Why don't you make your own bread ? That's really cheap, easy and a lot more nutritious.

Tesla: Been trying to recently. Finally starting to get the hang of it.

We're now nearly an hour's drive from the nearest food market, so don't get much of an idea what's happening there. I can tell you that our local provider just sold us a whole grass-fed, organic steer for $3/lb.

The pigs, rabbits, goats, chickens, and veggies come from the back/front/side yards. They still seem very fresh.

wife makes bread a couple times a week - about 100x more delicious than anything store bought and gets pretty creative with all sorts of recipes & fillings

i shop at whole paycheck and asian markets... have not noticed much of a difference (maybe slightly higher prices) but a lot of our stuff is seasonal so have to adjust for that... farmer's markets used to be a great deal but some of them have gotten more overpriced than the grocers especially some of the nicer ones in the better neighborhoods... the best deal by far is to go to the pick-your-own farm...

Cross-beef prices cost have skyrocketted..costs have gone up more than retail fwiw. It should dip temporarily as cows go to the slaughter from this draught and then will skyrocket again even higher than they are now.

i think the reason for all the yellow tagged beef is most people arent going to pay the prices and are going without. i saw chicken breasts for $1.79 LB and pork tenderloin for $1.99 LB. no way im gonna pay $4.50 a LB for burger when i can get these deals!

Definitely a fair bit of trade off on the lower and middle income spectrum from beef to chicken/pork. Upper middle class+ are either just switching down a cut (eg filet to strip; ribeye to sirloin, etc) or are paying for it. A lot of places are still running solid deals on ground beef though.

Local Pita restaurant has obviously degraded the quality of the chicken they use. Used to taste relatively fresh, now it has that frozen texture to it.

One thing about Wal-Mart meat: Since they do not have in-house butchers, they buy what is called "Case-Pack" meat rather than primal cuts. You can spot it because it is in a tray with a flat plastic top rather than on a styrofoam tray wrapped in saran wrap.

Case-pack meat is butchered at a distribution center and packed in nitrogen gas. The lack of oxygen in the case pack prevents the meat from oxidizing (turning gray). The meat can rot and still be rosy pink. You have to watch the dates on case-pack closely. I bought a skirt steak once that looked great. When I opened the package, it smelled of ammonia. You just don't know. I have seen people change their mind and leave meat at the register (unrefrigerated). Then later the cashier sends it back to the meat dept.

I prefer to buy meat over the counter whenever possible. I am amazed at some of my friends that will spend $20-$30 on a bottle of wine, but only buy the the cheapest meat they can find.

Dmj625

Swung by Whole Foods yesterday.

Every strawberry package they had out had either rotten berries or outright fungus in the packages. The table grapes were too old. The pears were in bad shape. These guys charge extra for all their fruit but it wasn't any better than other stores.

Also a chain restaurant "Elephant Bar" around here has seen their food quality plummet in the last few months. Wife likes the place so we just keep sending the food back until it comes back properly cooked.

Quote:

This fall and winter are gonna be tough for the FSA.

No it won't. They'll just get a cost of living increase and find extra bucks on their card.

"You're welcome."

Stay home, get a delivery, and eat well - by knowing your ingredients.

http://store.honeyvillegrain.com/
http://www.internet-grocer.net/

Following Tesla's comment, if you can get a delivery group set up on one of their routes, these guys have great stuff

http://www.azurestandard.com/

Mdporter--that WFM is definitely the exception, not the rule, and I say that as one of their competitors. Probably just a crappy produce manager with a poor store manager. They (probably) won't last long.

Quote:

Mdporter--that WFM is definitely the exception, not the rule, and I say that as one of their competitors. Probably just a crappy produce manager with a poor store manager. They (probably) won't last long.

I've seen poor quality at this store for a while now. I don't go to other WFM stores to compare.

I can't speak to one store of course but they've had 8%+ comp store growth for 3 years in a row now (which you can ask anyone in retail that is hard as hell to do, especially for a grocery store--probably hasn't happened from a large regional or national chain in 25-30 yrs) and are forecasting another year at least at that growth rate. People must be pleased in general.

Drinking' the kookaid ( iPhone autocorrect, lol!).