Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

1. Whole Foods in one direction, Roche Bros. in the other! I also live close to my parents' farm so I'm spoiled in the fresh, free veggies department.
2. I'll buy certain things organic - most greens, for example, because I can really tell the difference, but stuff like cucumbers, peppers, grapefruit...I don't really see the point of paying triple the price. I hardly ever get my produce at Whole Foods. I get whatever my dad grows, which is organic, but that's more about convenience and quality.
3. Nope! Only if the regular grocery store doesn't have something do I go to Whole Foods for produce.
4. I'm definitely more conscious of what I'm buying - at the end of every shop I'll find a few items I convince myself I don't REALLY need. I'd rather buy fewer quality items than more lower priced ones, so I'm willing to sacrifice other things for the pricier ones. Nice syntax.
5. N/A
6. Massachusetts

1. Within a five-mile radius, I have a Whole Foods (excellent), a Trader Joe's (excellent), a Stop & Shop (over-priced, filthy, and disgusting), a Shaw's (lousy produce, but clean and well-stocked), a Roche Bros. (excellent), a Market Basket (much-improved, but still old and over-crowded), and Wilson Farm (excellent).

2. I buy a mixture of organic and locally-grown.

3. + 4. Most of the people I cook for on a daily basis are either vegetarian or vegan, so they appreciate the best produce possible, so I buy organic or locally grown whenever possible. With the economy tanking like it is, we are considering a container garden out back, though.

5. No.

6. Massachusetts.

1. what food resources/supermarkets are you near?
Publix, Fresh Market, Albertson's (yuck).

2. do you purchase organic or inorganic food because of your supermarket?
Absolutely not.

3. if you do not purchase organic, would you if a, for example, whole foods was nearby?
We have Whole Foods in Tampa and visit frequently. (The above list of markets are within 5 minutes - Tampa is about 20 minutes away by car.) I buy produce solely by its appearance. If it looks rotted, I don't care if it doesn't have chemicals on it, I won't buy it.

4. how has the increase in food affected your purchases?
More shopping at Costco and Sam's.

5. are you in nyc, and if so, what neighborhood?
Alas, I live in Florida (or Brooklyn South).

6. if you do not live in nyc, just type in what state you live in
See #5.

1. Closest is regular supermarket, HEB, with a small but viable offering of organics, both produce and in dairy/groceries through their upmarket brand, Central Market, which is less than 5 miles from me. Central Market's closest competitor, Whole Foods, is also less than 5 miles away. I'm about 3 miles from an awesome urban farm called Boggy Creek, which I recently discovered. I'm about 6 miles from the big farmers market, Sunset Valley. There's also a farmer's market downtown, slightly closer than Whole Foods. My neighborhood has several carnicerias and a Korean/pan-Asian market. Also within this radius (about 5 miles) are Randalls (Safeway) and a smaller natural market called Sun Harvest, which is converting into Wild Oats/Whole Foods. So I'm actually quite spoiled for choice.
2. I now purchase organic as often as possible, but not always for everything (herbs, for example).
3.
4. When I saw the conventional prices going up I switched to organic and local. It's still just a little more, but the prices are more competitive than I expected and the quality and taste is so much better.
5.
6. Texas (Republic of Austin, so to speak)

1. Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and a global market within ten minutes' drive; several farmer's markets and CSA's, a Rainbow Foods five minutes away, the Wedge Co-op a seven minute walk away, and a Kowalski's next door.
2. Yup - I have a wonderful CSA in the summer, but without Trader Joe's there'd be no way I could afford as much organic food as I buy. When I can't get there for whatever reason, I try to buy organic if it's not too terribly expensive, but TJ's really enables good eating habits for me.
3. N/A
4. not all that much so far, but I tend to be very economical in my purchases anyway. I think I've been doing organic a bit less.
5. nope
6. MN - Twin Cities

1. Costco, Trader Joe's, Wild Oats/Whole Foods (sligthly inconvenient distance), and local supermarkets Marsh and Kroger.
2. No. I purchase organic whenever it is not cost-prohibitive, but at the regular market (which is 5 minutes from my house) I purchase non-organic produce. I save the organic stuff for TJ and Costco if it is reasonable and looks good. For instance, I purchase whatever organic produce is available at Costco. It is far less expensive bc of the quantity I have to buy. I just try to find ways to utilize the said ingredient (i.e. the baby spinach, the field greens, the organic ground beef, the organic low-fat milk). At TJ's I'll get grocery items that are only available there (like their frozen stuff and some packaged items and their organic breads).
3. Whole Foods is only about 20 minutes away, but my perception is that it is very expensive. I know others on SE have commented that it can be a bargain, but I haven't seen the sort of savings that they have mentioned.
4. I take advantage of sales. I stock up on "Managers Specials" in every department and plan my meals around those and stock the freezer. In the good old days, I used to plan my meals and then go shop, now I shop and then plan.
5. No
6. Indianapolis, IN

As for the Asian and Latin markets, I usually hit those for cheap prices and freshness of scallions, limes, jalapenos, avocados (Costco and TJ are the next cheapest), ginger, rice, garlic, etc. in addition to cuisine specific items/seasonings. I figure they are getting the same non-organic stuff as my regular supermarket (Marsh), but it's about a third of the price. I don't usually shop at Wal-mart, but I was in a Wal-mart that had a heavy Latin population nearby and was amazed at the freshness of the produce and the great prices on avocados (2 for 1.00 compared to 1.99 each at the local grocery store--not organic).

1. WinCo, Albertson's, Safeway, CostCo, 2 farmer's markets, Big Lots, Cash & Carry, super Wal-Mart, super Target, Yoke's, Fiesta Foods, Fred Meyer, some small Asian and Mexican grocery stores. I'm a member of my local CSA, so I'm now getting most of my produce from that, and most of the CSA produce is non-organic.
2. I shop mostly at WinCo because it has the best prices and it has little organic produce, so I never buy organic there. I usually go to the farmer's market 2 or 3 times a summer and I get organic there.
3. I'd love to check out Whole Foods if we had one here, but I wouldn't buy any produce there because of the prices (if I bought anything there, it would be things I can't find anywhere else and produce doesn't fall into that category).
4. Food prices haven't really affected me yet, but I'm already a very careful shopper. I shop around, watch sales, buy in bulk and freeze, etc.
5. No.
6. Eastern Washington state

1. national chain supermarket, multiple farmer's markets
2. organic - there's a huge selection and the price difference is negligable
3. n/a
4. I pretty much only buy meat on sale.
5. no
6. WA

1. Smith's, Albertson's (big chains), Whole Foods (just took over a Wild Oats and is expensive and has the same old smelly meat counter that Wild Oats did) and a state-wide organic coop chain called La Montanita.

2. I purchase as much organic as I can at Smith's just to encourage them to carry organics. Then I go to La Montanita for the rest. Prices are about the same at either place. I sometimes purchase inorganic because of budget.

3. N/A. One mile from La Montanita.

4. No meat unless I go early in the morning and get the marked down and freeze it.

5. No.

6. New Mexico.

Trader Joe's, Safeway and Albertson's (least favourite).
Yes.
See answer above.
Increase in food prices? Haven't noticed. I still buy whatever I want.
Washington State.

wow thank you guys but do keep the responses coming! i'm just ecstatic that so many of you have responded. if you would like to read the paper, just email me your email and the subject line write serious eats, and i'll email you the paper then. i must restate i am amazed and thankful all of you participated in the questionnaire! :)

my email is lyphesux2much@yahoo.com
thanks again!

1. I'm a quick (well, half an hour) subway ride away from Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and the Union Square Greenmarket.
2. I buy 99% my produce from the greenmarket, buying organic whenever it's available - but I'm more likely to buy local conventional than non-local organic.
3. n/a
4. The increase in food prices hasn't changed my buying habits significantly; prices of organic and local food have gone up a little, but prices at the market seem mostly stable (e.g. while the price of eggs went up nationally a much ballyhooed 27% or something, the price of the local NY state eggs I buy at the greenmarket didn't change). Also, I don't eat meat, so I haven't been affected by the significant price changes in that area.
5. I live in Brooklyn, east side of Williamsburg.

Good luck with your project!

1. The nearby grocery stores I frequent are Food Lion, Acme and Shop Rite. There's Pathmarks not to far away but I just don't like the produce there.

2. I'll admit although I like organic stuff in theory, I tend to buy whatever looks the freshest, and what works with what I have planned on making. If the grocery stores I went to had a wider variety of organic food, like whole foods and TJ's I would buy more organic stuff.

3. Absolutely! We try to make it to TJ's about every six weeks, and we buy organic when we go there. We also try to go to Farmer's Markets when they are open. But it isn't always convinient for us.

4. Sure, I noticed yesterday that the cinnamon sticks went up a whole dollar, but I am not complaining because even when we splurge and buy expensive bell peppers and and well whatever I want basically, I still end up spending about $60 a week, to feed 3 people, and that includes breakfasts and snacks (fruit). (Usually about 3 dinner meals a week). It SOOO much cheaper than eating out. And the prices going up doesn't exclude sales, strawberries (presumably non organic from florida) were 2 boxes for $4.

On another note, I may be wrong, but this is my theory. The people who's food bills are high and are getting higher, may be the people who buy lots of processed food like cookies and chips, produce may be expensive, but if you pair it with cheap pasta or beans, its all evens itself out.

6 Maryland Delaware border (Elkton, and Newark)

I hope this helps your research =) Let me know if you have any more questions.

1. In order of distance -- Gelsons, Whole Foods, Ralph's, Trader Joes (Although I go to Trader Joes more than any of them)
2. The main factor is price, I can get organic really anywhere.
3. No (see above)
4. It's not hugely affecting me, but I'm sure in being more frugal I buy less organic. Meats for example, I sometimes cheat and don't buy organic, even though I'd really like to.
5. Nope
6. CA -- Los Angeles

1. what food resources/supermarkets are you near?
Bruno's supermarket, Publix, Wal-mart, Fresh Market, World Market, a few small specialty shops

2. do you purchase organic or inorganic food because of your supermarket?
I try to buy more organic stuff, and am simply fortunate that grocery stores near me happen to have good organic selections.
3. if you do not purchase organic, would you if a, for example, whole foods was nearby?
QED.
4. how has the increase in food affected your purchases?
The number of "nice" meals i make versus "plain food" meals is going down; i cannot often afford specialty ingredients.
5. are you in nyc, and if so, what neighborhood? for example, UES, UWS, etc [because i would like to group the different neighborhoods and see the link in food choices people make]
6. if you do not live in nyc, just type in what state you live in
Alabama.

Not to interrupt this very good post but, what and where is Whole Foods? Also, just out of curiosity blankplate, please share with me how you feed 3 people for a week for $60, I live in Philadelphia, not too far from you, and I must be doing something wrong.