Wednesday, February 25, 2009

cheap cheep

After swearing to never set foot in the place. After going to the community meetings to see what the city was doing to keep them out of the area chosen. After bitching along with everyone else about the city eventually caving in to the demands because it became clear it was a losing battle we didn't have the money to waste on fighting any longer. I went into the new WalMart that opened a week ago.

It wasn't so much the WalMart that was the problem. We already have one at the top corner of the city and two others about 10 minutes away in neighbouring towns. It was the location. Right at the already busiest intersection. The one where everyone who wants to get in to, or out of, the GOtrain station to the east, or on to the highways one to the north and the other to the west, or downtown to the south, must endure long line ups to get through. The one that now has three new traffic lights within a half mile.

There about two or three items I go to WalMart to buy, because I haven't found them anywhere else. Or they are just so much cheaper. A few cents wouldn't make me trail up there, but a few dollars will. This allows me to buy more at the more expensive shops for other items.

But, out of equal parts laziness, curiosity, and a desire for my mango flavoured yoghourt, I went to see what the fuss was about. This much closer location is a SuperStore. I didn't realize that made such a difference from the other store that also sells food. This one is a full grocery store, with a deli counter and bakery and veggies and hot stuff and.... I was momentarily seduced. It was, of course all so clean and fresh looking as all brand spanking new stores are. I wandered the aisles and marvelled at the cheaper prices of their baked goods. Noticed that the fresh produce wasn't much cheaper. And that the dry goods were very limited in variety. But that, joy oh joy, they had my Dairyland Vanilla Mango yoghourt.

Then I spied their meat counter with the roast chickens (maybe $1 less, but smaller), and the packaged chicken. There were several that were marked "special" for $2.97. The chicken strips looked okay, the right colour, enough for three or four meals. I decided to pick one up. For that price, I certainly got a bargain. What I didn't get was any flavour. Even smothered in Butter or Korma sauce with extra onions, red peppers and broccoli and roast potatoes thrown in, your mouth asks what is this unidentified hunk of tenderness? Tofu had more flavour than these chicken strips. What did this poor chicken eat? It seemed such a waste of a chicken's life. Your destiny is to provide food but to end up as a tasteless morsel of blob ...

Are there even any nutrients in something with no flavour? (tofu excepted).
Am swearing once more.

28 comments:

  1. Morning Violet, we go to Kauai often and they have been waging the same war against Wal Mart extending - and the people won. The K mart, Costco and Wal mart there have destroyed all the little mom and pop stores and also mean that everyone is aways on the road to the same town - Lihue, and there is only the one major road in Kauai which makes for terrible congestion.

    Fortunately the big box stores aren't prevalent in Au. There may be one costco in Sydney. My kids love the costco in Kauai - everything seems cheaper than Au, but only when our $ is good, and right now it's not - only worth 65c which makes our holidays in Hawaii expensive.

    And chicken - just doesn't have the flavour anymore - even organic chicken... there can't be any original good chicken flavour genes left!!

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  2. Sanna, I'm ambivalent toward Walmart, too. I try to avoid them as much as I can. Ours is a Superstore, and I hate that you have to walk a mile from one end to the other. It's okay if you just need a good walk, but if you're in a hurry and need 2 things on opposite ends of the store, well.....

    I would caution buying meat from there. Did you notice how the plastic covers on the meat trays are nice and rounded? They pump gases (including carbon monoxide) in there to preserve the redness of the meat, often to the point where it isn't really fresh anymore, but looks as if it is. Yuk!

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  4. I have never been in a Walmart. I refuse. I don't know if the old complaints about how they treat their employees got straightened out. I just don't wanna go in. Have you ever seen the Story of Stuff? These box stores make me nuts.

    But that's personal to me!

    What I was going to say is that we have eaten a few of the chickens from our farm, for a number of reasons. Mainly because Don doesn't want roosters. Well only one. Their flavor is fantastic, but they are tough tough tough! Don made fried chicken the other night for a treat while I watched the Oscars (it's his tradition to make me an Oscar night treat), and while it was utterly delicious, it was hard as nails to chew. I've heard that free range chicken is this way.

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  5. I have to admit I'm addicted to Wally World, but for the reason i can get my truck and trailer in there at 3 a.m. and the prices are better than at truck stops.

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  6. I'm not getting on a soapbox or anything but I never shop at Walmart any more...I have read too many negative editorials about them and their products and the way they treat their employees. I generally look for a locally based store and I don't think I pay all that much more...

    My little town is currently getting THREE mega sized drugstores..???? Where one would do...

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  7. Walmart has been on my banned list for a long time now.

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  8. I won't get any food at Walmart. Most often, the cheaper the price and the bigger the store, the more preservatives. As for yoghurt, I only buy the "plain" and put slices of fruit in it - a little bit more work, but not as much sugar! I know, I am demanding, peculiar, but I figure it will keep me healthier.

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  9. What a very interesting observation. It is true, a lot of chicken these days seems tasteless.
    On the other hand, I remember our old boilers, when killed because they no longer laid, were so horrible only the hardy could eat them. Quite apart from the rubbery texture, they tasted vaguely of chicken poo. As kids, we cringed if we heard our grandmother ask our uncle to kill a chook!

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  10. Delwyn, so far, I'm not sure it will destroy our downtown - the city is helping make that easier by taking away all the free parking and making traffic congestion worse by adding so many highrise condos. But the big box stores certainly don't care about the smaller stores.

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  11. Ewww, thanks for the heads up about the meat Susan. I frankly don't paymuch attention to this stuff, but I don't trust any store that tries to be everything to everyone.

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  12. That is a disappointment to hear, Ruth, but at least it didn't taste like chicken poo as Meggie experienced in Australia! I bet you rarely eat chickens anymore?

    I have noticed a lack of flavour lately, but this was absolutely no flavour. I would have been hard pressed to identify it in a blind taste test.

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  13. I can see where the 24hr open hours and big parking lot would be an advantage to a truck driver, Ed. But don't truck stops have the best meals and freshest coffee?

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  14. Oliag, there are many reasons I don't usually shop there. The strange thing about this in our city is that there are also 5 major grocery stores and 3 discount grocery stores all along two streets within a 10 minute drive of this WalMart Superstore!

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  15. Jeannette, I am so addicted to yoghourt - plain with fresh fruit, or granola, and this mango flavour (which tastes almost like custard) and Activia. It is hard to pass up the $1.50 - $1.75 price difference on this.

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  16. Stop dissin' the tofu sistah. I can't even comment any further than that. Strips of chicken smothered in sauce from Walmart for 2 bucks and you're surprised it has no flavour. I'm surprised you lived to tell about it; but then I'm a melodramatic vegetarian

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  17. XUP, I'm not dissin' the tofu - I actually like tofu. It is great stuff. And can take on any flavour you dish out to it.

    And the butter chicken sauce is President's Choice, yummy good.

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  18. Last fall a new Walmart opened up within walking distance of my house. It's part of this "village shopping experience" that area residents fought bitterly against, but City Council didn't see the point in keeping the more rural nature of the neighbourhood intact. So it's here now, and I plan to never set foot in that (or any) Walmart for a number of reasons that other people have already mentioned. Not even for cheaper yogurt!

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  19. That is even worse, Pinklea, to have a city council that isn't in sync with its residents. Ours at least only gave up after the election when new people came in and it became evident how little chance we had and how much more money it would cost (waste). We were still angry with them.

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  20. I agree, Geewits. Although it is here now and I know of four people who now have jobs at least because of it. Not to mention the hundreds more I don't know personally.

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  21. So in other words, it didn't taste like chicken, hehe.

    Actually, we do eat chicken! The ones Don has raised to eat have been phenomenally tender and delicious. It's the ones that free range that get tough. So, these next chicks are going to be raised in the coop but he'll feed them grass from the yard! A compromise.

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  22. In case it wasn't clear, I was referring to the 'it tastes like chicken' statement we give every exotic meat that is mild. :)

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  23. Ruth, (got it!)
    (...and I was blending two comments together - I didn't think Meggie would ever want to eat chicken again if she remembers it tasting so poo-ish!)

    So free range get too much exercise afterall?

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  24. Your being scarcastic about the truckstops..right? :-)

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  25. Ed ;)
    are you saying it's not true?!!

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  26. I've gotten sick more times at truckstops than I can count, and the coffee is passible at best. But then i did eat at a TS in New Brunswick that was pretty good but pricey... :-)

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