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Two grocery stores - UltraBudgie - 11-06-2024
Food shopping takes so much longer now. I have at least two grocery stores I go to now. Does anyone else have to do this?
The first store is for things like dish soap, toilet paper, shampoo, paper towel, etc. I can get some food there, like the brand of milk I now buy, butter, and maybe one or two items of produce. It's the cheap store. I used to do almost all my shopping there. I can't really take advantage of the big warehouse stores because they're too far away and I don't have the storage space to make really huge purchases.
The second store is for most of my food. It's in the wealthier part of town. It has mostly edible produce, staples like nuts, granola, cheese, pasta, etc. It's more expensive, but the food there is better. It's smaller, and doesn't seem to have much overlap in brands with the cheap store.
There only one store I can go to and get bread that is edible, and another for meat, which I rarely eat any more.
The official data says inflation food prices have gone up 27% in the last five years, but that's not my experience. Prices for the same brand of food have gone up at least 50%, although I have no numbers to prove it. https://www.officialdata.org/Food-and-beverages/price-inflation/2019-to-2024
But when I take quality into account, food prices seem to have about tripled. The same brand of potatoes I used to get five years ago now make me ill. If I buy locally grown organic potatoes, I'm okay, but they're more expensive. Same with just about everything. Milk I've always been picky about, but now I can't abide anything except the grassfed stuff that's $5 a half-gallon. I've almost completely eliminated bread from my diet, because it's just impossible to get anything that doesn't knock me out anymore. There's only one place I can go and get bread that is made fresh without glyphosate; I think that's what the problem is. I get pasta that's made in Italy now, because the Barilla I used to buy has turned to crap, and it doesn't put me to sleep like American wheat does, but it costs twice as much. Peanuts and cashews from the cheap store are packed in some rancid oil now that makes me sweat, and the ones from the rich people place cost three times as much, but that's what I buy now.
Produce is hit or miss, even when I choose carefully. I've noticed organic apples with weird wax on them, and I've learned that "organically grown" doesn't mean it isn't sprayed in chemicals and preservatives after its harvested. I've learned to soak rice and beans and discard the soaking water before cooking them. It's a real pain, and it's more expensive to boot. There's a farmers markets around here, seasonally, and that's an option, although I've heard that some farmer's markets are having problems with fake stands that just sell supermarket produce at a higher price.
Most meat seem right out now. Strange water injected fish that are like sponges. Chicken that is like rubber somehow? There one market, again one of the 'rich people' places that has decent meats, but I swear they're 3-4 times as expensive. I'm not paying $40/lb for steak. The pasture-raised eggs I used to eat now have occasional batches that are somehow plasticy? So I don't eat eggs much any more.
I can't find statistics for this. It seem like inflation is working in two directions: each dollar buys less, which is documented. But at the same time, the baseline of what you're getting floats. Quality is going down. The same brand from 2019 is not the same quality in 2024. So, to get the same thing you got in 2019, you have to switch to a more expensive tier of food. I never had to worry about that stuff before. I spent over $300 for three bags of groceries a few weeks ago, and I'm still bitter about it. (Not small plastic or paper bags, but bring-you-own totes I have that are fairly large, but still).
Okay, fine. I actually don't mind that whatever crappification is going on is making me have to be more aware of what I eat. That actually seems good. And I'm not unwilling to pay for quality. There's two things that are frustrating though: first, there's no guide on any of this. If I search for "declining food quality", no useful results. Try looking up why cheese made in America is getting kinda nasty but European cheese is still okay, no real results. Maybe there's some domestic ones that are still good? I dunno. I'd rather not have to buy flour from Poland, but no one is even admitting the problem, much less giving alternatives. Second thing is, time. What the hell, do rich people have food-butlers or something? It takes hours, not to mention fuel, to get from store to store and find the particular stuff that isn't garbage at each one. Can't just do a quick stop at the one store along the way and be set for the week any more.
Thanks for letting me vent. Anyone want to confirm my experience about the cost and quality of things? I really have no way of knowing how much of this is an everyone problem and how much is me getting older or more allergic to toxins or whatever.
RE: Two grocery stores - Sirius - 11-07-2024
We have the same over here, buying from multiple shops to get good produce.
Someone should really look at what is going on with the food and why it's making us sick. Food causing inflammation is suddenly a very common thing.
RE: Two grocery stores - Byrd - 11-07-2024
I'm not seeing this here, but on the other hand we've always shopped the cheap places and I've got a digestive system that'll process just about anything on the planet, edible or inedible, and no food allergies. Probably comes from being raised as an Army brat and taught to eat anything that will sit still on the plate for 5 minutes.
However, if you don't mind some friendly advice, this would be the time to get together with some local folks and swap information on resources and perhaps (on occasion) do bulk buying. We can't visit all the stores all the time, but if we've got friends who shop at some of our same stores (and others we don't shop at), we can exchange info on what's good where and save everyone a lot of time and some money.
I realize this kind of social interaction is hard in person. You might be able to do it online through something like Nextdoor or Meetup (heck, or Discord or whatever.)
RE: Two grocery stores - UltraBudgie - 11-07-2024
thank you that is good advise we also have some neighbours who raise chickens and fruit trees in the neighborhood and some people leave extra produce from their garden out in 'little free food libraries' and that is great! community is so important even for introverts haha. i used to be able to eat anything too and i probably still can but i realized that my gut was in terrible shape and hurt and i was not feeling healthy so i cut out preservatives and sugar and such and now my gut is much much healthier but so much stuff i used to eat before is now like poison to my innards! thus as i was saying i dunno if its just me with actual living gut now being more toxin sensitive but it also seems like a wider problem
RE: Two grocery stores - Raptured - 11-09-2024
(11-07-2024, 05:58 AM)Sirius Wrote: We have the same over here, buying from multiple shops to get good produce.
Someone should really look at what is going on with the food and why it's making us sick. Food causing inflammation is suddenly a very common thing.
Leaky gut syndrome. It's a side-effect of wheat products where the crop was treated with glyphosate (Round up and others).
Not THE cause but one. There's good coverage about this in a doc I recommend called "What's With Wheat". I'll try to find a clip
edit: Found it. Great info but I'm not a food scientist so I can't vouch for everything.
Relevant info starts at 33:30
https://youtu.be/tiFpFl2H3Ak?si=QGX0g9s2be9CIDfN&t=1944
RE: Two grocery stores - jaded - 11-09-2024
Yet the quality of food has tanked & companies "seem" to have swapped out crap ingredients for even crappier ones. My biggest rant being Campbell's Soups (cream of's) tasting like a big glob of thickeners instead of potato, chicken, mushroom. Have the same issue with most yogurts.
Look folks, I'm a smoker.
If I can still taste thickeners & other fillers just how bad is it? Cheese is rubbery, eggs are hit & miss awful. Produce has been very obviously trimmed multiple times (so it's OLD) yet still sold at full price like it just arrived! Shopping has turned into a scavenger hunt for prices I'm willing to pay. Great info on Barillia Pasta!! I thought it was just me.
One thing that has saved my butt is shopping for produce at Oriental Wholesalers. WAY better quality and still cheap compared to anywhere else. While not everyone has places like this, try looking for wholesalers who supply restaurants or take-outs. Some sell to the public as well.
Even driving that far & paying for parking, getting stink-eye from the staff the prices & quality are worth it. I'm a dumb American so the stink-eye amuses me no end!!! It's also fantastic fun playing "what's that fruit/veggie?" I genuinely have no clue about a lot of it but try it anyway.
My rock-bottom in this spate of food aggression perpetuated by the US food system will be the day I have to make cabbage & noodles with Udon Noodles. Total line in the sand.
Frozen Veggies still "seem" to be ok. If you can find any that aren't in the ridiculous steamer bags. Good luck with that!! The endless multiple trips needed in one direction 15miles this way for paper towels, garbage bags, then 6 miles the other way for quality pet food, downtown for fresh veggies, then 20mi north for frozen veggies has been one HUGE pita.I gave up on meats & just buy the 1lb packages of Elk or Bison ground meat. Chicken or beef is always hit & miss. Mexican Food store for powdered milk, canned stuff, bay leaves & tortilla's. I gave up on bread.
Can't/won't total up just how much meat/food I've had to toss out cause it was gosh awful.
Did do the math once, realized quick it cost me MORE than driving all over God's green acre for food that's edible.
You know it's BAD when living on snack foods isn't any worse than purchasing from regular grocery stores. At this rate my birds are gonna have to share their sunflower seed.
(thanks for letting me rant!!)
RE: Two grocery stores - UltraBudgie - 11-09-2024
(11-09-2024, 09:51 AM)Raptured Wrote: It's a side-effect of wheat products where the crop was treated with glyphosate (Round up and others).
The good news is there's a trend for slightly less glyphosate in some grains:
![[Image: EWG_Glyphosate-05.23_Oats-Results_C01.jpg?itok=yv9YaYgr]](https://www.ewg.org/sites/default/files/styles/scaled_xl/public/2023-05/EWG_Glyphosate-05.23_Oats-Results_C01.jpg?itok=yv9YaYgr)
Hooray! Less! This reminds me of the USDA standards for orange juice:
![[Image: Screenshot_2024-11-09_12-38-44.png]](https://denyignorance.com/uploader/images/Screenshot_2024-11-09_12-38-44.png)
You see, there can't be too many maggots, and the rat hairs can't be too big...
Yummy!
https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news/2023/04/going-going-gone-ewg-finds-glyphosate-levels-drop-oat-based-products
https://www.ams.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media/Foreign_Material_Manual.pdf
RE: Two grocery stores - Raptured - 11-10-2024
(11-09-2024, 03:42 PM)UltraBudgie Wrote: The good news is there's a trend for slightly less glyphosate in some grains:
That's definitely some GOOD news.
One thing not on the list is Beer.
If you remember, years ago there was a huge controversy in Europe where high levels of glyphosate was found in German beer. This caused quite an uproar and was even lauded here in the US by the Miller/Coors and AB Inbev as "see! Don't drink German beer. It's bad for you!"
But guess what was never tested, published or outlawed (like it was in Germany). Glyphosate.
I used to homebrew quite a bit and ONLY used German malts. "Domestic" varieties are grown in the Dakotas and Canada.
I don't drink beer anymore sadly (stomach issues and GOD DAMN I miss it) but when I did, I stuck to German beers.
At least they gave a damn
RE: Two grocery stores - UltraBudgie - 11-15-2024
(responding here so as not to derail and ick out the other thread, and also to shamelessly bump this one)
(11-15-2024, 06:09 AM)CCoburn Wrote: Moldy Bread?
I recall seeing something in here about using bread before it gets moldy or something to the effect, but I'm not finding it on a quick skim.
Anyway, I mostly just keep my bread in the freezer and use it frozen. Bread thaws out extremely fast and will likely be thawed by the time you're done prepping your sandwich or whatever it is you're using it for. I mean, if you're really fast and whip out a sandwich in less than a minute then maybe twenty seconds in the microwave should be good, but you just don't want to leave it on the counter and make sure you just take what you need and then right back in the freezer so it's not being continuously thawed and refrozen.
I suppose you could also just keep it in the fridge which is better than room temp where it's liable to get moldy in a few days, but I just freeze it. I have no issues with using frozen bread.
Most bread no longer seems to get stale, but seems to grow mould almost immediately. It's really gross. I suspect that pre-packaged shelf bread is bagged with some kind of inert gas like nitrogen? It certainly seems to last for weeks on the shelf, but starts going mouldy almost immediately after opening. There could also be some kind of variety of mould spore that has evolved, either deliberately or by happy accident, to serve the purpose of "immediate consumer" capitalist optimization. Perhaps some kind of increased water content or other ingredient to make the cost-to-weight ratio more profitable? It is also almost impossible to find shelf bread in America that isn't loaded with way more added sugar than necessary.
Plus don't get me started on the huge voids in machine-mixed, poorly proofed bread in grocery store bakeries. It's annoying. Even if the flour used hadn't turned to sickening garbage, I'd still probably be avoiding store-bought bread for that reason alone.
RE: Two grocery stores - Maxmars - 11-15-2024
I used to enjoy Italian bread that I could pick up at the grocery store. Over the last two years, if I eat that bread I get terrible intestinal distress.
I had stopped eating white bread from the grocery store, because of similar problems. After I switched to potato bread all that stopped. But Italian bread is a special treat for me so it was disappointing when it started affecting the same as white bread. I had thought it was the bleaching of the flour... but it may be some other aspect of "industrialized" baking and whatever their "ingredients" are.
I noticed that it may be time to worry about bread that doesn't go stale... until you open the packaging...
It's a shame that they "Add" stuff to the bread to make it easier to sell old bread. But it seems in keeping with the pitiful excuse for fruit and vegetables shipped by the ton... hard, thick-skinned, anemic-looking fruit ripened by chemical exposure in the shipping container... garbage that would never sell at the point of production. Tiny avocados, dry citrus fruits, melons with skin like leather...
And of course there's the irony of paying more for food stuffs with less "stuff" in it. "Organic" is just an excuse to economically punish the consumer further for not eating the garbage they dispose of in 'commercial' food items.
Ugh! Now I'm in a funk.
Excuse me.
