One bottle of wine to motivate me to recreate the perfect 9-hour jazz playlist I lost. I believe in me!
Hah. I was on the news tonight, talking about the earthquake yesterday. There's video, but I don't know where. I'll let you infer from my screen name which person I am in this article... <a class="postlink" href="http://www.ksby.com/news/earthquake-rattles-central-coast-does-not-threaten-nuclear-power-plant/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.ksby.com/news/earthquake-rat ... wer-plant/</a>
I saw the word pussy followed by a NSFW tag and clicked without checking the poster name. Won't be making that mistake again.
I was hammered earlier, but now I'm in that weird zone where you're buzzed but entirely unwilling to drink further. Blergh. The Dude is asleep and I am bored.
I know, I know, I'm always the critic. Your Dad is fucking awesome. The guitar player was really good too, it's a shame on YYZ the drummer kept missing breaks, coming back in on them wrong. Everything else about the performance was pretty fucking incredible. Hell, I've tried the song a few times with a band (playing both drums and guitar) and it is fucking hard. I'd be really proud too.
So we're getting a Whole Foods and a Trader Joes here in the next month or so. Other than their food being organic, why the hell is everyone so excited about this and why should I be?
Both are hit-or-miss. Just like any store, you have to know what to buy there. My Whole Foods has some premium items much cheaper than the bigger grocery stores. I make as much food as I can, but when I'm relegated to buying things like pasta sauce or pre-made food, it's much better at Whole Foods than it is at the grocery store - both in terms of quality, and price. The pasta sauce I like is ~$7/jar at the big grocery stores, and is $6/jar at Whole Foods. Produce is typically higher quality at WF, too, at least in my area. And bulk spices are awesome - so much cheaper. I don't get the fascination with Trader Joe's. They have decent pre-made foods or pre-made basics (e.g. pizza dough) but ours is always packed, the layout is horrible, and it takes twice as long to shop there.
This here is my opinion on Whole Foods: Their meat and produce and seafood are exquisitely beautiful. If you shop there, and make less than $250,000 a year, you are an idiot. Nothing is ever on sale. Not that it would matter because every product is sold above premium because 1) they need to cover their outrageous overhead and 2) small farms' products, while not necessarily better, cost more. A lot more in some cases. Find a green market, a farmer's market, a mom and pop produce stand, or other small chain. You may have to go to a multitude of places, but you will save 300% as opposed to Whole Foods. Fuck them. Basic food is not elitist. To sell it at an elitist price should be criminal. Forget Trader Joe's too, I'd rather shop at Trader Vic's. Hula drinks are food.
From the tone of your post, it sounds like you shouldn't be that excited. They mostly cater to people who are more nit-picky about their food, whether they want all organic, eat uncommon diets or have allergies. Yeah, I get cheese and butter from grass fed cows and it's like half price at Whole Foods compared to the same exact brand anywhere else. This is the big one for me, bulk spices, bulk nuts, bulk dried fruit etc. You're paying a fraction of the price for (usually) higher quality stuff. Also you can get it in the exact quantity you want so you're not buying a bottle of something you'll use once. Other than that I agree with Binary that the produce tends to be higher quality, usually lasting a few more days but other than that not much different. Just don't buy into the mystique that everything there is fresh, natural and healthy, if it's not labeled so, assume it isn't. Lastly they're (both TJ and WF) a couple of the few places a lot of people can get grass fed meat. So if you're into that, you should be excited.
Nevermind that shit, apparently Jean Claude Van-Awesome really said this. Aloud. In front of someone with a microphone. Guess who just got himself a write in on this year's presidential ballot?
Just as a heads up, you may want to check out this site regarding organic food. Just so you know what is considered 'organic' and what isn't. You'll have to click around a bit. And by the way, yes I like organic food myself.
Damn, you people of TiB! Pinkcup was practically begging someone to dare her to cure her boredom. i.e. post in the Boobie thread. At least, that's the way I read it. So disappointed in all of you.
So by already going to a butcher shop and one of the farmers markets around here, I'm pretty much just looking at more traffic in those areas. Awesome.
If I were rich, I would love shopping at Whole Foods each week. I don't really care about eating organic all that much, but I do think they do have higher quality food. It's just so outrageously expensive that I only pick up random items here and there. I mostly go there for their buffet-type thing, which is delicious and a good alternative to the fast food options that are usually the other choice. I love Trader Joe's, but I can never go there with my grocery list for the average week and get everything that I need. I usually plan out a Trader Joe's Week now and then around what I know I can get there. They're mostly good for snack foods and they have awesome frozen food. The pricing is hit or miss - I won't buy things like meat there, but I learned that they have the same prices across the country so most of their stuff seems cheap to me because it isn't hiked up to New York City prices. I usually spend $20-30 less for the week when I do a Trader Joe's trip than at my regular grocery store. Plus, hot people always shop at Whole Foods or Trader Joe's. Associated, not so much. I don't know where you live, but I can say that for me a lot of people shop at these places because regular grocery stores are awful here. Usually, you either get pretty good produce or pretty good meat, but not both. And there's usually not enough space to carry everything you'd expect to be at a store, so you usually have this strange black hole of groceries that you don't buy again until you move. The one I'm living near now is pretty good, but I still buy most of my produce at the fruits and veggies bodega near me instead and am thinking of starting to go to the butcher for meat because I'm not sure I've ever eaten meat that wasn't slightly bad from my supermarket. And the only fish I can rely on being there is frozen fish sticks. The shitty grocery stores is, if I had to pick one, my least favorite part about living in the city. I would love to shop at Whole Foods or Trader Joe's (or Fairway) instead but none of them are convenient enough to be my regular store. But if you don't give a shit about food or already have good grocery options in your area than neither of them are worth giving a shit about.
I like Whole Foods for the bulk stuff. The fresh peanut butter grinder is a horrible weakness of mine as well. We don't have a Trader Joes, but I've been in them before and it all looks like high end processed food to me. Sure it's organic and all that shit, but it's still pre made food in a fucking box.