A supermarket that deserves the label.

Byline: Best of . . . The Register-Guard

So, Eugene's not getting a Whole Foods. That's OK, because we've got something better:

It's the new $7 million Market of Choice (aka PC Market, or Price Chopper, depending on how long you've lived here).

The new supermarket is in the Woodfield Station shopping center, which is a fancy term for world's worst parking lot. The parking is the only thing we don't like about this place. That and the microcarts, which are bigger than a bread basket but smaller than some members of the curbita family of fruits.

Shopping can be a drag, but not at MOC, which is sort of like an amusement park of food.

The fun starts the moment you walk in the door and are greeted by a faux fireplace and a flat panel TV that's always tuned to the Food Network. Straight ahead lies a deli/bakery/fancy cheese/olive bar/pizzeria/salad bar area that seems to specialize in giving away free food.

We watched as one group of freeloaders roamed the north side of the store in search of sustenance. They speared a few fancy olives, grabbed some mini-pizza slices, then scarfed down roast beef cubes and havarti hunks at the deli.

On their way to the $18.75 per-pound English cheese sampler, they threw elbows and nearly trampled a small child.

Eager to escape the greedy hogs, we made our way to the wine section, stopping off at the beer island on our way. There are apparently free samples here, too, but they were not in evidence on our visit.

One member of the group didn't like the fact that there's no original Coors in the cooler. But it's got everything else a beer lover could want, so we told him to shut up and try the nearest convenience stores.

As we cruised the frozen food section, we notice MOC somehow has managed to avoid the frosty glass doors that afflicts so many supermarkets. That makes it easy to find that last pint of Ben & Jerry's special edition apple pie crust ice cream.

It's the little things, we realize, that make this shopping experience what it is. The light is one of them. The wine is bathed in cave-like shadows, the bread is caressed with a warm, oven-y glow, and the French cheeses and Italian salamis are key-lighted like celebrities in the glare of the paparazzi.

There are other bells and whistles: a community meeting room, a demonstration kitchen, a sushi station and bathrooms worthy of a luxury hotel.

Looking around, we realized just how far grocery shopping has evolved since 1913, when a man named Clarence Saunders opened Piggly Wiggly, the world's first self-service grocery store, in Memphis, Tenn.

In a way, we've come full circle. Grocery shopping at MOC is both self-service and full service.

And Lord knows, we can always use a little help.

Attention shoppers, there's no waiting at the Best of ... archive (www.registerguard.com/bestof).

BEST GROCERY SHOPPING EXPERIENCE

Market of Choice

Where: 67 W. 29th Ave.

Hours: Open 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily

Phone: [phone]