They carry ________ but not _________?!
I was perplexed when I moved to my new city a month ago and discovered most grocery stores carried all kinds of more "exotic" ingredients (various peppers, nori, grind-your-own peanut butter) but no baby bok choy! They have regular bok choy, and I'm left wondering why its younger cousin is left out.
Has anyone else had a similar experience, where a grocery store didn't have something you assumed would be there?
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27 Comments:
I have this frustrated feeling often. Just yesterday I went to a grocery store that had gyoza wrappers, wonton wrappers, all kinds of wrappers- EXCEPT eggroll wrappers, which I really needed.
I also usually get this feeling at my corner liquor store. It's not just a liquor store, the guy sells everything. He has every kind of liquor (as he should), but he also carries chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, pasta, cream cheese, corn syrup, limes, chips (every snack under the sun, actually), smoked oysters, hominy, canned posole- like EVERYTHING, right? The other day I wanted a simple loaf of white bread and he didn't have it. In his defense he was simply out of stock, but all of the weird shit is always stocked, why not the bread?
PumpkinBear at 12:13AM on 09/29/09
@pumpkin--It's the spring roll wrappers I have trouble finding.
beth1 at 1:31AM on 09/29/09
It frustrates me as well that some place will carry some gourmet culinary ingredients but not others....
they carry capers but not shallots
they carry duck but not goose
they carry veal chops but not veal shank
Chef316 at 3:39AM on 09/29/09
I was in the Toledo Costco the other day and found they sell laptops but no cases. However, the online store suggests the case to order with your laptop. Weird ...
When I get a giant, fresh, still-warm donut I want to wash it down with a pint of 2% milk. It's just not the same with a pair of those little 1% or skim cartons from elementary school, but that's all the bakeries seem to have to offer.
I'll pay upwards of $3.50/package for a good hot dog. Koegel, Kowalski, Hebrew National, Nathan's ... But why do I have to put up with store brand or equivalent buns? Don't even talk about those Aunt Milly's beastly buns that split along the seams ... Oh, and Hebrew needs to come up with their own bun package so I don't have to buy 8 packs of their dogs for the 7 packs of buns I have to buy to even out the count ...
LunaPierCook at 4:17AM on 09/29/09
@beth1, Yup, spring roll wrappers. Luckily, I have a Filipino coworker who always asks me if I need anything when she's planning a trip to the Asian store an hour away. We use them to make lumpia, a really crispy egg roll.
@LunaPier, what a coincidence--just now, my son made a salami sandwich with the last hot dog bun in the bag. I should have looked on the Hebrew wrapper--do 7 of their hot dogs equal a pound?
Ponzu but not pine nuts.
Cactus but not Bibb lettuce.
Bagged spinach but not loose.
Every kind and shape of pasta there is, except for cavatappi. I love that shape better than any other for macaroni and cheese.
betteirene at 5:25AM on 09/29/09
@betteirene, each Hebrew National dog is 49 grams (7 * 7, of course!), making the package 343 grams or about 0.8 lbs. The Koegel Viennas I get here in Michigan vary in weight as the dogs are handmade and the individual lengths can be quite different in a single package.
LunaPierCook at 6:08AM on 09/29/09
You guys with your esoteric items made me smile. Come out to NJ and visit my pathetic, "Super Stop And Shop", an enormous supemarket, that doesn't sell de-boned, skinless chicken thighs, matzo meal, Hunt's ketchup, Paul Newman's Own Caesar salad dressing, Reynold Wrap in wide rolls, and numerous other everyday, commonly-found products.
salpico at 8:22AM on 09/29/09
I had a frustrating experience at my grocery store for the last few days. Over the weekend I was looking for dill because part of my brunch were mini sandwiches with cream cheese, lox, cucumbers and tomatoes. No dill...so I used fresh thyme instead to mix into the cream cheese.
Then just yesterday, I was looking for flat leaf parsley for a recipe I was testing: and no such luck: only curly. Sigh.
orchidgirl at 8:42AM on 09/29/09
In my food emporium they carry whole wheat flour, pre-leavened cake flour, a million types of fancy sugar, but no regular cake flour.
laurelie at 10:00AM on 09/29/09
I spent a good year or more wondering why Meijer didn't carry rice noodles that weren't part of some crappy, prepackaged meal. Now they carry exactly one variety of rice sticks.
jwalz at 10:21AM on 09/29/09
We just bought a house and moved to a new town about a month ago. Our nearest grocery store doesn't carry Nonnis biscotti, but they do carry hubbys favorite salad dressing that we used to have to order by the case and have shipped to us. I'll find the biscotti somewhere else, we were just thrilled that we found his dressing!
caramel at 10:52AM on 09/29/09
We just moved from a town with at least a dozen natural/gourmet grocery stores all competing for the best selection and prices and the most beautiful cheeses...
Now we are living in a town with only conventional supermarkets:
no fresh local produce
no nitrate free bacon, sausage or deli meats.
no breads that are HFCS free
very few sweets that are HFCS free
Surprisingly the largest conventional store carries 3 types of organic milk (2 claiming to be local), but their cheese selection is crap. I'd sign up for a cheese of the month club if they weren't so expensive.
There is one lone natural food store in town with prices that are three times what I'm used to paying and a very disappointing cheese section.
yayfood at 11:10AM on 09/29/09
@ Skythe, I'm so glad that you posted this question. I really had to get that issue off my chest. I had called a friend our first week here from the sad little organic isle of the conventional store on the verge of tears thinking that we're now going to be stuck eating either organic junk food or bovine hormones, pesticides and over-processed corn products.
yayfood at 11:17AM on 09/29/09
I was at Jewel the other day (large Chicagoland chain) and they did not have a single regular sized carrot in the entire store. Baby carrots, yes. Carrot sticks, yet. Carrots in pre-packaged soup mixes, yes. NO BAGS OF CARROTS!
lizaj at 11:34AM on 09/29/09
They carry "the best meat with the best, helpful butchers" but not "one single vegetable I would ever eat". How can that be?
PoorOldMama at 12:23PM on 09/29/09
This isn't exactly the kind of juxtaposition asked about, but rather more of a geographic-cultural thing. When I moved from California to the South about 10 years ago, I found all manner of what they call "greens"--collard greens, mustard greens, turnip greens, etc.--but nary a bok choy or chili pepper in sight. I shouldn't complain, though, as I recall that in my area in California, the grocery store's stock of chicken was often limited to thighs and no boneless breast, due to what the store manager told me was the demographics of the neighborhood--many Asians and Filipinos whom the store believed preferred thighs. Can't please everyone, I suppose.
Lorenzo at 1:15PM on 09/29/09
I just moved to Colorado, and learned (oddly didn't know before) that it is a MAJOR breadbasket of fruits and veggies. I got very excited...
My local Kroger syndicate labels all local produce by local farm name and its location within the state. The one thing missing: Colorado beef! Cowboys roam the range not 10 miles from me, across the street from a large local farm carried in store....but you can't get the beef....
SuzyHomemaker at 3:01PM on 09/29/09
Giant in Columbia Heights, Washington DC doesn't have baby bok choy either, but when I'm willing to drive 30 mins out to the suburbs, I can find it at the Korean markets.
I am perplexed that I cannot find a bottle of BUTTERMILK at my local grocery stores.
ec_washington at 5:48PM on 09/29/09
I do most of my shopping at Trader Joe's since it's most convenient to me... I love it, but my head regularly explodes every time I'm there.
Can't get a hot pepper that isn't packaged in a guacamole box to save your life.
Breakfast sausage? Forget it. 20 kinds of disgusting chicken sausage? Sure.
And of course, if you want tinfoil, garbage bags, plastic containers, or any of a score of other kitchen needs, you're SOL, friend.
amadaun at 8:58PM on 10/02/09
Some of you people need to be more realistic. Not every store is going to carry everything. It's just not physically possible. If you can find everything you want/need at various stores within a twenty mile radius, you've got nothing to complain about. I live in Connecticut. I travel to Brooklyn for my guanciale. Pretty much everything else I need I can find locally.
That said, I agree with the lizaj. Certain basics should never be entirely eliminated. I'm a little annoyed about the tasteless English cucumbers that seem to have replace the kirbys and old school seedy waxed ones.
schmonsequences at 10:36PM on 10/02/09
For some reason, many store do not stock rye flour.
dmcavanagh at 10:57PM on 10/02/09
Uh yeah, most of yours are kind of crazy...my last grocery store carried Marshmallow Fluff but not Marshmallows. I mean, seriously.
inothernews at 7:50PM on 10/04/09
@Suzyhomemaker - you can't get local beef probably because the cattle has to be shipped out of state to be slaughtered, which means the final product isn't labeled 'Colorado beef' -- I've got the same problem up here in WY!
The latest item I've had trouble finding in my WY town was hoisin sauce...of all places, I found it at Wal-mart....go figure. MY local Co-op is surprisingly good however. They even have fresh ground almond butter and grind-your-own Montana wheat flour
toasteebagel at 8:26PM on 10/04/09
My grocery store stocks wines from all over the world-Italy, Spain, Chile, Australia, etc. but won't carry Xaoxing wine because it's illegal here (I live in Montreal). I don't know what the reason behind it is but it's very frustrating because I cook a lot of Chinese dishes at home. So I usually have to resort to begging my relatives in Toronto to smuggle in some Xiaoxing wine in their luggage whenever they come to visit me.
KitchenVixxen at 10:11AM on 10/05/09
When I was tring to find some pleasing cookie or something like that, I would't find any... It makes me extremely upset, for I want to share something different with my girl friend. I want something she maybe interested. I know what will work, but grocery fails me,@@
Flanker at 10:58AM on 10/05/09
I needed candied orange peel to make cannoli last xmas. Albertson's and Ralphs not only didn't have it---the employees I asked didn't even know what it was.
One sent me to the candy aisle, another to the jam.
rbave at 12:10PM on 10/05/09
get this. I couldnt get fresh basil at Shaws supermarkets more often than not.
foodiefemme7 at 8:59PM on 10/06/09