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crimes against grocery


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There are vegetable markets in Boston's North End in which you are not allowed to touch the produce. You point to the pile of your choice and they fill your bag. I got yelled at once there so I learned the hard way. The Haymarket vegetable guys will grab whatever and load your bag. So usually a good portion of your "cheaper" produce is not very good. I was in mid-artichoke once, and encountered a rusty nail buried in the heart! :unsure:

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Italian-American grocery stores I ween. :biggrin:

But in France and Italy, I've found that the grocer actually picks out good produce for you, generally speaking. I think it's partly simple good faith, and partly that they want repeat business and can get it even from tourists who go once a day for 2 weeks or something.

Edited by Pan (log)

Michael aka "Pan"

 

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I remember a quote from Winston Churchill:

"We have already determined what you are, now we are negotiating your price."

If you are a thief, and your price is a handful of grapes or a piece of candy, accept your pitiable lot.

I prefer to respect myself and my fellow man more than that.

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I'm not sure what answer you're expecting to the question "Really?"  :laugh:

I'll put it to you this way: In France and Italy, in my experience, you are expected to look at the produce but not touch it, and tell the grocer what quantity of this and that fruit you want, so that s/he can select some and bag it for you.

Really.  :raz:

Rea…oh forget it, I can’t even type it with a straight face! I’m just surprised. When I was in Italy at the markets, I picked up a bunch of stuff and “inspected it”. I’m glad I did this in Italy and not France. Let’s see, ignorant American screwing with the French’s FOOD. That could get ugly.

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BTW -- so many people break off fingers of ginger that I always find just the size I need without breaking any myself. Now how's that for smug?  :biggrin:

i wish this were true where i live, as i would happily buy a smaller piece that someone else had snapped and left behind. i guess i'm the only ginger lover, or at least the only ginger snapper in my zip code. (i just hate to see the sad, wizened left overs, and i just never manage to store the rest in any of the ways i'm sure will be suggested now--jars of sherry, in the freezer, etc....i can barely get the milk out of the fridge without three other things falling out---i got no room for "stored" ginger")

the thing about taking a cookie for your kid and not paying---not only is it stealing, it's teaching your kid to steal....i always used to clutch the little waxed paper thingy all the way to the check-out, to remind me!

"Laughter is brightest where food is best."

www.chezcherie.com

Author of The I Love Trader Joe's Cookbook ,The I Love Trader Joe's Party Cookbook and The I Love Trader Joe's Around the World Cookbook

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Well, I wouldn't snap my shiitakes or my asparagus pre-buying -- however, I am certainly not going to pay for semi-liquid strawberries. No grocer should be selling semi-liquid strawberries. Hulls are acceptable waste -- rot is not. Same deal as eggs; I open the cardboard egg packages there in the cooler section, and I buy one that does not include eggs with cracks. If I happen to klunk the bag on the door frame on my way into the house and crack one, it is then my problem.

And the gods help anyone who picks me out gungy produce. The farmers' market here is the same way -- you no toucha, they pick out your items -- but I keep an eagle eye on them, and am ready to channel my mother (my mother is German, survived the war, and was once described, quite fairly I think, as a "Valkyrie" by a friend) at any hint of substandardness in the choices. (I'm not quite as fearsomely direct as she is. According to her, the greatest benefit of being old is that she can say anything she wants. Her local merchants tremble at her approach. I still smile politely as I tell the perpetrator to remove that last pepper and choose me a better one.)

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i just never manage to store the rest in any of the ways i'm sure will be suggested now--jars of sherry, in the freezer, etc....i can barely get the milk out of the fridge without three other things falling out---i got no room for "stored" ginger")

Do you have a place where you can keep a potted plant? If so, you have a place where you can store ginger, and if the conditions are right the corms will grow and you will have new ginger to use.

I have a friend who lives on a boat in a marina and has a window box where she keeps ginger. Occasionally it will sent up a shoot but it lives happily there. She uses a potting mix that has a lot of sand in it so when she needs a piece of ginger she yanks it out of the soil, breaks off what she needs, lets it set on top of the soil for a day so the break can "heal" then sticks it back in the soil.

I grow a lot of ginger because I candy it in large batches and also use it in conserves, sambals, sauces, marinades, etc.

I leave some in the ground over the winter, under a deep blanket of straw (and a tarp if we have a very wet rainy season as we had the year of El Niño) Then in the spring I dig it up, rework the bed then break it into sections and replant them. I haven't bought ginger for years.

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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The only one of these I see as acceptable is looking at eggs, but I don't think anyone would argue that this is a bad thing..

do you TOUCH THEM!!! DO YOU TOUCH THEM!!?????!

:laugh:

But of course you guys know that eggs come out of a chicken's butt. alright, alright, it's called the "vent", but everything comes out of there... I mean everything. But don't worry, they wash the eggs before sticking them in a carton for your enjoyment.

Edited by jschyun (log)

I love cold Dinty Moore beef stew. It is like dog food! And I am like a dog.

--NeroW

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There are vegetable markets in Boston's North End in which you are not allowed to touch the produce.  You point to the pile of your choice and they fill your bag.  I got yelled at once there so I learned the hard way.  The Haymarket vegetable guys will grab whatever and load your bag.  So usually a good portion of your "cheaper" produce is not very good.  I was in mid-artichoke once, and encountered a rusty nail buried in the heart!  :unsure:

ouch... never had that happen before....

i've found at haymarket that it depends on the stall, some sellers just hand you a bag and let you pick for yourself and others will let you if you ask nicely. i try to avoid those who yell at you for touching their "display" produce, it usually means that the ones they have in the back are not so good. but with haymarket prices you gotta take the bad with the good...

Edited by yushoe (log)
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But of course you guys know that eggs come out of a chicken's butt. alright, alright, it's called the "vent", but everything comes out of there... I mean everything. But don't worry, they wash the eggs before sticking them in a carton for your enjoyment.

I can't really tell if you're kidding...so I'll just say that not all functions of a chicken come out of her oviduct. I certainly do not defecate from my vagina. And...babies don't grow in my tummy either. :blink:

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But of course you guys know that eggs come out of a chicken's butt.  alright, alright, it's called the "vent", but everything comes out of there...  I mean everything. But don't worry, they wash the eggs before sticking them in a carton for your enjoyment.

I can't really tell if you're kidding...so I'll just say that not all functions of a chicken come out of her oviduct. I certainly do not defecate from my vagina. And...babies don't grow in my tummy either. :blink:

Yuk. TMI.

How about those great peaches this time of year? Isn't it a crime that some will rot, be bruised and not enjoyed? (trying to change the course of this discussion....)

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I can't really tell if you're kidding...so I'll just say that not all functions of a chicken come out of her oviduct. I certainly do not defecate from my vagina. And...babies don't grow in my tummy either. :blink:

At the risk of going off on a tangent, chickens don't have vaginas. They have cloacae. So one could indeed say that for chickens, the vagina and anus are the same hole.

Michael aka "Pan"

 

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I have posted on this before but I'll repeat that I hate parents who get their kids cookies and brownies to keep their little mouths busy at the supermarket and then they don't PAY for the snacks.  I also dislike adults taking fruit and eating it while shopping and doing likewise.  There's no intention of paying for the food they are stealing.  And that's what it is...stealing.  I always hope they get a nice case of diarrhea.  :cool:

Wow that's pretty harsh. I always give my kids a cookie or small bagel. My Shop Rite gave me a kids club card that entitles the kids to 1 cookie while shopping. I find it really helps when we are waiting in the checkout line. (PS if my daughter wants a bagel instead of a cookie, I pay for it).

At the grocery stores I frequent, they give free cookies to kids who are there with their parents. My kids also get offered sliced of deli meats or cheese at the deli, and occasionally potato wedges or chicken fingers from the hot deli... the stores we go to are very family friendly.

Cheryl

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I evidently need to go to the markets you frequent. I'm tired of bins of rotten onions and tomatoes. I have to dig through everything to find a few decent ones. Its not at just one market, its at all of them around here. The farmer's market doesn't get produce until the middle of July. I don't taste stuff. I do smell cantalopes, but I don't make it a long drawn out process. I also don't sqeeze or bruise fruit. The produce people are pretty pathetic. I found one really great guy, but he's at the most expensive market on the other side of town. I try to tell them that the onions are withered and nasty, but they look at me like I have 3 heads and a tail. :hmmm: yes, I'm the one that's high... I also tell the teenage cashiers that this is cilantro, and that is parsley, those are vidalias, those are yellow onions, etc. and when everything is rung up, its still wrong. I'm just sick of it. Some places went with those stickers on everything for a while, but that didn't even help. I just try to get out the door without strangling someone.

I did find one market that's more of a drive, but the produce is better, and a lot of the cashiers actually have a brain. I was amazed last time I went there. I actually left with a smile on my face. :wub:

it just makes me want to sit down and eat a bag of sugar chased down by a bag of flour.

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Seeing how supermarkets are so plain bad at identifying produce, I am always amazed when I drop by my favorite herb/small veggie stand at the farmers market. This little shop contains a huge manner of herbs, peppers, eggplants, onions, melons, lettuces, etc, etc, and is apparently run by people of some Asian ethnicity. I tend to get one of two or three checkout people every time I go, and they always know exactly what the item is, as well as how much it is, without having to more than glance at the item. Not to mention they can all bag, ring up a transaction, and start checking in and charging the next person in line without so much as a hiccup.... it puts the people at the supermarket to shame.

He don't mix meat and dairy,

He don't eat humble pie,

So sing a miserere

And hang the bastard high!

- Richard Wilbur and John LaTouche from Candide

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I try to patronize fabulous local places. The market that I was talking about in my last post that was so great is also employee owned. I figure that if I spend my money at places where the employees actually care about their jobs, they will prosper; I, on the other hand, will be spared the life-shortening escapades at the local horrendous mega marts. :blink:

it just makes me want to sit down and eat a bag of sugar chased down by a bag of flour.

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Is it bad form to ask for samples of stuff I know I'm not going to buy? I know generally this is bad, but I always end up buying something else anyway.

For example, while I'm waiting for my sandwich to be made at Publix, I'll ask the fried chicken guy for a sample of chicken tenders. I'll "pretend" to contemplate for a second, then say "maybe tomorrow." But by now, the guy just offers without me even asking. He was never really upset that I didn't ever buy any (though I do buy chicken tender subs from time to time).

Andrew Baber

True I got more fans than the average man but not enough loot to last me

to the end of the week, I live by the beat like you live check to check

If you don't move yo' feet then I don't eat, so we like neck to neck

A-T-L, Georgia, what we do for ya?

The Gentleman Gourmand

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I was at the supermarket and bought a whole case of frozen shrimp. When it rang up, the cashier only charged us for one bag instead of the 10 or so bags. I explained it to the cashier and what surprised me was that she really didn't seem to be bothered that she'd screwed up.

I took the shrimp to the customer service desk and the manager seemed much more grateful that we were honest.

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This afternoon while at my local produce store, I asked the proprietor about pilferage, he said that from what he's heard, you can expect to lose 5% of your stock to pilferage. I mentioned to him that one day in his store I had observed a man following his wife around, and while she shopped, he was working his way through a handful of pistaccios (the store has bins of loose almonds, pistaccios, walnuts, peanuts, cashews, etc". His reply was "They seem to think they're free, but I don"t know why. That's why I won't put loose cherries out here." Lastly I mentioned removing the stems from shitakes and throwing them back into the bin. His response was "I had to pay for the stems, why shouldn't they".

Mind you I had a very rigid upbringing. Back in the early fifties, I swiped a 10 cent screwdriver to fix my biKe, and I still feel guilty about it.

"A fool", he said, "would have swallowed it". Samuel Johnson

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I have posted on this before but I'll repeat that I hate parents who get their kids cookies and brownies to keep their little mouths busy at the supermarket and then they don't PAY for the snacks.

Do people really do this? :shock: I will open a box and give my son a cracker while we're shopping, but I always pay for it. And I never feed my kids anything sold by the pound while shopping.

Heather Johnson

In Good Thyme

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Italian-American grocery stores I ween. :biggrin:

But in France and Italy, I've found that the grocer actually picks out good produce for you, generally speaking. I think it's partly simple good faith, and partly that they want repeat business and can get it even from tourists who go once a day for 2 weeks or something.

I still remember the fruit vendor in Venice from whom I bought 4 peaches. He selected 4 at differing stages of ripeness, so that I had a perfectly ripe peach every day. Simple genius.

I'm not sure how he grokked that I wasn't making a pie, I guess somehow it was obvious that I wasn't a native. :laugh:

Thank God for tea! What would the world do without tea? How did it exist? I am glad I was not born before tea!

- Sydney Smith, English clergyman & essayist, 1771-1845

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