Giant Eagle, Purveyor of Cheap Eggs, Sues "Egg Cartel."

Giant Eagle's pretty mad that egg costs have gone up.

That, according to Giant Eagle Inc., is the conclusion that U.S. egg producers reached in 1999, when talks began that led to a concerted reduction in hens and corresponding rise in prices. In a federal civil complaint filed last week, the region's dominant grocer charged it had been harmed by an egg cartel that, in the guise of protecting the chickens, hatched a price-fixing plot against consumers.

The last time I was in a Giant Eagle, I was surprised by how cheap eggs were. Of course, over the summer eggs were cheaper. The other day I found myself wishing for another salmonella scare so eggs get cheap again. They're even getting expensive at Associated.

C-Town Gave me the Nicest Christmas Present

On Thursday, I ventured to Manhattan to go to the Apple Store and to get Christmas presents. It was mostly torturous. Apple didn't care that my MacBook battery is swollen. I think swollen batteries might be dangerous, but they didn't seem to. They helpfully offered to sell me a new one and helpfully warned me to not try to get one for cheaper from the internet. I went to Strand, which advertised a special on Foursquare that said "free bag with ANY purchase." The capitalization of "any" was their doing. So when I asked, I was told that was only for purchases of $50. Later when JC Penney gave me a free bottle of water while waiting in line, I still wasn't very happy with how most stores were treating customers. (Just to be clear, I think JC Penney was one of the good ones.)

On Friday, C-Town tweeted to me. "Stop by today for an early christmas present! Ask for the Manager." So I roused myself from my deathbed and walked up the street to C-Town. I bought apple juice, cranberry juice, milk, and broth--all liquids. Then I asked for the manager and he surprised me with the nicest gift: Iron City beer! He gave me a six pack of cans and a six pack of bottles and has some more for sale there.  All weekend when I was miserable and hateful, I thought of the time C-Town was the nicest.

Have I now been bought off by C-Town and will henceforth refrain from criticizing anything?  Yes.

Pictures of my goodies follow.

The Situation at C-Town: Crushed Tomatoes, Cheeses

This won't be as informative as my rant about line management and check-out practices at Food Bazaar just was, but is more informative than most things I write about. After Food Bazaar, I realized I needed more crushed tomatoes to make my sauce for the eggplant parmesan. I usually go to Key Food for crushed tomatoes because they have my favorite brand (Colavita) at my favorite price ($1.50 for 28 oz.) I've written at length before about how to select a can of crushed tomatoes. But C-town is closer and it was very cold and C-Town has been nice to me lately so I gave it a shot.

I went to the crushed tomato section and looked at all the cans. They all had way too many ingredients. I don't need their preservatives. I don't need their salt--I have salt. I don't need their basil and oregano. I have spices. Despite the cold, I almost left and walked to Key Food, which is a much longer walk from C-Town than from my house, so I was going to be quite cross.

Lo and behold, near the registers at the end of an aisle was a section of Cento brand crushed tomatoes on sale! I checked the ingredients and it had only one: "fresh red ripe tomoatoes." And it was on sale for $1.50 I think. I don't know whether to say they hid these because they weren't with the other ones or to say they emphasized these. But I bought them and they were good. Now I have two favorite brands.

Since I was there and happy, I looked around. C-Town told me in a blog comment the other day that the pecorino romano is now to the left of the deli counter. It sure was. At $8.59/lb, I won't be stocking up there, but it beats the non-sale price at Key Food. (It's too cold to bike to Western Beef for a long time.) And I noticed the chunk of gorgonzola. I don't like my cheese pre-crumbled. It can dry out easier.

Some San Giorgio pasta were labeled "buy one get one free - will scan at sale price" which I usually interpret to mean I only have to buy one. It usually says "must buy 2" at stores if you have to buy both. So I got just one box. It didn't give me the sale price. I paid $1.59 for a pound of pasta. That is 59% too much. But I got a good deal on the tomatoes, so I guess it evens out.

The Situation at Food Bazaar - Baccalà, Mussels, Rodriquez, Valentina, and Checking Out

Yesterday I made Italian-style mussels, eggplant parmesan, garlic bread (2 ways), and carrot cookies. I went to Food Bazaar for this because Key Food made me feel bad/gross/repulsive for buying mussels there and because the mussels are $3 for 2 lbs (instead of $5) and because Timmy wanted me to get him Christmas presents from there.

They have a whole table of "baccalà," but it was labeled as Alaskan pollock, not cod. I looked up cod on my iHorn seafood sustainability app, and it said cod is overfished. I didn't buy any.

The mussels were in ice and were much cheaper than Key Food. They had a label that said they came out of the ocean in Maine on Sunday. The seafood section at Food Bazaar's really busy, but that's because it's good.

That whole store was too busy. There were too many people with carts just milling about. Navigating the produce section was like a video game. Every time you come to the end of a table, someone with a cart blocks you in.


Timmy wanted me to get him some Rodriguez. It's a fudge or something. I spent forever searching the Hispanic dessert aisle and couldn't find it. Then I did. It was hiding in the next aisle over.

 Rodriquez. Lots.

 

Not Rodriguez.

I was very very pleased to find Valentina Black Label (tied with Cholula for best hot sauce) on sale. $2 for 34 oz. I got it.

The normal size doesn't last long enough.

Then I circled back around to pick up my mussels (I didn't want to tote creatures around a whole store) and went to check out. It sucked.  After the jump, I will rant. I rant about how the lines are managed. Then I rant about the people in front of me.

C-Town Tweets to Me! My Christmas list for C-Town

Let me tell you, I hate a lot of brands and companies this week. Chase is canceling free checking. State Farm had an annoying bordering on rude insurance agent. Allstate had a really nice insurance agent, but quit working with me when I wouldn't sign something certifying that 2 or fewer people live in my apartment. (She suggested I amend it to "1," which was even further from 3.) AppleCare wanted me to submit proof of payment for the AppleCare I ordered directly from them with a credit card on a date I provided the date and exact amount for. And I applied for a job that was being handled by a third party and after they made me answer a bunch of personality questions, asked me to submit my credit score which they had helpfully linked me to get for free.  No.

Here are the companies on my good side:

• J.C. Penney
• C-Town
• Delallo's 
• Key Food
• Amazon

I like C-Town and Delallo's the most because they talk to me on Twitter the most. I like C-Town the most of the most because they don't have ridiculous prices. (I'd like them even more if they carried some Delallo products though.)

That is all just the set up to addressing a very important tweet. Perhaps the most important tweet I've ever read.  "Let us know what else you would like & we will work on it!"

C-Town, here is my wish list.
Easy stuff:

• There used to be marinated artichoke hearts for $1.29 that were kind of hidden about 1 step down the first aisle from the Goya ones. These were the best. Now there are $1.50 Cento ones and they taste funny and have hard bases. Bring back the cheap good ones.
• Carry tomato juice in a can. I like to keep it on hand in my house for impromptu brunches. Key Food charges $2.19. Compare charges about $1.79. Associated charges $1.99 I think. V-8 doesn't count. They carry Sacramento, but I'd buy a cheaper brand since it's just a base for my bloody mary.
• I never buy my cheese at C-Town (except for sliced cheese from the deli counter). Here's why. The pecorino romano, which is my main cheese (check the tags for this blog), is never in big hunks. It's in those cute vacuum packed seals from Bel Gioioso that cost too much. Key Food and Western Beef have nice attractive big chunks that somehow or other they can put on sale for $5/lb at times, but I will pay $10 in an emergency. The gorgonzola, when I can even find it, is always crumbled already. I like the chunk. I want chunky Italian cheese. I was glad to see ricotta salata added recently.
• Add Delallo products. I saw some at the Met Food on Fulton Street and made Agnes buy them.

Harder Stuff:

• I'd be elated to find Iron City, I.C. Light, or any beer from the Penn Brewery there. I meet lots of people from Pittsburgh around here.  I read that the assistant manager of Motorino is from Pittsburgh. The Penn Brewery has good beers. I'd buy them for special occasions.
• There isn't the turnover to support a lot of your produce. In an emergency, I bought a green pepper twice, and regretted it both times. Onions are fine. Potatoes are fine. Much of the rest isn't. Know your strengths. Key Food has some sections with anchovies, capers, and lots of other jarred Italian products that 1) don't spoil 2) are good. That'd be a much better use of the space. Heck, put in more beer even.

Gripes

• Dried beans cost twice as much as at Associated. So do eggs. If that's where the profit margin comes from, fine. But I know better now! 

At least C-Town doesn't ring up all my purchases at the wrong prices all the time like Key Food does.

Key Food's Getting Ready for Christmas.

I think Key Food is getting ready for an Italian Christmas. Cookies that look Italian are for sale. Cookies that say they are Italian are for sale. I don't lump them together because the ones that say they are Italian are unfamiliar to me. And I didn't see pizzelles, but I can't imagine ever paying for a pizzelle. Fish products are on sale too. I think I'm going to make mussels later this week. (They're the normal price of $4.99 for 2 lbs.)


The cocktail franks I wrote about last post are now on sale for $3 or so. That's quite an improvement. And I got 2 Diet Cokes and 2 Frescas for $1 each. I got powdered sugar for $1.25, so now I can make carrot cookies.

On Assignment: Find Franks

Since Thanksgiving left me in a bit of a food and shopping hangover, hardly even hungry enough to cook, I've cut back on my visits to grocery stores. I'm trying to end that because on Saturday night I made the stupidest soup out of what little I could find. It had macaroni, black beans, yogurt, spiciness, and salt. I did better yesterday with chili. It helps when people ask me grocery questions so I have some purpose when perusing the stores. Today Kristy asked me where to find Hillshire Farm Lit'l Smokies. I don't think I've ever seen them.

Well, Kristy. Here's my best result so far. I found Nathan's beef cocktail size franks at Key Food. I suppose they could work, but at $5.29 for 14 oz. I don't think they are a very good deal.

Some other slightly interesting recent finds after the jump.

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.