Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community (https://thetfp.com/tfp/)
-   Tilted Food (https://thetfp.com/tfp/tilted-food/)
-   -   Great Idea for a Grocery store (https://thetfp.com/tfp/tilted-food/78493-great-idea-grocery-store.html)

debianuser 12-12-2004 06:52 PM

Great Idea for a Grocery store
 
I was Krogering the other day and came up with a great idea and I thought I'd share.

What if someone were to build a grocery store where you buy only what you need. Being a single guy in college (a skinny guy at that), I eat very little compared to the portions they sell at the grocery. I thought of this as I reached for a 6-pack of eggs to make some bananna bread and realised the other 4 non-used eggs would probably go bad. The same goes with milk. I buy a half a gallon and it goes bad ALL THE TIME. If I buy an item like lunch meat, lettuce, spaghetti sauce, It seems as though that's all I eat until it is gone because I dont want it to go bad.

If I buy only what I need, it will be cheaper for me and the grocery store will have more to sell to another customer to make money.

I think I'm just going to resort to eating frozen foods. :D:D

Does anyone else feel the same way??

Shirtninja 12-12-2004 06:58 PM

I am that way with milk. I hate the taste of it, but use it in a lot of the things I cook. I normally waste at least half the jug every time.

Suave 12-12-2004 08:34 PM

Some advice to avoid perishables going bad: use the fridge and freezer a lot. Freeze butter, milk, cream, eggs, meat if you're not going to use them often. Refridgerate things like bread that you might normally leave out but don't eat fast enough. Drink fruit/vegetable juices instead of buying the actual produce if you want something cheaper, and longer-lasting.

Also pop hard liquor in the fridge or freezer if you want it to hold its flavour.

sandinista 12-12-2004 09:00 PM

Problem is that with micromanagement and the current world economy it's cheaper to buy huge amounts of something and let it go to waste than selling small amounts of something. Take, for example the 99 cent, 200 pickle jar you can currently buy at wal-mart. No one can possibly eat that many pickles in any given time, but they still sell it for 99 cents - cheaper than anywhere else. Why spend more money on less?

la petite moi 12-12-2004 09:00 PM

At the supermarket I went to in France, they had a lot of individual products- you chose how many eggs you wanted, and put them into a carton. You could get individual yoghurts, and their milk doesn't have to be refrigerated before being opened (and is good like that for six months). Once opened, the milk lasts the same as our milk, but even then, the containers are smaller.

maleficent 12-12-2004 09:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by la petite moi
and their milk doesn't have to be refrigerated before being opened (and is good like that for six months). Once opened, the milk lasts the same as our milk, but even then, the containers are smaller.

Parmalat, a milk sold in most grocery stores (and Netgrocer) is like that. you can get it in single containers that I think are 8 ounces or in quart containers. Only gets fridgerated after it's opened and will keep in the cupboard as long as you need. I don't drink milk, but for coffee and for cooking, there is no difference at all.

I'm sure there are places that sell groceries in single serve containers, but the convenience woul d be expensive...

Spices would be especially nice if sold in smaller containers... (spices loose thier spiciness and should be replaced at l east yearly - when I'm doing holiday baking - it gets expensive throwing out the unused cinammon and nutmeg and other stuff, and buying new - I'd rather get smaller containers and know that I'm going to use it all up (and pay less for it too)

Rodney 12-15-2004 12:31 PM

Buy dairy in smaller containers; it's more expensive by the ounce than a half-gallon, but not if you're going to throw out or waste most of that larger carton.

Find a good natural food store and buy spices from the bulk bins, and never buy more than you need (at 1/10 the price, too). Buy fresh spice bottles from a kitchen store, wash and reuse as necessary.

-- Edit -- also, natural food stores often carry staples like pasta, beans, cereal, and more in bulk. You can buy as little as you need.

Buy all meat, including lunch meat, from a full-service butcher. You can buy in precise and small quantities. Again, prices may be higher than the average supermarket, but are more than compensated for by lack of wastage.

Buy produce from stores who do _not_ prepackage it. Find stores that sell loose "salad mix" that you can ladle into a plastic bag." You take only what you want. This stuff sells for $4 a pound, but a one-pound bag of that stuff is about the size of a horse's head, and with no leathery leaves or core that nobody wants to eat. Or, buy varieties of lettuce that come in smaller heads.

The funny thing is, high-end, more expensive food stores are more likely to sell food in these ways. But since you really only have to buy what you want, they can actually be _less expensive_ than stores who sell at lower prices but only in bigger bulk -- if you don't really need all that food.

irseg 01-04-2005 07:08 PM

My biggest problem in this respect is pasta sauce. The jars are all sized to accomodate a small army, and they are like mold magnets if they sit in the fridge for any length of time.

I'd be happy to pay 2/3rds less for a jar that's 1/4th the size, because I wouldn't be throwing it out all the time.

Captain Nemo 01-05-2005 12:02 PM

irseg, make your own pasta sauce. It is remarkably easy once you get the hang of it

bernadette 01-05-2005 01:15 PM

freeze the extra pasta sauce.

i have meatballs in red sauce in the freezer right now. :)
cuz i'm not good at making small quantities of some things...

shesus 01-30-2005 08:45 PM

I like the idea of buying just what you need. However, I agree with Sanidsta, it is cheaper to buy the bigger sizes. I used to buy the family size meat and open it as soon as I got home and wrap it in single serving packages to freeze. I still do that with kielbasa when I buy it to make red beans and rice. But what bugs me the most is how they package things different sizes. For example, hotdogs and hotdog buns are packaged different sizes. So you either have to buy extra hotdogs or let some buns go to waste. I think it is a conspiracy the food industry has going on.

ICER 01-31-2005 01:14 AM

I have had that same idea for years, ever since my German language teacher went to Germany on a trip. And told use about how thrifty the German people were. You could buy one egg, or a dozen. A glass of milk or a gallon. I think it a great idea.

uncle_el 01-31-2005 09:49 AM

whole foods grocery stores, local farmer's markets, going to the deli counter (for the right amount of sandwich meat and cheese) are some options as well.

vanblah 01-31-2005 01:03 PM

Check around for food co-ops in your area (http://www.foodcoop.com/). A lot of times they will have smaller quantities of things.


All times are GMT -8. The time now is 03:11 PM.

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Search Engine Optimization by vBSEO 3.6.0 PL2
© 2002-2012 Tilted Forum Project


1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360