The Richmond GO is fine. Everyone in a mask and pretty much keeping at a distance. Well stocked, too.
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East Hayward GO was very well stocked today, with some interesting additions:
–Numi Tea: different varieties of teabags for $2.99. I’ve never seen Numi at this GO.
–Steve’s spearmint brownie ice cream
–Toll House espresso chocolate chips. My dad in NJ told me about these but I haven’t seen them on the Safeway shelves
And then there’s this fancy soup from France–had to post a picture of the very funny translation of the ingredient list.
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They just can’t seem to get rid of that spicy ice cream.
I hesitate to post this because I want this sake all to myself, but . . .
Geary store had (still has? I don’t know…) Hiro, which was very good. Niigata prefecture.
So Van Ness store has Soto sake, which is effing fantastic. Lg (720 ml) is 14.99 (normally ~30.00) and small (330 ml) is 8.99 (usually double that). Also Niigata prefecture. Find of the year for me. So Van Ness currently has a ton of decent gelato - not Talenti, but the same packaging.
We were also at the Oakland store today and it was totally disappointing. And no sake anywhere, haha.
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That seems weird to me because we frequent the South Van Ness store and it’s generally quite organized and well-run by people who are definitely over the age of 17.
Do you frequently go at night? I was exaggerating a bit with “running the store”, but a large proportion of the people visible working the place around closing time are very, very young, and there is nobody around who is identifiable as any kind of manager - it’s basically two or three cashiers and a security guard.
This time around I stood there at checkout for the better part of ten minutes, with half-masked standing-too-close guy behind me and the extremely young cashier spending the better part of ten minutes gabbing with the customer in front of me while she tried about 38 different ways to make her EBT card balance magically high enough to pay for her groceries.
I never go in the evening. When I go, there’s always a mgr having people wait in line for checkout on aisle 5. It’s pretty organized, at least during the day! Masks must be enforced, but I can see teenagers being too intimidated to confront anyone. Not good, but I can imagine that happening. Should be the security guard’s job.
Not in my GO either.
Yesterday morning at the Oakland Grocery Outlet:
It was the 4th Tuesday morning of the month so it was 10% off everything for seniors age 55 and over as part of their 2nd/4th Tuesday senior discounts from 8am-12pm. At the entrance to the store they offered a sanitary wipe to customers and traffic in the store was moderate. Prices listed below are before any discount is applied.
Wine-
$4.99 Testa Dura 2018 Vintner’s White produced and bottled in Kenwood, CA, taste of butter, vanilla and freshly-mown green grass, medium on the body and moderate in the tannins.
Deli -
79 cents Green Valley lactose-free whole milk plain Greek Yogurt, 32 oz. Yes, not a typo, it was 79 cents probably because the Best By date was June 25. Tastes very good and there were plenty on the shelves. Distributed by Redwood Farms of Sebastopol, CA.
79 cents Cantare Roasted Red Pepper and Olive Mediterranean Spread tapenade, 6 oz. plastic tub, Best By June 26. A terrific tapenade with chewy sun-dried tomatoes, made in the US. It does list pomace olive oil as an ingredient that some may find objectionable because it is a lower grade olive oil that is extracted using chemicals.
25 cents, Good and Gather smoked turkey and cheddar cheese lunch kit with crackers and mini oatmeal cookies, 2.9 oz. made in Canada and distributed by Target.
$1.99 So Delicious Unsweetened Vanilla Organic Coconut Milk, 64 oz.
Other-
$1.99 Yuban Instant Coffee 8 oz. in plastic jar, distributed by Kraft Heinz of Chicago, IL. Couldn’t find anything about country of origin.
$3.99 Bellucci Organic Olive Oil 500 ml. I like this and have bought 3 bottles so far
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Mission SF
That Chalone Pinot is really good, but I believe it is only $10 at the Bayshore Blvd. GO. And no I didn’t buy the Twinkie cereal as intriguing as it was.
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Good haul from the PA store yesterday night.
2014 Clos d’ Argentine Malbec. I haven’t drank it yet but i got a bottle.
Some Moonstruck and Endangered Species chocolate:
Various Carrs/ Rutherford & Meyer / Late July crackers:
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Sadly, they’re out of the larger bottles of Soto sake. Good restraint on the Twinkies cereal (LOL). The breakfast cereals at GO always crack me up. I’m always checking for hippy (non-granola) cereal, which they rarely have.
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At the Richmond GO
Also,
Rosie organic chicken thighs around $6/lb
Handmade Chipotle chips $0.99/bag
Organic refined coconut oil, $9.99/54 fl oz
Organic pomegranate gummy bears $1.99/bag
Roasted almond oil $7.99/500 mL (so good in carrot cake)
At check out, they have bags of groceries you can buy for donation. I chose a $5 bag, and was surprised to get a $5 coupon on my receipt for the donation. The only catch is that you need to spend over $25 and it’s only good July 15-31.
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The Oakland Grocery Outlet in early afternoon on July 6, 2020 - There were antiseptic wipes available at the front door and there was moderate traffic in the store. At checkout, there was only one person in front of me and I did recognize several of the checkers who have been with GO for 25 years or so at the Berkeley and Oakland stores:
Wine -
$7.99 Chalone Vineyards Estate Grown Chardonnay 2016, Grown at 1,800 feet elevation in the Gavilan Mountains near Pinnacles National Park in Monterey County. I liked it and would be interested in trying some of the Chalone Reds.
https://www.wine.com/product/chalone-estate-chardonnay-2016/512606#
https://www.klwines.com/p/i?i=1426163
Deli -
$3.49 SO Delicious Organic Unsweetened Coconutmilk Yogurt Alternative, 24 oz. With live active cultures and no added sugar. Best By July 13, 2020, maybe the price will drop if they still have stock in the next few days. Not very thick.
$3.99 Sabra Organic Simply Roasted Pine Nut Hummus, 2 lb. One of the better commercial hummuses (yes, I had to look up the plural for hummus) and at $2/lb. I bought 3 tubs.
Gourmet/Organic/NOSH shelves -
$3.49 Zucchi Heritage Extra Virgin Olive Oil, 17 oz., made with olives from Spain, Greece and Italy. I’d buy it again.
https://www.italianfood.net/goods/zucchi-heritage-european-union-sustainable-extra-nTeoLkVaBzE~d52
$1.99 Seeds of Change Organic Garlic Sizzle Starter Minced Garlic, 6.34 oz. product of the Netherlands.
Other -
$1.99 Yuban Instant Coffee 8 oz., not the greatest quality but I drown my coffee in coconut milk and add cinnamon and clove.
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$4.99 V Ranch Red 2014, from Vincent Vineyards in Santa Barbara, 14.5% ABV
https://www.cellartracker.com/label.asp?iWine=3547502&iLabel=1859931
from a review in Grossoutwine:
In any case, I picked up a 2014 “V Ranch Red” from Vincent Vineyards for $5 from local GO. It’s clearly a second label, but has a heavy bottle and VV branded corks. My suspicion is they got several vintages behind and/or are changing style/branding, thus labelled shiners possibly intended for their flagship brand under the second label. It tastes like a wine made with serious intent–solid core of black fruit, significant quality new oak, real structural tannic grip, sediment at the end of the bottle. Not enough complexity or energy in the midpalate through finish to be top notch, but I could see this as a $30-$40 effort under some circumstances. I’ll be back for more, this bottling probably could age, though at worst it’s not falling apart immediately and will be a good cellar defender.
$4.99 Triscuit Organic Original Crackers baked with organic wheat, 36 oz. (4 boxes at 9 oz. each). The Best By date is July 13,2020 so it might not be around much longer.
https://www.thirstyrun.com/product/nabisco-organic-triscuit-crackers-original-36-oz/
$6.99 Vita Wild Caught Center Cut Herring in Wine Sauce, 32 oz. This herring only has 1 gram of sugar added per 2 oz. serving - usually I see high fructose corn syrup in wine sauce herring. I like it and glad that I bought 2 jars.
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Vita’s a good brand. I love herring in wine sauce.
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Tomato and carrot flavors respectively:
Straus caramel toffee in quart size $2.99
Lots of ciao bella sorbet flavors. I tried the tangerine and liked it.
Kashi cereal getting cheap with a 7/19 best by date
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Lots of boxes of this, probably because they have the old name of the company: http://makeroats.com/product/banana-coffee/. It’s been a nice addition to my breakfast repertoire. I also saw singles of this iced coffee going for 50 cents each, when I’d seen them in the brand-new local organic store for $4.29 each: https://www.wanderingbearcoffee.com/products/vanilla-coconut?variant=12458566549601.
