Marshalls

This is the most messy and cluttered store that I’ve seen in a very long time. The shelves are overstuffed and things are just piled on top of each other. It made me not want to shop there. They have some nice shoes from time to time but the rest of the store is too messy to even bother with.

This Marshalls is my preferred spot for retail therapy for two reasons: it’s close to where I live and I love their food section.
I discovered the food section between last Thanksgiving and Christmas, which in fact is usually when it’s best stocked, expanding to 2.5 isles from the normal one isle.
On the shelves are all kinds of foreign olive oil and other fancy types like walnut oil, hazelnut oil, truffle oil, etc., aged balsamic vinegar, gourmet condiments/​spices, a variety of coffee blends and flavored teas, exotic snacks and treats. As far as my therapy goes, it involves carefully picking up the bottles and boxes, reading the origins, ingredients and even people/​story behind them, and feeling myself being transported to other lands.
As a self-​proclaimed chocoholic, I was ecstatic when they had European chocolates on the shelves around Christmas which include Guylian, Toblerone or other lesser-​know-​but-​equally-​good brands such as VandenBulcke. Sadly eating all these chocolates has ruined the usual brands in regular stores for me — I thought Dove was good.
I am sure you can probably find many of these food items in Whole Foods, Fresh Market and the yet-​to-​arrive Trader Joe’s, but what can I say? Poor people want to be foodies too. Plus, it’s more compact here and you don’t need to push a cart around.
Oh, in case you are wondering, they also sell clothes, shoes, bed bath and beyond.