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Adult Sword Owner
Jun 19, 2011

u deserve diploma for sublime comedy expertise

Fo3 posted:

I do the whole chicken thing too, likewise, it costs me $10-12 though.
I cut it up raw. Use both thighs for something like a curry dish. Use one breast sliced thinly for something like a asian wok stirfry with heaps of veg. The drumsticks get roasted with roasted veg or potato bake. the remaining breast either cooked and sliced thinly for sandwiches for lunches, or more likely since I don't each lunch often, the other breast gets diced and cooked with a pasta and tomato sauce dinner.
Bones get frozen and saved to make a stock, wings do as well. Could use the wings for the stock, or if you buy enough chickens in a 3 month period could have enough to make a meal just out of the wings. I haven't done that yet though as I only buy chicken once a month.

Thanks, that makes way more sense then. Next time I go shopping I'll do that.

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rj54x
Sep 16, 2007

Saint Darwin posted:

edit: Alright, I see what you've done rj, but if I understand correctly, you're cooking the whole chicken and then using leftovers in everything? Maybe it's just a personal problem but when I try that I end up drying the gently caress out of the chicken if I'm doing anything more complicated than just heating it to straight up eat.

Yup, I generally cook the whole thing and then use leftovers. You could certainly break it down and cook the component parts separately, if that's a concern to you - I'm lazy. Also, a lot of the places I'd use the remaining chicken work fine with the chicken cold (like on salad), are heated in such a way that the chicken wouldn't dry out any more (like in the pasta example or used in soup), or use dark meat heated briefly enough that it won't dry out (like taking shredded thigh, tossing in oil and spices, and quickly sauteing at high heat). The dark meat parts of the bird are going to be much less prone to drying. Alternatively, if it does dry out a bit when you reheat, take that gravy that you made with the chicken drippings when you roasted it and apply generously - now you have an excuse to have some over mashed potatoes, too. You did make gravy, right? :colbert:

I wasn't really trying to make a meal plan. Some weeks I definitely go over $50 - some weeks I spend less. Just giving an example of how you could do it while still eating lots of tasty, tasty critters.

dino.
Mar 28, 2010

Yip Yip, bitch.
Rice Milk

I have a soy milk maker, which does cost initially, but with how much of the stuff my husband drinks, it's worth having. The soy milk around my neighbourhood costs $4.20 - 4.69 per carton (2 litres) which is why I avoid buying it.

Nicol Bolas
Feb 13, 2009
I've never even heard of manager's specials on vegetables. We're talking greens (kale, chard, spinach any lettuce that isn't iceberg) costs $2 a pound where I am. Even the cheap pecks of apples in the bag are around $2 a pound right now. Peppers are $2 a pound in the summer and $4 in the winter. Sometimes you can find a special for the summer price in winter. I distinctly recall paying $8 for a 2-pound bag of grapes. This isn't one super-expensive grocery store that I'm perversely attached to, either, it's pretty much every grocery store in this city. I've looked. Fresh produce is very, very expensive here. $50 just does not go as far where I live, dino. Next time I go to the store I'll try to remember to take a photo.

edit: Just looked at my local circular to check that I'm not totally misremembering and cabbage is 50 cents a pound on sale right now, I think it typically runs something like 79 cents a pound, so that's not terrible, only like $2 for a head of cabbage.

Nicol Bolas fucked around with this message at 16:32 on Mar 13, 2013

Fo3
Feb 14, 2004

RAAAAARGH!!!! GIFT CARDS ARE FUCKING RETARDED!!!!

(I need a hug)
Are you arguing the $ amount, or the principle of the whole thing? Don't have end of day specials here either for veg (edit: we do for meat though), everything costs more here than the prices I see from the U.S. But it's a difference in economy and I'm not having a whine about that anyway.
Costs me a lot more per week because food is expensive as gently caress here, like a bell pepper (or what we call them, capsicum, here in Australia, is about $2 ea - $7 per pound). Tried growing my own veg, but root knot nematodes, aphids, whitefly, mites, slugs, snails, caterpillars, the heat, garden weevils etc had their own opinion on what I got to eat. I've got fruit fly in my figs, and rats (or something, don't know for sure), eating mandarins, something wrong with the lemons and birds get the grapes - maybe it is them with the mandarins too?)

But the principle of the thing is to just do more with less, seek out better deals, cut down on what costs a lot, aforementioned example of capsicum, I used to use 1 whole bell pepper in a meal, now I just use half of one and save the rest for another meal.

Prices for some foods does suck, and it's a bigger issue in certain areas than others, but all we can do is deal with it. It's a bigger issue than the point of this thread for sure, land that used to be used for farm use turned into housing developments, inner city fresh food markets turning into expensive 7-11 or 24hr tinned food emporiums, rising rent from landlords raising prices at shops etc.

Bottom line is learn basic guidelines and get better ideas on what usually is the cheapest way to eat. We shouldn't be fixated on the prices someone else spends per week or month on groceries, that would drive me insane if I compared the prices in Australia to what they are in US, asia and europe. Cheap is cheap the whole world round when balanced relative to usual shopping costs of the majority in that region.

edit: ^^ Suprised there cabbage isn't sold per unit, rather than weight. Even down here they are sold per unit and they range from 99c-$1.50 (at the cheapest shops I have found of course, more expensive elsewhere)

Fo3 fucked around with this message at 16:57 on Mar 13, 2013

Affably Evil
Nov 10, 2012

TychoCelchuuu posted:

http://www.zionmarket.com/sale/store1.htm

(I also sometimes shop at other ethnic markets near me, like Miramar Cash & Carry or Balboa International Market, and I often shop at Sprouts, the "white people" store. In fact I just updated the spreadsheet with info from where every food was purchased. Hooray for being anally retentive!)

Coming out of the woodwork to say: TychoCelchuuu, you live near me! So I'm definitely going to be stealing that sheet and using it on my next shopping trip. Miramar Cash & Carry and Zion are both awesome, but I haven't been to Balboa International Market yet.

GrAviTy84
Nov 25, 2004

Saint Darwin posted:

Welcome back Gravity!

:3: thanks

Saint Darwin posted:

Can you go into more detail on how you make it last that long? I've tried the whole chicken thing a number of times. The only way I can figure it will last that long (for a $12 chicken, $5 for a factory chicken where?) is by splitting each breast in half, one half for each person, so 2 meals with the breasts, then 1 with the thighs and anything I can pull off of the legs, which still does not come to a lot of meat. Am I missing something?

Depends on how you do it. If you cook a breast as the centerpiece of a main, then it wont last as long for sure, but if you shred it up and use it in a stir fry or in congee or other soup, you can make just the breasts and thighs last for a long time. The carcass can make stock for risotto, soup, etc. You can debone the legs pretty easily.

Here in the greater Los Angeles area, factory chickens are routinely $0.67/lb (foster farms sad chickens) and hippie chickens are usually around $1.99/lb and don't really go on sale very often.

RE produce prices. Yeah when TychoCelchuuu said sprouts I figured he's LA, too. Produce in CA in general is silly cheap. I'm in Long Island a lot for work/school and I remember being flabbergasted by the price/quantity for cilantro when I got a craving to make salsa. For reference, cilantro is so cheap here that it is primarily what my wife and I feed our rabbits.

For other CA goons, 99 Ranch Market often has very cheap produce. I will pick up bags of gai lan, bok choy, choy sum, snow peas, napa cabbage, etc. for < $0.50/lb. Meat there is cheap, too. Pork butt is usually ~2bux/lb. I even got a more ~luxury~ item (I hate that this is a luxury item now), pork belly, for $3.49/lb not too long ago. They even have "stewing" ducks for $1.69/lb in the freezer section. I will often use these for confit and duck prosciutto, carcass for usual stock duty.

So yeah, you can eat cheap and not eat boring or vegetarian.

Edit: For instance, $1.69/lb duck for confit, $2/lb pork butt for sausage, a bit of belly can be stretched in the form of bacon, as established beans, onions, carrots, celery are all cheap. Welp, I have pretty much all the stuff I need for cassoulet now.

GrAviTy84 fucked around with this message at 17:52 on Mar 13, 2013

Sephiroth_IRA
Mar 31, 2010
Went to Aldi again today and noticed that they sold whole chickens, after a little math it became quite obvious that the whole chicken (4.44 lbs @ $4 bucks) was a significantly better deal.

Sorry for buying cheap animal lovers, one day I'll be like my grand-father and raise my own free range hens to make up for it.

Also, I went to a small chinese grocery store after work and they had a ton of 50lb (several different brands) bags of rice. When I asked for the prices the woman at the counter told me every 50lb bag was 45 bucks :( Are there any brands worth that much retail? Considering a 50lb bag would last me several months I wouldn't mind spending that much on a really high quality brand. I'm also wondering if I could try haggling with the lady to lower the price a bit.

Sephiroth_IRA fucked around with this message at 02:02 on Mar 14, 2013

Adult Sword Owner
Jun 19, 2011

u deserve diploma for sublime comedy expertise
Don't let Wiggles see this but,

http://www2.costco.com/Common/Categ...279*&lang=en-US

There's a few kinds there that are waaaay cheap. I can't speak for their quality, however.

Next time I go I will grab a bag of that basmati.

dino.
Mar 28, 2010

Yip Yip, bitch.

Kafka Esq. posted:

Maybe we can have less moral prescriptions about the virtues of eating tofu, beans and rice for lunch and dinner every day (except for taco night;
hahahaha. rear end.

Actually, when I do get the corn tortillas it'll be to stuff it with chayote (I cook it with a bit of garlic), some plantain (with cumin and red pepper flakes), pinto beans, a slice or two of avocado, and diced onion and tomato when tomato is in season. It's pretty nice with a bit of lime. Or if we're doing pasta that night, I'll generally make a batch of sautéed veg as a side dish and use up some raw veggies and beans for a salad. Yeah we go through a fair bit of rice but it's not a daily thing, else Puppy gets bored.

I do, however, cook every night, and tend to make everything from scratch. It cuts way back on the food bill.

quote:

this is important to remember, it's there for variety [you put the rice into the taco shell]), and more ideas on how to make meat into more of a garnish than a main course. Some people eat meat. Some people cook for folks who can't even wrap their minds around vegetarian Indian, no matter how good your aloo mattar is.

I pick up flank steak where I can and add strips of it to everything. Seriously, a few strips or a little diced marinated cheap beef bits will keep carnivores happy. However, I live in Toronto, and EVERYTHING is more expensive up here. Despite the fact that I really think dino should be the one getting his head out of his rear end, I'm going to try making my own soymilk (the stuff from the grocery store tastes like sucking on a penny).
if you have one, the Chinese markets carry the unsweetened, basic soy milk. The really good restaurants will sell you a cup piping hot. Give it a try and see if you like it. I had a friend from Hong Kong who used to make me the stuff fresh for the times she'd make dinner, and I fell in love with it.

Sephiroth_IRA
Mar 31, 2010

Saint Darwin posted:

Don't let Wiggles see this but,

http://www2.costco.com/Common/Categ...279*&lang=en-US

There's a few kinds there that are waaaay cheap. I can't speak for their quality, however.

Next time I go I will grab a bag of that basmati.

Guess I need to find someone willing to go to Costco for me. Thanks.

squigadoo
Mar 25, 2011

Saint Darwin posted:

Yeh uh, 2 green peppers for 50 cents beats any sale around here, so I too want to know where you live. Your cilantro is 1/4th the price at Asian markets. I feel like I should start OCDing and tracking as well.

Is it possible to start a thread or something, detailing where goons shop and prices thereabouts? I still don't have the greatest idea of where I should be shopping for cheapness and goodness in Massachusetts and do most of my shopping at Costco, Roche Bros, and the local Kam man whose vegetables can be really questionable looking.

My notes for MA are as follows:

COSTCO:
$.99/lb chicken reliably, but they come in packs of 2.
Pork tenderloins are often $1-something a lb, close to a really good sale price.
Butter is $1.99/lb, and comes in 4lb packs.
1 quart of cream here costs the same as a pint of cream in a normal market.
I don't feel like the bulk veggies are worth the price as a sale at the market makes the price lower than Costco. Potatoes and onions are not bad, and a bag of garlic is $3.15 for >15 heads and tastes stronger/better than garlic from the Asian markets. Question is, can you eat it fast enough before it sprouts?
Any soft fruit from here must be eaten quickly.

I buy rice here. I'm learning how to cook beans, so I will start checking bean prices too.

KAMMAN:
Quincy has cheap vegetables, but the quality can dip drastically and the stockers cannot be bothered to restock all the time. You need to look at those bags of bean sprouts, because sometimes they are already brown and wilted inside.

Some of the meats are okay, and Kamman can be counted on to have some sort of tofu on sale each week. I'm always attempting to find fresh noodles here, but I think the Asian grannies always beat me to the punch. There is a HUGE aisle of Korean products with grains and whatnot (potato starch noodles, yay, not as cheap as bean thread noodles, boo). Some day, I will try a dish and cook with some of those.

note: Quincy Kamman has nagaimo root. Expensive, sometimes on sale, and easily grated down and frozen for okonomiyaki use, yum yum.

Dorchester is smaller, but has some stuff that is nicer. I picked up a box of manilla mangoes last year for $10, and the week after it was $12. We had to eat them fast since they were getting overripe, but it was worth it. Still didn't taste a good as ones I could get in California and obviously cost a lot more. Any food purchased there had to be eaten quickly, because their turnaround blows and the stuff is on the counter longer. It may be different now that it is a year old. I would not buy meat here, as any meat I got here made me ill.

Roche Bros is okay with consistent quality, and best watched for sales. Shaws is not so great, but also watch for sales. I love the $.99 28oz cans of crushed tomatoes for tomato sauce.

Whole Foods is such a rip off, but I think the bulk granola is cheaper than getting it from a normal market. I don't go out of my way to go here.

Trader Joe's has dried pasta that has a decent texture and it is always $.99/lb, versus $1.10 at the market unless it's on sale. Also great for picking up cheap wines for drinking/cooking, and I think the buttermilk is cheaper here than at other markets.

I wish they still carried Plugra. I used to get huge blocks of Plugra for $1.50/lb.

I need to go to Haymarket some time. Make my boyfriend wake up early and go, especially since I want to try making jam this year.

Sephiroth_IRA
Mar 31, 2010
Is it a bad idea to buy dried beans in bulk?

Casu Marzu
Oct 20, 2008

Orange_Lazarus posted:

Is it a bad idea to buy dried beans in bulk?

Depends on how much you eat beans.

HUNDU THE BEAST GOD
Sep 14, 2007

everything is yours
All you'd really need is a sealable container and a nice cool place to put them, they're good for a couple years.

captkirk
Feb 5, 2010

Casu Marzu posted:

Depends on how much you eat beans.

Also how good you are at remembering to throw them in a bowl of water before heading to work/class in the morning.

Hawkperson
Jun 20, 2003

I don't see why, especially if you own a pressure cooker.

In my personal area, I've noticed that Trader Joe's has the worst produce quality, but their pasta as noted is much cheaper than anywhere else. A pound of pasta at my Sprouts is $3 compared to a buck at TJ's. On the other hand Sprouts has way better produce and it's cheaper, and they have the same local, free range eggs for cheaper as well.

The big stores like Ralph's or Von's are for sure worthless, except for liver for some reason because no one else carries it.

GrAviTy84
Nov 25, 2004

Hawkgirl posted:

I don't see why, especially if you own a pressure cooker.

In my personal area, I've noticed that Trader Joe's has the worst produce quality, but their pasta as noted is much cheaper than anywhere else. A pound of pasta at my Sprouts is $3 compared to a buck at TJ's. On the other hand Sprouts has way better produce and it's cheaper, and they have the same local, free range eggs for cheaper as well.

The big stores like Ralph's or Von's are for sure worthless, except for liver for some reason because no one else carries it.

not if you check their circulars and are a part of their rewards club. Ralph's sends straight up, store credit rewards for shopping there. I've gotten $50 off shopping bill before from one coupon, and the other coupons they send are relevant to what you buy.

In terms of pasta, I'm a big fan of the "Garofalo" brand at Costco. Apparently the Bastianiches and Batali are, too, because they stock them at Eataly in NY.

And yeah, with a pressure cooker, soaking beans is a non issue.

KoB
May 1, 2009

Hawkgirl posted:

I don't see why, especially if you own a pressure cooker.

In my personal area, I've noticed that Trader Joe's has the worst produce quality, but their pasta as noted is much cheaper than anywhere else. A pound of pasta at my Sprouts is $3 compared to a buck at TJ's. On the other hand Sprouts has way better produce and it's cheaper, and they have the same local, free range eggs for cheaper as well.

The big stores like Ralph's or Von's are for sure worthless, except for liver for some reason because no one else carries it.

Seconding that my TJs has terrible produce, but I dont have many choices in my town besides the big Vons/Albertsons/Gelsons/Ralphs.

venus de lmao
Apr 30, 2007

Call me "pixeltits"

I think every TJs has terrible produce. Baked goods, too. I've seen muffins go moldy in a day.

Their pasta is cheap as gently caress, though.

Adult Sword Owner
Jun 19, 2011

u deserve diploma for sublime comedy expertise

squigadoo posted:

Is it possible to start a thread or something, detailing where goons shop and prices thereabouts? I still don't have the greatest idea of where I should be shopping for cheapness and goodness in Massachusetts and do most of my shopping at Costco, Roche Bros, and the local Kam man whose vegetables can be really questionable looking.

If you want to start and maintain an OP I would contribute!

Hawkperson
Jun 20, 2003

GrAviTy84 posted:

not if you check their circulars and are a part of their rewards club. Ralph's sends straight up, store credit rewards for shopping there. I've gotten $50 off shopping bill before from one coupon, and the other coupons they send are relevant to what you buy.

Well gently caress, I've been lazily using my childhood home's rewards card, which no family member has lived at for like 8 years. Some assholes are enjoying my precious savings! :argh:

Remy Marathe
Mar 15, 2007

_________===D ~ ~ _\____/

Maybe I shouldn't have made up my address on every store discount card ever...

darthbob88
Oct 13, 2011

YOSPOS

Remy Marathe posted:

Maybe I shouldn't have made up my address on every store discount card ever...
That's why I always make up the name on the card. I can still get the coupons, but any junk mail gets filtered out quickly and easily.

Adult Sword Owner
Jun 19, 2011

u deserve diploma for sublime comedy expertise

Remy Marathe posted:

Maybe I shouldn't have made up my address on every store discount card ever...

I have moved every year since I was 17. I use my real name but the address could be ANYTHING :v:

Sephiroth_IRA
Mar 31, 2010
Store discount cards always irritate me, I mean are there people out there that really think they're getting a deal because of the card?

Adult Sword Owner
Jun 19, 2011

u deserve diploma for sublime comedy expertise

Orange_Lazarus posted:

Store discount cards always irritate me, I mean are there people out there that really think they're getting a deal because of the card?

There are. Safeway has a "super special" discount program where (as I understand it) if you install their mobile app and use it to "select deals," it gives a bigger discount on a few specials that were being discounted with the card. He insists it's some kind of black magic money saving wizardy instead of "they're tracking my spending habits so they can market specifically to me and have a reasonable chance to make more money by drawing me in to buy poo poo from them instead of going other places."

The Safeway by us isn't even that great. They don't have cheap cuts of meat. A loving asston of ribeye and NY strips, no brisket, sometimes a few "London broils." For the neighborhood it's in that is just weird. Talking with a friend who works about a halfhour away (effectively a different part of the state), food is shockingly expensive here, and I should apparently drive pretty far to go someplace else. Bleh.


edit: VVVV When I was talking to the only meat guy I could find, he expressly said they will never carry it. I notice they have a Safeway branded corned beef product so I assume they take all the brisket and process it for those since it's a pretty big chain and all. It's not that I can't get brisket and such from other markets, it's just that Safeway is my lazy go-to market because it's less than 5 minutes from my house while everything else is at least 20+

Adult Sword Owner fucked around with this message at 14:42 on Mar 15, 2013

Fo3
Feb 14, 2004

RAAAAARGH!!!! GIFT CARDS ARE FUCKING RETARDED!!!!

(I need a hug)
Could try asking them to stock it, and if they won't, try asking them to order it in specifically for you?
My old job was call out repair work. In that job I could end up anywhere in the city, which was handy to grab some things from cheaper shops on the way home.
I really miss that, but don't work in that business any more. So these days it's a false economy just to travel any great distance for cheaper food deals unless buying bulk, which I don't have the space/cooling for, so I'm stuck with the local shops too these days.

Fo3 fucked around with this message at 14:43 on Mar 15, 2013

Authentic You
Mar 4, 2007

Listen now this is your
captain calling:
Your captain is dead.

Orange_Lazarus posted:

Store discount cards always irritate me, I mean are there people out there that really think they're getting a deal because of the card?

Yes. :ohdear:

Or maybe the supermarket in my neck of the woods (Giant Eagle) just has a discount card that's actually good (at least we think so). There are useful sales all the time and if you use it a bunch you can get a heavily discounted tank of gas at their gas stations.

I love the cereal sales (I rotate cereal based on what's on sale) - usually four for ten. $2.50 a box is cheaper than Target. Also they have awesome buy one get one deals on meat (usually big hunks of beef for braising or stewing).

So I'll save at least ten bucks a trip, and that's by not necessarily going out of my way to nab sales by buying extra stuff because it's on sale.

Oh, another thing Giant Eagle does with pricing is display the per ounce/per unit price on the shelves, so you can easily discern if the se is worthwhile or which size to buy. I have learned, for example, that raisin bran is half the price of Honey Nut Cheerios. It's much denser, so you get a lot more cereal out of the same size box. Stuff like that.

So yeah, the cards work in that the store is buying your loyalty. They take a hit in money they get from you, but make it back when you shop here again instead of another store. That said, their produce and much of their meat is overpriced, so for that we shop in the awesome food market district where all the produce stores, fishmongers, butchers, and ethnic markets are. But for poo poo like milk and cereal on the discount card? It's okay.

mystes
May 31, 2006

Orange_Lazarus posted:

Store discount cards always irritate me, I mean are there people out there that really think they're getting a deal because of the card?
At a lot of supermarkets, you definitely get a bad deal (no sale prices) if you don't use them.

I guess I could try entering a random phone number or something.

mystes fucked around with this message at 16:08 on Mar 15, 2013

Remy Marathe
Mar 15, 2007

_________===D ~ ~ _\____/

Authentic You posted:

So yeah, the cards work in that the store is buying your loyalty. They take a hit in money they get from you, but make it back when you shop here again instead of another store.

I guarantee you they're not taking a "hit" with those discounts they give you. These days everyone has a card, which gets us the same profitable prices they'd be charging in an alternate cardless universe.

Making the the cards mandatory for sale prices was a way for stores to start gathering a poo poo-ton of useful consumer data: what people buy together, identifying different types of spenders, where customers are coming from, etc. People who walk into a store without a card are just getting gouged at the non-sale prices, you aren't getting some special deal.

The only real sales are when they discount something they need to move, like meats, mouldering produce and seasonal goods, or when vendors push through a deal of their own. Those TV dinners and cartons of orange juice that are "on sale" every other week? Those are just alternating between overpriced and normal price with a flashy tag on the latter because people love "sales". Littering sales like this all over the store is exactly what keeps people getting their purchase tracking card. It was wildly successful; now the only people who don't get store cards are :tinfoil:

My store does the price per ounce thing too, and I like it. I still guarantee it's not some benevolent move. People who don't care about being thrifty will ignore those little numbers. People who do care? It helps upsell you. You still only get to compare their prices internally, it's not like you're doing the comparison they want to avoid- the same product at all price points at their competitors.

Remy Marathe fucked around with this message at 16:26 on Mar 15, 2013

Daedalus Esquire
Mar 30, 2008
Every time I get "custom coupons" it's never something I'd actually buy...I use my store card all the drat time, and they have a machine at the front of the store where you scan when you get there and they give you 8 coupons for the day.

It's always for fake butter, oatmeal, and prepackaged individual sized snacks...things I literally never buy.

GrAviTy84
Nov 25, 2004

vOv

Like I said, I get non item dependent store credit coupons in quite usable amounts, and I don't notice ralph's prices to be any higher than any other market. For instance, this week NY Strip steaks are 4.99/lb, which I think is a pretty great price for a steak.

That said, I know that the economics of these things are fine tuned such that you get the false feeling of getting a "deal", but I was mostly saying this in response to hawkgirl's claim that Ralphs/Vons are overpriced or something. Local ralphs is usually hella awesome for marking down things that will be past their sell by date in a few days. Namely cheese. My local one is a "fresh fare" one which I guess means they carry more "luxury" goods, and consequently have a pretty decent cheese selection that had a lot of awesome stuff that people usually ignore. For instance, last time I was there, there were marked down wedges of mimolette, Humboldt fog, and Saint Andre. 3bux a wedge... yeah. If you don't think that's a deal, well, I don't know what to say. I know based on it happening every season, that on monday, the plethora off corned beefs they bought for st pats day will all go on drastic clearance sale, too, so I'll probably buy one of those, too.

Anyway, prices are very dynamic thing. Ralph's/Von's/etc. price according to whatever their specific brokers are able to price for them. Some weeks one grocer will get a better price than another for any given product but on average there will be certain things that will be cheaper at any given store on any given week. That is why looking at your circulars is important, because they will advertise these better prices in order to get the consumer into the door betting that people will not go to multiple stores and will just do all of their shopping there.

Mercedes Colomar
Nov 1, 2008

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

You said market district... I'm assuming you don't live in Pittsburgh or Columbus, OH? I work at the Columbus Market District. I shop there for convenience, plus my employee discount of 10% off anything store branded, works for me.

Authentic You
Mar 4, 2007

Listen now this is your
captain calling:
Your captain is dead.

Manuel Calavera posted:

You said market district... I'm assuming you don't live in Pittsburgh or Columbus, OH? I work at the Columbus Market District. I shop there for convenience, plus my employee discount of 10% off anything store branded, works for me.

Pittsburgh here. The Market District store is pretty nice and that's our regular supermarket destination (except I end up going to a less good one that's closer to my house). Actually, when I said 'food market district' I was implying the Strip District, which is the old wholesaler district. Pretty much everything there at all the stores is a better deal that Giant Eagle. Except beef shanks, which are cheaper at Giant Eagle (:confused:). However, it's kind of a haul to get over there.

But yeah, I'm not pretending that the discount cards are some benevolent thing, and I know drat well they harvest your shopping habit data, but I'm happy to take advantage of on-sale cereal and BOGO deals for large hunks of meat. And from what I've been told, grocery stores run on a pretty thin margin already, so most sales are for the purpose of moving inventory to make space for new stuff.

Mercedes Colomar
Nov 1, 2008

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
Which one then if you don't mind me asking? The Robinson one?

bongwizzard
May 19, 2005

Then one day I meet a man,
He came to me and said,
"Hard work good and hard work fine,
but first take care of head"
Grimey Drawer

Remy Marathe posted:

I guarantee you they're not taking a "hit" with those discounts they give you. These days everyone has a card, which gets us the same profitable prices they'd be charging in an alternate cardless universe.

Making the the cards mandatory for sale prices was a way for stores to start gathering a poo poo-ton of useful consumer data: what people buy together, identifying different types of spenders, where customers are coming from, etc. People who walk into a store without a card are just getting gouged at the non-sale prices, you aren't getting some special deal.

The only real sales are when they discount something they need to move, like meats, mouldering produce and seasonal goods, or when vendors push through a deal of their own. Those TV dinners and cartons of orange juice that are "on sale" every other week? Those are just alternating between overpriced and normal price with a flashy tag on the latter because people love "sales". Littering sales like this all over the store is exactly what keeps people getting their purchase tracking card. It was wildly successful; now the only people who don't get store cards are :tinfoil:

My store does the price per ounce thing too, and I like it. I still guarantee it's not some benevolent move. People who don't care about being thrifty will ignore those little numbers. People who do care? It helps upsell you. You still only get to compare their prices internally, it's not like you're doing the comparison they want to avoid- the same product at all price points at their competitors.

Grocers did 9/11.

I use the "fake sales" as like a menu Ouija board. I wander around, see what is on sale and try to plan a meal or menu around what is available.

I will admit to having a decently high failure rate but it keeps things interesting and while I am far from knowing the correct ways to cook things I am becoming very very adept at finding a wrong way.

DJ Dizzy
Feb 11, 2009

Real men don't use bolters.
Pork and beef hearts are pretty good eating for cheap. You just have to make sure that you murder the poo poo out of them when you cook it (This is not steak-material). Has to simmer for ATLEAST 1 hour, 2 to be on the safe side.

Mr. Wiggles
Dec 1, 2003

We are all drinking from the highball glass of ideology.
You are suffering from broken heart.

Make anticuchos.

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The Midniter
Jul 9, 2001

I went food shopping today and oxtails were $4.99/lb - at the discount grocery store :gonk:

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