Grocery shopping (& Consumer Reports)

[jinx]

Originally Posted by Cloud

--shop clockwise to spend less time & money. (Most stores have their door on the right, so you go counterclockwise naturally. I know I do).

How does this work?

[Clodfobble]

If the grocery store has an actual meat counter next to the meat section, they'll repackage anything you want. Many times I've handed them a package of four steaks from the refrigerator case and asked them to just give me two of them in a package, and they happily do it. This is of course assuming they are packaged there at the grocery store and not a completely separate brand like Tyson or something.

[Telefunken]

Originally Posted by busterb

Damnifino. Or single people. I have the same problem. I guess the food stamp folks have given them some kinda mind set. WTF do I need with 30 lbs of chicken leg quaters?

The closest grocery store bundles their produce into Styrofoam packs and shrink wraps them. Very little produce is offered bulk. You have to buy the package of 6 zucchini and throw out the 4 you didn't use because you don't eat that much zucchini. This place is stuck in the 70's. The customer service at this grocery store sucks so it would be futile for me to ask "can I only purchase two zucchini?" These days I'm trying not to drive long distances to do basic errands. It's a carbon footprint thing. On the other hand, wasting food sucks because that also impacts my carbon footprint.

Meats I can freeze. It's the produce that irks me because not all of it can be frozen. Plus I don't have a large freezer to keep everything in.

If we only had a Whole Foods in my city.

[Aliantha]

Don't your supermarkets sell fresh produce individually? Here you can go into any supermarket and get yourself one of everything if you want.

With meat most of it is packaged in the supermarkets, and it's cheaper to buy it in bulk packs, but you can always bring it home and repackage it before freezing.

[Telefunken]

Originally Posted by Aliantha

Don't your supermarkets sell fresh produce individually? Here you can go into any supermarket and get yourself one of everything if you want.

Yes, but it's a 15 min drive from home.

[Aliantha]

So?

[Cloud]

carbon footprint, remember?

You just can't get your needs met by one store, I don't think.

I'm very lucky to have a good, natural foods grocery 5 miles from my home. It's the only one in El Paso. I go there for bulk foods, natural foods, hormone free beef and chicken, Apricot Ale, decent yogurt, etc.

I go to the mainstream, high-end grocery store, Albertson's, for convenience, fresh produce, and selection.

I go to Wal-Mart for everything, and they have the lowest prices--but not too often because I don't like crowds.

Occasionally I will go to Sams Club, but I don't generally buy perishables there. I'm a single person with limited storage.

[jinx]

My closest grocery store is a little country market with higher prices but better quality than the walmart. It's also twice as far but still my first choice (I don't mind walmart produce so much, but the meat doesnt even look real, plus its up to 12% solution. Um, wtf?)

Personally, I would definitely drive 15 minutes rather than buy packaged produced - although I stopped driving to Whole Foods becuase it was just too damn far.

I treat myself to Wegmans when we need goat cheese, buffalo yogurt, and other wildly exotic things my little market doesn't carry - but its a 1/2 hr away.

I still don't get the clockwise thing.... I'm a perimeter shopper as it is, I dont see why it would matter which direction I went.

[Cloud]

well, the story on the study doesn't say why--it just says that people moving clockwise spend less time in the store.

My most expensive shopping habit is wasting food--buying stuff then not cooking it. Either I don't get around to cooking, or I look at the stuff and go--ugh, I'm not eating that. That's why I don't freeze food--subconsiously or something I think it's gross.

[theotherguy]

I have the best plan going for grocery shopping. The goddess does it for me! We used to go together (usually around 11 or midnight) when we were younger with no children. Now, she would rather do it during the day while I am at work. I have offered many times (an empty gesture really) to do it on my way home, but she would rather I get on home to play with my son. She can just pop him in a cart watching a movie on her ipod, and shop with relate quite. That way we don't have to take up time doing it on the weekend. I really have the good life.

[busterb]

well, the story on the study doesn't say why--it just says that people moving clockwise spend less time in the store.

Yep. Then you can buck the tide of rest of the folks going other way. Oh well

[Cloud]

less time in the store = less money.

[Clodfobble]

I've always gone "backwards" through the store--but that's because I like to put the non-refrigerated things like shampoo and toilet paper in my basket first, so the things like ice cream and meat are rolling around the store with me for as little time as possible. But in the three stores I've shopped in on a regular basis, that meant clockwise once and counter-clockwise twice. My favorite store layout ever had the produce in the middle instead of on the side, I loved that.

[nowhereman]

What makes me crazy(er) is the short shelf life of produce after you bring it home. It gets back to the days of shopping every day for perishables so you don't just end up throwing it away a day later. We go to Trader Joes (Great store!) about once a month to stock up on some things - it's about a half hour away. Sam's Club for some bulk purchases even though I HATE Wal-Mart. (Guess that makes me a hypocrite). Put in a big garden this year - those veggies don't go bad in a day, and the flavor is fantastic. We have the large grocery chains locally, but it always seems that I'm leaving the store checking the receipt and wondering "how the **** did the total get THAT high?.

[Cloud]

Originally Posted by nowhereman

. . . it always seems that I'm leaving the store checking the receipt and wondering "how the **** did the total get THAT high?.

Ain't THAT the truth!

It's even worse at the variety or discount stores (what do you call them?), which we haven't mentioned. Things like Target and Kmart are on my regular list of stops. I go to these stores at least as much as I go to grocery stores, and buy bunches of junk. They have food there, too, but it's all processed, so not very good if you want healthy.

Of course, if I go to Wal-Mart, I can skip this step, 'cause they have EVERYTHING. And the lowest prices, too. That's a combination that's hard to beat.

And I agree with you nowhereman. Growing your own is the way to go. Surely it can't be that hard to grow a container garden of vegies. Alas, I have not the green thumb.

But I was lucky enough to buy, this weekend, at the aforementioned KMart, a bunch of herbs, which are hard to find. Dill, oregano, flat parsley, curley parsley, and basil. I planted them, put them in a sunny window, and -- we'll see!