I was pleasantly surprised to find that the main grocer in Crestline - Goodwins - was up to date, well stocked and offered competitive prices. In other words, it doesn’t fit the price-gouging understocked “general store” image I’d at first feared.

This went a big way towards reassuring me that we could make a permanent go of living here in small-town Crestline, California.

Goodwins has great parking - a nice, mostly flat area out in front that never seems too crowded. The downtown location is great, on the corner of Lake Gregory Drive and Lake Drive, with a sweet, closeup lake view to boot.

A big plus are the friendly faces everywhere in the aisles. Crestline people are nice. No one is in a tremendous hurry and I never hear screaming children. Maybe it’s the relaxed townie pace. The checkout cashiers are also uniformly polite and smiley.

The food brand selection is limited, in the sense of having only about four brands of, say, salsa, instead of the usual twenty. So I can keep my larder stocked with Medium Pace Picante, just not with an outrageous gourmet selection of pineapple peach salsas like I was used to in Seattle. It’s a small sacrifice.

What Goodwins Has:

Goodwins has a florist area, a nice array of produce, a bakery, and plenty of meats, deli selections and fresh fish. So much fresh fish, in fact, that the rear of the store actually stinks (it stinks of fish).

There is also a pet aisle, the usual cleaning and health/beauty aisles, a magazine and book area, a liquor department and a few aisles that sell what can only be described as “Odds and Ends” (things like small bear sculptures, wind chimes, hoodies printed with Crestline, children’s cheap toys and brightly colored Lexan plastic tumblers).

What Goodwins Lacks:

• The gourmet soup and salad bars, coffee baristas, and people in the aisles cooking free samples of food on the weekends. This is not that kind of market.

• I wish there were more low carb selections (low carb tortillas and ice cream were all I could find). So for my specialty low carb groceries I do have to make online orders or “head down the hill” to the big cities.

• Goodwins also needs to spruce up their shopping carts. The wheels are as shot to hell as shot can be. Going around the ends of the aisles is sort of fun when your cart wheels plane out each time. Weeee!

• Lastly, Goodwins can get pretty smelly some days. Between the aforementioned fish aroma, and the sometimes unshowered mountain people, food shopping is not always entirely pleasant. This is usually only a problem on those very snowy days with the heaters running hot, as the entire populace throngs in to stock up against the infamous Crestline blizzard power outtages.

Goodwins Overall:

If you live in Crestline, this is where you shop for food staples, produce and the majority of your daily needs. While HillTop Liquor and Johnny’s Market do sell food, those are really just corner markets.

Fortunately there’s no need for locals to drive to Jensens or Stater Brothers in Arrowhead Village. Goodwins is a large sized grocer with good prices and is THE grocer for Crestline, Valley of Enchantment, Cedar Pines Park, Valley of the Moon and part of Twin Peaks.

You do get used to the smell.

Stumble it!