shopping – in thriver words

You Better Shop Around

With the price of groceries these days, you better shop around! I can’t type that without hearing backup singers bahdododoing in my head. But I digress. Food prices are erratic right now. Gone are the days you can count on any specific store having the lowest price. A combination of supply chain issues, product shortages, and inflation have led to unpredictable shopping in 2023.

I recently ran out of Pickapeppa Sauce. When I pulled it up on the Walmart site, it was $10 (marked down from $13.95) for a 5 oz bottle. A search on Amazon found the same item for $7.89. Both of those seemed high so I looked at Kroger through Instacart. Kroger was the cheapest by far at $4.99.

Today, I need cranberry juice. I want the kind that’s nothing but 100% cranberry without any added grape or apple juice. A 32 oz bottle is $7.18 at Walmart, $6.39 at Kroger, and $9.99 at The Fresh Market and Natural Grocers. The choice between $7.18 and $6.39 is less than a dollar. That difference may not change my mind about where to purchase it. On the other hand, $2.81 seems like a pretty big difference.

But the math isn’t that simple. I often have 30 items to purchase at one time. If the price of each one is as erratic as these two examples, I can end up spending $30 – $60 more per shopping trip than if I shop at 3 or 4 different stores.

To comparison shop, I also have to factor in the amount of time I spend reviewing prices. Admittedly, online shopping reduces the amount of time this takes, but I can easily eat a dollar in time trying to save a dollar in cash.

For years, I had the luxury of ignoring grocery prices for the most part. And I got used to the fact that gluten-free items would be expensive in comparison to their gluten-containing counterparts. Now, I find myself questioning every purchase. Do I REALLY need those crackers? Do I NEED French bread from the store or do I have time to bake this week?

Last weekend, I hosted a birthday party. After searching four stores for two slabs of ribs, I checked a local barbecue restaurant. It was cheaper to buy the ribs there already smoked than to buy them uncooked from Costco, Sam’s Club, Walmart, or Kroger. I could save cash and cooking time by purchasing from the restaurant. That made my decision easy.

If you have a limited amount of time to research prices online, you may want to consider a price comparison app. I haven’t used any of these so I can’t recommend one, but online reviews and a look at their description can help you determine which app may fit your shopping style.

The other thing I do is limit shopping. I do this by:

growing vegetables and herbs
using as much of a food as possible (leaves, stems, trimmings)
eating and repurposing leftovers
minimizing spoilage
eating what I have instead of what I want
trading food from the garden with neighbors
keeping basics on hand
doing pantry challenges

While I can limit shopping, I am not fully self-sufficient so I will continue to purchase from grocery stores, Amazon, discount, and big box stores.

As long as prices continue to fluctuate drastically, you better shop around.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

What Makes a Grocery Store Great?

This week I’ve been wondering what makes a grocery store great? When I travel, I like to visit grocery stores. Not only do I want to see the food itself, I want to observe and absorb the culture. Funny thing is, I do not enjoy the grocery stores in my town. Why? Well, that’s what I’m exploring. I know it feels better to shop in some stores than others. Let’s figure out what makes that so.
grocery
Yesterday, I needed a few things in addition to groceries — potting soil, toilet paper, marbles. Wal-Mart seemed like a good place to get everything at one time. I crossed the river to an adjoining town to shop at the nearest Wal-Mart. But as I drove into the parking lot, I realized I didn’t want to be there. I didn’t want to go in that store. Without even pulling into a parking space, I drove out the other side of the parking lot and to a Kroger nearby.

What pulled me toward the other store?

Both are larger than I prefer, but the second store is smaller. Wal-Mart supercenters average 178,000 sq ft. Kroger Marketplace stores average around 100,000. I really prefer the footprint of The Fresh Market, Whole Foods, or Natural Grocers stores that average under 50,000 sq ft. From this I must conclude that size matters to me…in grocery stores.

As grocery store space expands, it rarely means more fresh produce, meat, or specialty flours. The added space is typically stocked with items that are boxed, bottled, fully prepared, or not food related. There’s nothing wrong with that. I just prefer shopping where fresh food is the focus.

I also like small shopping carts. Believe me, I can fill them with plenty of food. As a short person, tall, deep carts make it annoyingly difficult to reach small items hiding in the bottom near the back of the basket. Most grocery stores have both, but the store closest to my home does not.

When I walk into a store, it’s a pleasure to be greeted with a beautiful variety of produce, but two of my favorite stores (unfortunately, not in this town) have the produce located where it’s not visible from the door. Obviously, seeing produce immediately is not a big factor in a store making my favorites list. And from a practical standpoint, I’d rather stack easily bruised fruit on top of the staples in my basket. If I begin in the produce section, it ends up on the bottom where it’s more likely to get damaged.

More important than location is the variety and freshness of the produce offered. I’m okay with seasonal variations in selection, but only if there is a moderately predictable seasonal rotation or an easily accessed online list of what is currently stocked in a given store. Because stores in different neighborhoods are stocked differently, it sometimes takes visiting 3 or 4 locations to gather the vegetables I need for a recipe.

Once I find the produce I’m looking for, I’d like for it to be fresh enough to last a couple of days. Every other week, I get home to discover that the raspberries I couldn’t see in the bottom of the container are fuzzy or the prewashed sugar snap peas smell foul even though it’s not past the use by date. This recurring issue makes me dread what I’ll find next time I put away groceries.

This may not be true for everyone, but for me to think a store is great, it needs to offer a good selection of fresh meat, poultry, fish, and seafood that is unseasoned, unmarinated, and uninjected. I just want the raw ingredients, please. And I’d like a sell by date to give me an idea how long I have before it spoils.

Organic dairy products like plain yogurt with lots of active cultures and no gums or fillers, dairy alternatives without tons of sugar, high quality butter, and a wide selection of coffee improve my impression. Plenty of raw nuts, dried fruit without added sugar, and bulk spices make things even better.

Other than that, clear and accurate signs, efficient organization, and few empty spaces on the shelves go a long way toward a pleasant shopping experience. If I have to scour the health food section searching for gluten-free cereal amongst other whole grains, I will most likely skip it. I feel the same way about crackers, cookies, chips, and frozen food.

A final consideration is the ambience of the store. When I walk in, is it quiet and lit well but not garishly? Does it smell good? Are the aisles wide enough? Are there plenty of open checkout stations with friendly checkers? Does it feel more like a comfortable boutique than a herd-em-through warehouse? If so, I’ll enjoy being there.

If I could get a small, pleasant store with an adequate cold chain that offers a consistent variety of fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, poultry, fish, seafood, and easy to find gluten-free items that I can put in a small cart within 5 miles of my house, I’d be so giddy I wouldn’t know what to do. All of that together would truly make a grocery store great!

In the meantime, I’ll keep going to multiple stores to get what I need.

https://retail-index.emarketer.com/company/data/5374f24d4d4afd2bb4446614/5374f2b24d4afd824cc15ebb/lfy/false/wal-mart-stores-inc-real-estate

https://www.walmart.com/

https://retail-index.emarketer.com/company/data/5374f24a4d4afd2bb4446582/5374f2834d4afd824cc15a0f/lfy/false/kroger-real-estate

https://retail-index.emarketer.com/company/data/5374f24d4d4afd2bb4446612/5374f29e4d4afd824cc15c99/lfy/false/natural-grocers-real-estate

https://retail-index.emarketer.com/company/data/5374f24e4d4afd2bb4446642/5374f2b34d4afd824cc15ed5/lfy/false/whole-foods-market-real-estate

https://retail-index.emarketer.com/company/data/5374f24e4d4afd2bb4446639/5374f2734d4afd824cc1587c/lfy/false/the-fresh-market-real-estate

Hate Shopping? Avoid Black Friday and Still Give the Perfect Holiday Gift!

Hate Shopping? I know. It can wear you out. It’s always been easier for me to buy a little here and a little there throughout the year. By the time Christmas rolls around, all I have to do is wrap.

This year, I haven’t felt inspired to buy very much. A major remodeling project ate much of my time and I just haven’t run across anything that seems fun. That means that today, Black Friday, could be very tempting…except that I hate marathon shopping, typical gifts, arriving early, and crowds!

Luckily, I still don’t have to struggle or wait until the last minute. I have a lot of gluten-free flours on hand and a lot of gluten-free relatives. I’ve also consumed plenty of Bulgarian yogurt in the past few months. It comes in glass jars that I washed and saved. That means I have the perfect gift already available. All I have to do is throw it together!

Here’s how easy it is…Remember that Gouda Muffin recipe we posted in May? Take all the dry ingredients and put them in a clean jar:

1 cup white rice flour

1/2 cup brown rice flour

1/2 cup potato flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp xanthan gum

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

Decorate the jar and include a card with these instructions:

Gouda Muffins

12 medium muffins

1 jar muffin mix

8 oz whole milk plain yogurt

2 eggs

1/4 cup melted butter

6 oz gouda cheese, diced

Preheat oven to 425º. Grease muffin tin or line with muffin cups.

Shake jar to remix ingredients. Place mix in a bowl. In a larger bowl, combine the yogurt, egg, and butter. Slowly fold the dry mixture into the liquids until you have a firm, non-sticky dough. Stir in cheese and spoon dough into muffin tin. Bake at 425º for 12-15 minutes or until top is brown. Remove to rack to cool.

Boom! You just created the perfect gift!

I’ve done the same thing with pancakes and biscuits. These mixes have become some of my sister’s favorite gifts. She asks me to give them again and again. (You’d think she’d return the jars.)

It’s sometimes easy to forget that simple gifts that thoughtfully fill a specific need are often the most appreciated. Of course I tend to remember this the minute I walk into a store during the holiday season!

Have shopping tips to share? We’d love to hear them!