Yes, I know. It's not $44, the magic number that we are suppose to feed ourselves on each week. But the hope is that the $53 worth of groceries we purchased today will stretch us for more than a week. And we can use some of the items to carry over into the following weeks. Like we won't be using the whole box of pasta in one night. Or the bag of tortilla chips. And that rump roast. That'll get cooked and feed us a few meals on its own. Yes, a rump roast.
What?! Beef! Pricey!
Not so much. Sales and knowing where to shop. Is it a Prime Angus cut? No, of course not. And since it isn't, what do we do with it? We braise it, slow and long. And it will be delicious.
As for price, there's a great advantage to living in Chicago. Variety. Culturally and economically. That lemon that costs $1.00 at the big box brand name grocery store, costs $0.50 at the local chain grocery store marketing to a more hispanic crowd. It was actually $0.25 a piece this week. Yay, sale. That rump roast that's $6.50/lb at the big box. . . .$1.99/lb at the local. Also on sale. Is it a good piece of meat, you might ask. Well being a professional cook by trade, do you think I would buy bad meat? Yes, I have seen bad product at some of these local chains. Today we saw some corned beef selling for $1.69/lb. But it was also double wrapped in plastic wrap because the vaccuum packing wasn't vaccuumed anymore. Yep, definately did not buy that.
For the most part, the products sold at the small chain are of decent quality. They just don't have the same type of overhead the huge chain stores do. They don't have the variety that the huge chains do. But really, do you need to have the choice of 10 different corn flake cereals in one place? Also, catering to a more ethnic demographic, these smaller stores can buy things like the produce their shoppers tend to want in much more bulk. At Jewel they have a small pan of jalapenos on the shelf. At Tony's Finer Foods there's a box of them big enough to sleep in!
Chicago being the diverse city that it is, there are also alot of local producers of things. And they don't charge the huge prices that some brand name, higher quality products do at more fashionable markets. But I guarantee you there is so much quality put into what they make. Polish butchers that smoke their own kielbasas. Korean markets that make their own kim chee. Or how about Arabic bakers that make delicious, fresh pita daily. I know a place that I fell in love with and I can't ever buy pita anywhere else now. At the very least, not the ones at the chain grocer. Because not only is it soft and fresh and tasty, it's only $1.00 for 8-10 pieces, depending on the size you get. So much better than that $2.50 for 6 mass produced, preservative laden, fluffy circles you get at the big box.
Where ever you live, don't be afraid to see what those smaller shops have. Explore a little beyond the very convenient big box grocery store in your area. I'm not talking about places all the way across town. Though if you hear people say good things, it might be worth a trip one day. Far travel means time and more money spent on gas. But there may be that place you pass all the time that you just never went into before because the giant store has everything in one big place. Maybe you have a certain concentration of ethnic population nearby that has stores that cater to them. You should check it out. They might have something awfully delicious and awfully well priced.
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