Grocery Shopping

[meierlde]

Move to PA. If I liked venison, and was slow on the reflexes, I could have 6 freezer full. I don't, but I have killed over 20 by vehicle when w@rking.

Check that if an area has an invasive species problem it might well be permanent open season on them. In the hill country there are lots of Axis deer (That keep their spots all their life.) They come from india. and are treated like livestock not game, they do compete with the native whitetails.

https://landassociation.org/axis-deer-in-texas-the-ultimate-guide/
If I were at home and wanted venision there have been up to 20 at one time in the lot next to my house. It is even better than road kill. Note that in AK if someone kills a moose the cops take the remains to be butchered since wasting game in alaska is a crime.

 

[Sunset]

No such thing as farm-raised possum, so the road is your only option. I have picked up roadkill goose and it was good. Always keep my eyes open for a deer on the side of the road, but never been lucky enough to happen upon a fresh kill.

About 10 yrs ago, during the winter, I drove to work, and on the return about 9 hrs later, there was a dead deer in the ditch.

So it was a fresh, nicely chilled deer.
However, nobody taught me what to do with it (and it's illegal here to be caught with one without tags).
So I left it there for someone wiser than me.

 

[Telly]

I have used WalMart pickup for around the last 3 months. Have had very good results getting hamburger. If you take a good look at the package you paid 6.98 for it very likely is labeled ground chuck and or perhaps ground sirloin. WalMart has ground beef labeled Angus which is more costly.

Went to Kroger this morning, got some stuff but it was too early for meat I guess. Went on to a Neighborhood Walmart, where we found the 80/20 Ground Chuck (I forgot to mention that it was chuck) for the usual $3.98/lb!

Seeing your post later, I compared both receipts from the do-it-yourself checkout machines from both WM stores. The product description and SKU# were exactly the same. Only the price was different! So it looks like last Sunday we donated $6.98 - $3.98 = $3.00 to the invisible Walmart Fund! Somebody must have keyed in the wrong price on the store-level product library at the big Walmart.

 

[ivinsfan]

Went to Kroger this morning, got some stuff but it was too early for meat I guess. Went on to a Neighborhood Walmart, where we found the 80/20 Ground Chuck (I forgot to mention that it was chuck) for the usual $3.98/lb!

Seeing your post later, I compared both receipts from the do-it-yourself checkout machines from both WM stores. The product description and SKU# were exactly the same. Only the price was different! So it looks like last Sunday we donated $6.98 - $3.98 = $3.00 to the invisible Walmart Fund! Somebody must have keyed in the wrong price on the store-level product library at the big Walmart.

Oddly enough our Walmart online has the about the same price 80/20 ground chuck always available it's always in stock too... For the last week I've wondered why the "chuck" was so expensive.

You can get 93% regular beef for over a buck less a pound then the pricey 80 chuck...weird...

 

[Aerides]

You can get 93% regular beef for over a buck less a pound then the pricey 80 chuck...weird...

Because 80% chuck tastes a whole lot better when you make a burger.

 

[gailwinters]

Because 80% chuck tastes a whole lot better when you make a burger.

I had ordered 90/10 in my Walmart pickup order, because it was $1.00 a pound cheaper than the 80/20. They substituted 85/15 which was even more expensive than the 80/20, but charged me the 90/10 price. More fat definitely equals more flavor!

I have been very lucky so far with the substitutions Walmart has made.

 

[sengsational]

We're hitting Super Walmart weekly for groceries. DW got 12 pounds of chicken breast (w/ skin, on bone) for $1.99/lb. Very happy to get it to keep our freezer stocked. To keep this in perspective, we paid 99 cents/lb for boneless and skinless chicken breast just a few weeks ago before this recent round of meat worries. Walmart wasn't too busy or stressful around 8 am when DW normally goes.

Around here, Costco, then Walmart, then the groceries (Fry's/Kroger, Safeway) start to run out, in this order. I'm thankful Fry's managed to keep us in TP, chicken breast, and ribeye steak throughout most of the panic. Since Walmart has chicken, things must not be too bad around here. Strangely enough, WM didn't have any salmon, for the first time in months.

Thanks for the report from Arizona. Sounds like the rest of the country, which is totally unsurprising.

I can see how some stores might be linked with suppliers having a tough time of it, and other stores linked to suppliers that are doing fine. But pretty much everything is a chain, so it should be roughly uniform across the chain (of course I'm thinking that if a chain has a viable supplier of something, they can and will get it uniformly to all outlets). Of course the uniformity can cut both ways (i.e. Chain X has no widget Y's at any outlet).

My take-away from this thread is that the shortages are similar across the US, and that although some stocking problems exist, if you were willing to draw a little bigger circle around your house, you'd probably find availably is similar everywhere in the US.

 

[ivinsfan]

Because 80% chuck tastes a whole lot better when you make a burger.

Yes just commenting on WalMart pricing as one poster said their walmart had chuck for the same price as regular ground beef..which isn't true in my experience.

Though 3 bucks a pound seems like a big upcharge. I also notice that unlike places with regular on site butchers WalMart does discount bigger packs of burger.. So comparing a 2.25 lb of 90 and a 1lb package of 80 chuck is going to increase the per lb difference...

I've told you more then you ever want to know about WalMart hamburger pricing...

 

[gwraigty]

I've told you more then you ever want to know about WalMart hamburger pricing...

Except that WalMart used to be the best bargain around my house for ground beef a few years back. They'd discount the packages that were getting close to expiration by as much as 40% to 50%. It was a better deal than regular grocery store sale pricing. I was in tune with spotting those yellow stickers from several yards away. Then they drastically changed it to something like only 50 cents off, making the other grocery sales a much better bargain. Now even that measly 50 cents off might be the best "bargain" in town. I just checked the online sales at every local store in my area. None have beef of any kind on sale. Some stores have no meat on sale. One store has several kinds of meat (no beef) on sale, but those prices used to be regular prices.

 

[W2R]

I've told you more then you ever want to know about WalMart hamburger pricing...

No you haven't! I thought that was interesting.

I still have a couple of pounds of hamburger in my freezer, that I bought back in February or earlier. Somehow I just never seem to choose hamburger when I have a choice. But some day I'll need to buy more, so it's interesting to hear about prices.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

TP and paper towels are starting to be seen in the wild here again; I had to resist the reflex to buy even more. No yeast yet, so I'm glad I learned sourdough a few years ago and have been keeping my starter going (no, I don't have a name for it).

Masks became mandatory in my state for all indoor businesses starting today and nearly all customers were wearing them, although some still think it's OK to only wear it over the mouth and leave the nose exposed. Nearly all the Kroger employees were wearing theirs with the clicklist pickers being the biggest offenders. All employees at Aldi wore theirs with the exception of my cashier. I kindly asked her to put her mask on and she flatly refused. After evaluating that she was over six feet from me and behind a plexiglas shield I decided not to push it.

 

[FreeBear]

My take-away from this thread is that the shortages are similar across the US, and that although some stocking problems exist, if you were willing to draw a little bigger circle around your house, you'd probably find availably is similar everywhere in the US.

Yep, it does take more time and flexibility to get what you need, or find an alternative source or recipe.

Before all of this, we always bought organic chicken from Costco. Now it's hit or miss, more recently miss, for ANY chicken at our Costco. So we've been hitting Super Walmart, Fry's (Kroger), and an Asian grocery. We just assume we'll strike out some of the time, but we'll buy 10 pounds of chicken breast at a time whenever we score. Kind of a perverse game...

Early on in the pandemic, we stopped going to Costco because of the huge entrance lines (now gone, fortunately). On the way to pick up my carryout, I spied some folks proudly brandishing packages of toilet paper from the local Fry's. I made a quick detour to score a package of TP and impulse bought a big pack of ribeye steaks for 5.99/lb (with store saver's card!), same price at Costco. I'm still enjoying an occasional ribeye smoked and seared on the pellet grill months later!

Got to enjoy the small victories

 

[John Galt III]

Eastern Pa. Wow, what a score at Aldi's today. I bought 3 loaves of the 24 ounce 12 grain bread, my favorite, thinking they were $1.75 each ( a great price) but they rang up at 88 cents each! Half price. Also bought a pineapple just for kicks. $1.49. And a big juicy mango for 49 cents (used to be 69 cents).

 

[ivinsfan]

A boots on the ground shopping report, my first one since mid March. DH needed to return a little extra seed corn. The dealer is in WC MN about an hour away. I checked the MN Dept of Health website and that local walmart was in a county that has had 4 cases total since March 15th. Decided to go inside since I am trying to get my second shingle shot. No shot.. since they have suspended vaccinations until further notice. I did do an in person buy of some generic sudafed.

I'm sure you are all waiting for a Walmart ground beef update. almost none except for the famous one lb packs of 80 ground chuck. It cost 6.24 a lb. There must be something about seeing the number 6 on a pack of hamburger that makes people resistant to spending.

The frozen food section was pretty hard hit as well. Otherwise pretty well stocked.

 

[Birdie Num Nums]

No such thing as farm-raised possum, so the road is your only option. I have picked up roadkill goose and it was good. Always keep my eyes open for a deer on the side of the road, but never been lucky enough to happen upon a fresh kill.

"Fender Lickin' Good!" as they say.

 

[gayl]

For those of you experiencing inflated prices are you shopping instore yourself or through a service?

 

[gwraigty]

For those of you experiencing inflated prices are you shopping instore yourself or through a service?

I shop in the store. I've never used a service.

 

[Sunset]

For those of you experiencing inflated prices are you shopping instore yourself or through a service?

Shop via Walmart curbside pickup, no big inflated prices, sometimes things even end up on sale by the time I pick up and I get the reduced price.

Once I thought they were charging too much for milk, but then I looked at grocery store flyers and saw milk had gone up in price in those stores too.

 

[harllee]

For those of you experiencing inflated prices are you shopping instore yourself or through a service?

I do Walmart pick up --as far as I can tell the pick up prices at WM are the same as in the store--and many prices are up, especially meat. I use to buy steaks and a few other meats from Omaha Steaks which ships the meats to you frozen. A few weeks ago I looked at their website and they were out of many things and the steaks I normally buy had more than doubled in price so we are not eating steaks for now. More vegetables are better for us anyway but DH likes a nice steak on the grill every once in a while.

 

[John Galt III]

Two days ago there was plenty of hamburger, for $2.99 a pound. Today there was * no * hamburger. And almost no beef of any kind. Yikes. Normal prices on other meats. I picked up a cut up chicken for $1.49 a pound. Eastern Pa.

 

[Squirrel]

Thursday, there were almost no eggs and no store-brand shredded sharp cheddar.

Today, I was able to get plenty of eggs (on sale even) and 4 lbs of shredded sharp.
(also on sale $3/lb.)

 

[Calico]

Two days ago, when I placed an online order for pickup the next day, I noticed a helpful feature on the grocery store website. It is now possible to edit your order up until 8 pm the night before you are scheduled to pick up.

There were a few times over the last 10 weeks when this would have been a nice feature, because it never failed that as soon as I clicked on submit, I remembered one or two items I forgot to order.

Until a couple of days ago the only way to rectify that was by calling the store and talking to a human being. I never did this - I figured they had more important things to do, and I didn't want to add to their already overwhelming workload. I trained myself to triple-check the order before submitting.

It's helpful to now have the ability to edit the order online.

ETA: The stores with this feature are the Harris Teeter stores near me (central NC).

 

[ivinsfan]

Yes our local Walmart at one time had a 6 day backlog for pickup.. you could place the order and add to it as many times as necessary until about 1AM the day of pickup. That's really a nice feature when you have to order a week ahead.

 

[Calico]

Yes our local Walmart at one time had a 6 day backlog for pickup.. you could place the order and add to it as many times as necessary until about 1AM the day of pickup. That's really a nice feature when you have to order a week ahead.

Exactly! A friend of mine has been ordering from Walmart during the same ten weeks, and she told me she was able to edit the order online from day one of the shelter in place. I was jealous! But, I have always shopped at Harris Teeter - I know their stock and their prices - and after the first few rocky weeks they have been able to supply 98% of what I order, so it wasn't worth it to me to investigate Walmart's system. I was trying to simplify my "pandemic life!" Also I live closer to the Harris Teeters. She was already a Walmart grocery shopper so it worked well for her.

For the first 8 weeks or so we had to order a week ahead too, so it would have been helpful. But I can do it now.

 

[tmm99]

I used to have to book a week in advance with the store I used to do a curbside pickup at, but now, all the time slots are open including tomorrow morning. Costco Canada now requires customers to wear masks in their stores and this change makes me feel safe enough to venture into their stores, so I'm shopping there now, as well as this Asian supermarket that requires customers to wear masks. Those are the only two stores I know in my area that require customers to wear masks, so that's where I shop now, and my need to do a curbside pickup has decreased to almost nothing.