nobody told the ethnic markets about rising food costs

[toastykitten]

I went on a little shopping spree yesterday, as my immigrant instincts kicked in:

Bone-in ribeye steaks - $4.49 a pound! Compare to Whole Foods at $16.00 a pound.

I didn't buy these, but the prices are from the weekly ads they send to us:

Oranges - 4 lbs for 99 cents.
Butternut squash - 4 lbs for 99 cents.
Green cabbage - 5 lbs for 99 cents.

I am still in amazement. I don't even really remember most of what I bought, other than to say OMFG those prices are awesome and I grabbed some stuff. Oh, and though I don't believe any of it is actually organic, the produce is really fresh and tastes great. I'm still wondering how they get stuff that cheap and still make any profits.

Comments

[loic.livejournal.com]

My corner mexican grocery stores are 1/4 - 1/3 the price of the organic grocery down the street. It's ridiculous.

[toastykitten.livejournal.com]

Well, I sort of disagree about the reason why people buy organic or free-range whatevers. For us, there's a definite taste difference between organic and non-organic food.

Where you can actually taste the difference are the tomatoes. The shit that is brought to most markets have been bred to look uniform, really red, and mostly tasteless because it needs to be hardy enough to survive the long trip in trucks. The organic ones, freshly picked, especially the heirloom ones, look ugly, varies in color, and actually taste like tomatoes - sweet, juicy, and fruit-y. So I think it's worth paying the extra money for taste. Of course, I am still not going to be able to justify $6 for two tomatoes or something ridiculous like that.

It's too bad that actual produce that tastes great are prohibitively expensive in the American markets or upscale places like Whole Foods. I quit shopping at the Ralph's that is a five minute walk from me because I got sick of my produce getting old before I even had time to cook it. Plus, there was hardly anything in the produce section besides broccoli and tomatoes. The discovery of the various ethnic markets around us have been a godsend - in terms of price, flavor, and variety.