How geeky are we?

[bunrab]

We were at supper at Shirley's Diner, around the block from us. And as usual, we both had books, and as usual we read bits out loud to each other. What made this evening particularly ridiculous was that here I was with Chances Are... (see previous post) and there squirrel_magnet was with his current reading: Prime Obsession, a book about prime numbers in general and the Riemann Hypothesis in particular. So what we were reading about was math. And doing things like comparing which book had more Bernoullis mentioned in the index, and more times. (They both had the same four Bernoullis, but my book had more about them. And my book has Francis Galton, too!) So we have to face the truth: we are geeks. We are well and truly geeks.

After supper, we went to check out another supermarket - we're still exploring the various chains around here. This one was Shoppers Food & Pharmacy, regional to Baltimore, DC, and Northern VA - and, apparently, trying to cater to the ethnic market in the area, because they had way more Hispanic-oriented products than any of the other markets we've been to so far up here. In fact, it looked more like good old HEB in Texas than anyplace we've been recently! A lot of brands I hadn't seen since leaving Texas. And more other ethnic stuff too - large Chinese food section, for example.

The supermarket chains we have are:
1) Giant, probably largest chain around these parts, owned by the same multi-national mega that owns the Stop'n'Shop chain; most stores open 24 hours, fairly good produce, good prices and sometimes, with their little loyalty card, fantastic prices. But, it's a mile away, and has a rather tortuous parking lot, and then there's the whole question of, do we really want our grocers tracking our purchases?
2) Safeway - well, they're everywhere, almost. Smaller store than Giant, and only open till midnight, but has the advantage of being on the corner of our block. Mediocre produce, prices sometimes good, another loyalty card dealie, slightly less variety than Giant.
3) Mars - locally owned small chain, as far as I can tell, excellent produce sometimes but sketchy in some areas; carries brands that we don't see elsewhere; several miles away and only open till 10 p.m., but has much friendlier cashiers, and on some items has great prices without any loyalty cards.
4) SuperFresh - regional chain that happens to be headquartered a few blocks from our house; local stores in several locations within a few miles of us. Only open till 10 p.m. Carries some surprising varieties of stuff, quite strong in the spices and herbs area, less so in frozen stuff.
5) Trader Joe's - well, not exactly a supermarket, but sort of. Five miles away, open only till 9 p.m. Carries mostly just their own house brands, and of a very limited variety of items - but some of the things in that line are things you wouldn't normally expect to find in a regular supermarket - every kind of nut you can imagine, in salted and unsalted, whole and pieces, spices, roasted, plain, and dark chocolate coated. Dried fruit for fruits you didn't know CAME in dried form. Many, many, many snacks. Frozen sesame-ginger Asian style carrot slivers, but very little in basic frozen stuff. Friendly cashiers, but the whole store is sta-range...
6) This latest entry, Shoppers - one mile from the house in the other direction from Giant, open 24 hours. Looks like Texas in some spots. Very small frozen section, though. Good prices. Moderate produce selection, but huge deli area (the custom deli counter is not open 24 hours though). Not enough cash registers open. Will need more visits to see if it is worth more visits. There's another one in the chain over across the street from the Broadway Diner, which we go by on the way home from Monday night and Tuesday night rehearsals, so we can check out what sort of consistency there is from store to store in the chain.

Sufficient unto the day are the groceries thereof.

Comments

[fadethecat.livejournal.com]

I miss Trader Joe's. I used to do all my shopping there, in Los Angeles; I practically lived on their string cheese sticks and frozen enchiladas. And their ginger cookies, when I splurged, were amazingly ginger. Mmmm.

[bunrab.livejournal.com]

Those triple ginger cookies are soooo good. I'll try to remember to bring ONE container next time we see you (and you will promise not to eat them all at once).

[fadethecat.livejournal.com]

Dude. I would promise to eat them at a rate of half a cookie per day, in exchange for a container of those delicious little pieces of joy.

[miz-geek.livejournal.com]

Shopper's is great! I miss it. Admittedly, I've only been to one, but it was our standard when shopping for price, weird ethnic variety (six different types of chorizo, for example), and in Fairfax at least, much better produce variety and selection. Downside was that it was always crowded and so big that it wasn't easy to just run in for a couple things.

I really miss Trader Joe's, too. I think of them as a supplemental grocery store. It's like an affordable Whole Foods (but much smaller). Anyway, if you like organic stuff or things that are kind of weird, their prices are often about half of what you'd pay elsewhere. I recommend avoiding on Saturday afternoons when it's crowded because the aisles are so narrow. Always made me want to hit someone.

If they open up a Wegman's in your area, be sure to check it out (they were starting to move into NoVa when we left last year). The groceries are expensive and not particularly impressive, but the prepared food section is mind-boggling (and strangely enough, also expensive).

[bunrab.livejournal.com]

They have opened a Wegman's in Baltimore County, but from what I've heard of both the crowds and the prices, we haven't bothered to go there yet. I'm saving it as a field trip for some day when I'm bored and solvent.

Grocery stores

[avanta7.livejournal.com]

I must be the only person in the world who doesn't care for Trader Joe's. When I lived in the hotel in Emeryville for several weeks last year, I shopped at the TJ in the shopping center across the street, and was disappointed in the produce and in the frozen dinners/pot pies.

We have fallen in love with WinCo. Decent produce and meat, good selection of frozen foods although fewer name brands than the Raley's down the road, but far less expensive. It's a U-Bag-It kind of store, set up sort of warehouse style. Spouse and I can fill our freezer with a month's worth of meats and frozen foods for about half what it would cost us at Raley's or Bel Air or even Safeway.

Re: Grocery stores

[bunrab.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Trader Joe's is not the place to go for produce, and their inventory on any particular type of item is erratic. So it would never be my main grocery store. But a once-a-month trip to stock up on nuts and low-sodium snacks is usually worth it.