Entries tagged with 'grocery shopping'
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Hispanic products may no longer be hiding in supermarket aisle corners like the gluten-free breads and Manischewitz yolk-free noodles. Several major chains are expanding their specialty offerings to capture business from Latinos, the country's fastest-growing population and already almost one-sixth of the U.S. total in 2008, according to this MSNBC report. Walmart is in the process of converting two stores (one in Phoenix, the other in Houston) into Supermercados aimed at Hispanic shoppers. According to the Walmart website, the Houston store opened in late April and has a bakery with over 40 traditional sweet breads and fresh corn tortillas, and a meat department with milanesa (kind of like the Hispanic schnitzel), fajitas, and arrachera (similar to skirt steak). This...
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The Consumerist shares some tips from Consumer Reports for how to save money at the supermarket—such as choose store brands, use a bonus card, and clip coupons—but the comments from readers on how they save money are more informative and detailed than the post itself. Readers discuss their favorite stores, best store brand items, checking circulars in print and online, and more. What are your tips for saving money at the supermarket? Related Recession Grocery Shopping: What Are You Doing Differently? Where Americans Are Cutting Corners: Food...
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Photograph from Jeremy Bautista on Flickr Shopping at the Asian grocery chain H-Mart might be like a frenzied afternoon at Marshalls—piles of Fuyu persimmons, jars of kimchi, and stacks of slimy fish all compete for space—but the prices put Whole Foods to shame. Granted, you won't always know where your food came from (probably somewhere in Asia) but the products are diverse, inspiring, and recession-friendly. That's why D.C.-area chefs like Michel Richard of Citronelle and Central are flocking to H Mart and Super H Mart, according to Melissa McCart in the Washington Post. She notes that at a conventional grocery store, shoppers might find one or two brands of condiments, but at H-Mart, the variety is comparable "to the...
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Agave has a gentle, lilting sweetness. The Grocery Ninja leaves no aisle unexplored, no jar unopened, no produce untasted. Creep along with her below, and read all her mission reports here. Photograph from Kenn Wilson on Flickr In my all-girl middle school in Asia, the cool girls were either naturally blessed with willowy figures or were striving (and darn close) to attaining the "ideal" BMI of 17. During this "I will fit into a size zero or die trying" period in my life, I completely cut out all added sugar (and fat) from my diet. This, of course, didn't mean I lost my sweet tooth. I simply replaced all the natural sugars in my diet with artificial sweeteners. I promptly...
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The Grocery Ninja leaves no aisle unexplored, no jar unopened, no produce untasted. Creep along with her below, and read all her mission reports here. I believe the simplest dishes are also the easiest to mess up. Take the plain omelet, for instance, or just steamed rice—both are so clean of flavor, so unadulterated, that there's nothing for you to hide your mistakes behind. No cloak of smoky spices, no razzle-dazzle of MSG—just the purest expressions of egg and grain. And so it is the case with kaya—a rich, fragrant custard that South-East Asians like to slather, along with a generous dollop of salted butter, on their morning toast. Made with eggs, coconut milk, and sugar, there are many, many...
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The Grocery Ninja leaves no aisle unexplored, no jar unopened, no produce untasted. Creep along with her below, and read all her mission reports here. The Russian housemate adores mulled cider. This wouldn’t be a problem except, come fall, my usually easy-going housemate morphs into a mulled cider dictator and gets monopolistic about fridge space – insisting that there is no room for any other kind of beverage. No oj, no soy milk, no nothing save for yet another jug of mulled cider. And while I used to love the stuff, palate fatigue is real… and I have no use for it on my cereal. Hence, this year, us housemates are plotting an intervention: employing the logic of gradually weaning...
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With budgets tightening across all economic strata in this country, many families are selectively bypassing organics to save money, according to the New York Times' Andrew Martin. The question that I find even more pressing is whether people are going to stop shopping at farmers' markets across the country, which are generally more expensive than both conventional and organic supermarkets. What are serious eaters everywhere doing to save money? Are organically and/or locally grown produce still important to you? As Martin put it, are consumers going to decide they can no longer afford to let their conscience dictate their shopping list? I for one will not stop supporting my local farmers. I have always felt that local and sustainable...
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©iStockphoto.com/fotofrog The San Francisco Chronicle surveyed 30 Bay Area food shoppers to see how many actually knew their monthly food expenditures. While many wing it, throwing out random estimates, others could quantify to an exact dollar amount. My favorite part is when one woman munched on her "CCOF Certified Organic Shinko Asian Pear" for $1.45. While logging the steep price in her records, she listened to a report on credit default swaps. Which category do you fall under? The "wing it" or the "tally up receipts" crowd?...
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Photograph from Consumerist At the grocery store, the purchasing power of our dollars isn't the only thing that's shrinking. Manufacturers are quietly downsizing the quantities in packaged food, often while holding prices steady, all in response to the rise in commodity and fuel costs. A few examples: Kellogg's cereals have an average of 2.4 fewer ounces per boxTropicana orange juice containers decreased from 96 ounces to 89 ouncesWrigley's 17-stick PlenTPak has been replaced by the 15-stick Slim PackSpreads (butter, mayo) and ice cream containers have decreased in size overall The story, in Time magazine, says that people are more sensitive to price than they are quantity, which explains why manufacturers are trying to slip the changes by us. "Most...
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A wallet guide that lists the relative amounts of pesticides found in the most common citizens of the produce aisle. [Tip o' the hat to Simon]...
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