SMH* @ Shop 'n Save (as they say)

A correspondent from Pittsburgh submitted this abomination with the note "No thank you. I'd rather pay regular price."

*SMH is Twitter (and maybe other dialects) for shaking my head.

Quite Cross

I am quite cross at Delallo's for liking Timmy and not me.

But if you come across their products, you should still buy them because they are still from Pittsburgh even if I'm (relatively) unloved.

Giant Eagle in Irwin needs to work on queue theory

The natives are getting restless. Found this on Twitter:

TENroaches One lane open. 8 people in line. This #GiantEagle is so stupid. #Irwin

TENroaches  About 20 people in line now. It's a good thing I want my cream cheese softened for this recipe. 18 lanes and only one open. #GiantEagle

TENroaches An idiot on a cell horn just tries to cut in front of me. So she cut in front of everyone behind me.

TENroaches Now she's gonna get waited on before me anyway. This manager doesn't know anything about checking people out. #GiantEagle

TENroaches Finally got checked out. After 20 minutes.

Giant Eagle won't be the only game in town anymore. Walmart's coming. (Aldi doesn't really count. It's a different breed.)

       

I'd like to register a complaint.

I'm quite cross that "College Inn - Assorted - 4/$3" does not include vegetable broth. Maybe Key Food's just up to its old tricks.

I can't believe I'm talking to Delallo on Twitter.

Timmy's headed to Delallo as we speak to pick up some Fernet. Delallo's Twitter person is very helpful and told him what they carry before he made the trip.

I made Agnes buy Delallo bread crumbs when I saw them at Met Foods on Fulton St. I never see Delallo in north Brooklyn.

OooOOOOoOOOO! Which southern-based grocery chain will move to McKeesport?

I read about a new grocery store for Pittsburgh.

I hope it is Harris Teeter. Or Piggly Wiggly. For the life of me, I can't remember the name of that very popular chain in Florida that is widely regarded as the best, but I don't think it would go to Pittsburgh anyway.

Not Winn-Dixie.

Publix!

Yeah, I don't think Publix will go to Pittsburgh.  It's probably something like Save-A-Lot-More.

Stage Fright: I'm Nervous!

In this world, the only thing I'm good at is buying groceries. So why am I so nervous about going shopping for Midnight Thanksgiving? Let me try to count the things that worry me.

• If I spend $25, I save $0.40/lb on a turkey. That's a lot per pound. But $25 is daunting.
• If I spend that much, how will my frail little arms that haven't seen a gym or even a push-up in my whole life, carry a 15 lb bird and all the rest?
• I can probably reach $25 if I remember to buy all the other stuff I'm bringing. But what are those things? I don't plan my grocery trips; I experience them.
• I can buy 101 oz of pure olive oil for $8. Should I? That's a good deal. I want Lewis to have olive oil. Maybe he will buy it from me. Or I could have it to complement my extra virgin olive oil.
• What if they don't have a turkey that is the size I want? It might be too big. Dylan's oven, like my very strength, is little.

 Let's see. Dolly Parton once sang about coffee as "a cup of ambition." I could certainly use that. And her friend Porter Wagoner "drank a fifth of courage" in a song in which he killed his wife's lover. I don't have my old tolerance, so I can probably do with a tenth of courage.

Get out your credit cards. So many good deals!

In fact, as soon as I finish writing this I might put on pants and go purchase some cheese.

Western Beef:
$2 for 16 oz of mozzarella. I'm going to use this to make spaghetti al telefono.
Avocados for $0.88.
Loaves of Italian bread for $0.66.
Pound of butter for $3.
50 tall garbage bags for $4.59. With draw strings even!

Key Food (12 page circular!)
Turkey for $0.69/lb. Perfect for Midnight Thanksgiving (and the real one.)
101 oz can of Capatriti pure olive oil. for $8
Pecorino romano for $4.99/lb. I just bought it on Tuesday for $5.88/lb.
Same $3 butter deal.
Pork butt for $0.99/lb
Apple juice for $1.50. (Anything under $2 is always good.)
Cool whip - $1
Smithfield bacon - $2.99 for a pound

Worst Case Scenario

I would not be able to go on if my Associated burned down, even if I quit shopping there (for a while).

Gothamist has more pictures.

Seeing Western Beef Through New Eyes

I took Eric with me to Western Beef yesterday. Since he doesn't have a bike, we walked. It's only a little over a mile. We weren't even in its parking lot before he was gasping in awe. And that's how he spent the whole trip. He was too awestruck to really purchase much of anything. He only ended up with some cheese, a box of Wheat Thins, and a Western Beef bag.

I, on the other hand, got a big butternut squash for $0.79/lb that I turned into one of the best soups I've ever made. I got a pack of sweet Italian sausage for $3.99/lb, which I turned into pungent pasta along with the can of mushrooms and the pecorino romano I FINALLY got. I also got myself a Western Beef bag. I don't really waste $1 on anything, but I couldn't not buy one even though I have so many bags already.

Here she be.

Giant Eagle Carries Beer. A LOT of Beer

A faithful correspondent from Pittsburgh submitted these photos of the brand new beer section in the North Huntingdon Giant Eagle, which he says is by far bigger than any beer section in a Giant Eagle. Actually his exact words were "They have better beer selection than I've ever seen anywhere" and then a bit later "Yuengling makes me miss Dylan." I confirmed that they carry Edmund Fitzgerald because it was 35 years ago that that ship sank in Lake Superior.

 More down here.

Question Time

At the same time, people have sought my grocery expertise. Maybe expertise is too strong a word. People have sought my grocery opinion. Since there is little in this world I like more than advising people about groceries, without further ado, let me opine.

I'm working on building up my whiskey inventory, but it's hard because I keep drinking it. any advice? -Tom

For everything that isn't liquor, I always say "inventory is death." Because you want to let the store keep your inventory for you. Liquor is another matter, and I actually have a system for building inventory that my friend Eric has started to use. You have to give yourself a liquor budget. Don't think of this as a budget you want to come in under. Pretend you're a local government and need to pave the roads, but you're a lot more fun. So if your budget is $30 a week, make sure you get yourself to the liquor store every Saturday morning and spend that $30. Being poor for so long, my liquor budget is down to $20/week. If I don't have them, I buy a jug of the cheapest vodka ($13.88) and a bottle of the cheapest whiskey $5.99. If I drink them over the course of the week, I buy them again. If I still have them come Friday, I venture for something more fun. When I came into some surprise money from Chase Freedom giving me it, I bought a jug of gin and some bitters. If I keep to my bottle/week pace, that should permanently add 1 bottle to my inventory. (It didn't. I reacted to having more booze by inviting people to come drink it more.)

But really, if you're drinking whiskey you like, that's a good problem to have.

---

Dear Grocery Chopin,

I was recently in a convenience type grocery store to pick up a few things. A half gallon of regular milk was $2.99 which was more than I would have paid at the regular grocery store. A half gallon of organic milk however was $4.49 which is the right price for organic. Is buying higher quality (more expensive) groceries at their correct price better than buying regular groceries at an inflated (but still cheaper) price?

Sincerely,
Milk Man

Oh that's a tough one! It's going to take me a minute to get into a mindset that allows one to not buy something for only the best price or to suffer. I have to say that buying groceries at their correct price is the correct way. While I like paying very little for groceries, what I really advocate is getting good values. I wouldn't tell you to substitute olive oil with vegetable oil spread just because it's cheaper. If I were in C-Town, I would tell you to get the regular milk, but I am skeptical of bodega's attention to milk freshness, so I think going for the ultrapasteurized organic milk is a wise choice.

That was fun. I miss giving advice. I used to be pretty prolific when I wrote for Eleanor Roosevelt.

Eataly

I went to Eataly tonight with Agnes.

Other grocery store blogs (are there any?) would be all over this store.

This grocery store blog is focused on prices. Every price at Eataly was unrealistic. Pasta ranged from $2.50 to $8 or more.

If you want to know about Eataly, google it. The New York Times, New York Magazine, Saveur (maybe?), and every other publication that accepts ads covered Eataly. I can't have ads because I used to get too many pornographic spam comments and there was a time when Google could figure out how to cancel your account for porn comments before it figured out how to block porn comments. So I don't even have ads and I surely don't have the money to shop at Eataly.

Raw Meat

Western Beef has sirloin steak on sale for $2.98/lb. They say it's a family pack, so if I have to buy 10 lbs I won't do this. But would anyone like to eat my raw meat? I have been in the mood for raw meat for a while now, and that's a really good beef price.

I have the $6 bottle of whiskey that probably kills any germs anyway.

Western Beef's Weekly Circular

I've been trying to pin down when it's updated for the new week.

So far, I can tell you that by 2:56am on a Friday morning, you can see the specials for the week.

Western Beef's Circular

Fun with Leftovers: Bean soup

I had some things sitting around that were probably going to go bad soon if they hadn't already. I had beans I had soaked and cooked, a hoagie roll from Saturday that was a bit stale, and some pork juice Lewis gave me when he used his pressure cooker to make a pork butt last Thursday. I thought that'd make a good soup if I could find some frozen mustard greens or something at Key Food. I ended up getting spinach because it was on sale and the bags of mustard greens were too big and I don't know what else I'd do with them.

 

$1 for that box. I just plopped it in the pot with the pork juice and added the previously cooked beans at the end to reheat them.

I'll put the picture of the pork juice behind the jump, lest you gag.

How to Shop and Cook to Maximize Your Grocery Budget

Someone on AskMetafilter asked my favorite question.

You can read my advice here. I realize I should elaborate on those points in this blog at some point.

Ginger Ale Sale at Key Food

Now's the time to stock up on ginger ale at Key Food. It's all on sale. I wonder why. I went with Schweppes because my friend Rachel prefers that brand and I don't know anyone else with a ginger ale preference. Since I started drinking Schweppe's, I think I've enjoyed ginger ale more. Now would be the time for me to do a taste test.

There is never a time to stock up on eggs at Key Food. Their prices are ridiculous.

If you can't read it, that says $1.89 for the medium eggs at the end. At C-Town they're $1.50. At Associated I think I bought a dozen eggs for $1. Key Food's eggs are not 89% better than Associated's!

Despite that, I felt like I got good deals at Key Food. I got Gatorade for $0.88. Ginger ale was on sale. By avoiding those eggs, I was happy I saved money. Barilla pasta was $1/box for any shape. And gorgonzola was labeled $7.99/lb. I've wanted some of that for a while, but it's always $9.99/lb. You don't need a lot of it to taste a lot of it, but I still am much happier with $7.99.  So I paid and on the sidewalk I looked at my receipt. That was when I noticed they charged me $9.99. So I was no longer happy about getting a good price. Key Food always messes up their sales.

No Wonder People Don't Eat Groceries in Manhattan

Last week I ventured to that other borough to find googly eyes. I did find reasonably priced googly eyes, but on the way I stopped by Gourmet Garage and was appalled by what I saw.

• Limes for $0.49 EACH. Limes are on sale everywhere else these days. 8/$1 at C-Town, 10/$1 at Jesus, and 12/$1 at Western Beef. Do people even drink cocktails at home in Manhattan? Maybe they only go out to bars.
• Eggplants were $4.99 and $5.99/lb. At Associated and Western Beef, eggplant is $0.99/lb.
• Ginger was $3.99/lb. That's a Giant Eagle price, not a fair price. Later I was in Chinatown and saw it for $1.49/lb and $1.20/lb.
• Barilla pasta was $1.99. Tonight at Key Food I paid $1 for a box of Barilla.

The only reasonable price I saw in the store was ricotta salata, which was only $4.99/lb. If I felt like waiting in line and carrying cheese around with me to find googly eyes, I would have bought it.