain called Food 4 Less. Wal Mart has a major share of the market with several 24-hour supercenters. Warehouse clubs -- Costco and Sam's Club -- sell lots of groceries. And there are niche players such as Whole Foods, Trader Joe's and a couple of Spanish chains.

So it surprised me to see that a big store called WinCo had opened in Hederson, on Stephanie Street just north of I-215. It's hard for me to imagine a group of supermarket executives sitting around saying, "Gee, the Las Vegas market could really use some more major supermarkets." I was also interested because I had never heard of WinCo, and I though I was familiar with at least the names of all the big supermarket chains.

The other night I stopped into WinCo to pick up a few things. I was a little surprised to find the interior similar to that of a Food 4 Less, with items stacked still in their boxes and concrete floors. This store is clearly going for the lower-end business. That may not be a bad strategy even in relatively well-off Henderson given Southern Nevada's still sky-high unemployment and foreclosure rates.

But maybe the fact that a company would even make the kind of investment WinCo did in Southern Nevada is a sign of hope for the region's economy and future growth. I certainly hope so.