If I have only a few items? I’m going to self-checkout. More than 10-12 items? I go to an aisle with a human.
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Juusto grilled on the outdood grill with…green pepper jelly, salsa, huckleberry jelly, lingonberry jelly (traditional Finn thing)…try it on St. Urhu’s day!
I remember Ham on the Street once set up a flat top on the street and just had people pick their fave cheese and fave jelly jam. Then he’d grill their combo like a grilled cheese samich. People couldn’t believe how well that worked.
“grasshopper, grasshopper, go away”- St. Urhu
Save the grapes!
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Lyöt vetoa 'cha:finland:
Damn right!
I like that I have a large chain and an Aldi across the street from each other, just 2.5 miles from my house.
Aldi: I like that the checkers are extremely fast, even if the line gets a bit long. I like much of their produce (and have learned what not to get), they’ve got some inexpensive good hummus, sliced cheeses are pretty good, their “take and bake” breads and pizzas are quite decent in a pinch and at that price, and their chicken, salmon, trout, and most of the beef cuts are pretty good for the price. I don’t buy their pork, though. Too many times it’s just been too fatty.
Across the street the big chain is super clean, and they only hire bright and friendly people. Ask anyone anywhere inside for the location of something and they’ll drop what they’re doing and lead you right there, chatting and smiling along the way. The checkers almost always know the produce but will verify with you if unsure instead of guessing. This is the store I mentioned in the other thread where if anything is mis-marked, it’s free. They also run frequent BOGO deals on stuff we routinely use - coffees (sometimes 2-3 different brands will be bogo at the same time), teas, pastas & sauces, yogurt, all kinds of cheeses in rotation (brick/wheel one week, slices next, shreds after that), frozen wings and frozen stuffed chicken breasts, and even packaged meats like chicken, beef (not often) and pork tenderloins and pork shoulder. At BOGO they’re beating Aldi prices by a good margin, plus its generally better brands than what Aldi carries. Oh, and BOGO here means “half price” if you only want a singleton. But “buy 2 get 3rd for free” always means you need to take all 3 to get the deal. One time I went in and got nothing but BOGO items and my $250 bill was only $125, plus tax. But mostly I don’t compile an “All BOGO” list.
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That happened to me, too the checker even weighed each of my bags to make sure each weighed less than 5 lbs - and I got the cart escort and off loading. I really appreciated it …
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“Aldi: I like that the checkers are extremely fast”
Funny. I know this is a NON pet peeve thread, but that is my Main pet peeve with Aldi’s. The checkers ring up so fast it’s hard to keep track if prices are ringing up right. Even when I’m the only one at the checkout.
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Today, I liked that my local Aldi employees intercepted someone who was evidently trying to hustle me. He evidently asks (usually female) shoppers to buy him “a loaf of bread” and then loads up their carts with convenience foods that he then resells. They (nicely enough) asked him to leave and even offered to escort me out if it would help me feel safer. I wasn’t scared so much as a bit confused and taken aback that the dude expected me to buy a bunch of stuff.
And having been recently injured and on crutches, I was super grateful for all the grocery store staff, at all the places I shopped, who were helpful in carrying bags, loading my car, and generally accommodating me. It was nice.
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They’re very busy at Aldi’s, but also very professional while being laid back in the process. I love Aldi. I want them ringing thangs up in a hurry. People really load up there.
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Me too, and I slipped her a thank you note with a tip on my next visit.
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*Aldi. No apostrophe.
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I have 3 favourite stores:
Fiesta Farms in Toronto
I love their produce, meat, Italian imports, organic stuff, garden centre. Nice staff. No self check-out. Very busy on weekends so I try to go weekdays.
Remark Fresh Market in London, ON
I love their produce, local meats, fish counter, deli, cakes, pies, prepared foods, British imports, French imports, American imports, condiments.
Nice staff. Insanely busy on weekends and at lunch time, so I visit when they open or right before they close. No self check- out.
Farm Boy: a 47 store chain that is a bit like an Ontarian Trader Joe’s.
Lots of interesting House label stuff, amazing quick sale/discount for ripe produce. I like their produce, meats , duck from Quebec, baked good, cheap and good pies (loss leaders) , some prepared foods, deli, cheese, locally roasted coffees. Not too busy, customers are more polite and generally better behaved than at Costco and bigger grocery stores. Also, no self check-out.
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Berkeley has two branches of a regionally famous market, Berkeley Bowl. It started in a converted bowling alley, then moved down the block to an abandoned Safeway, and then they built a whole new second store across town. They have a large butcher counter and a good fish market, hundreds of artisanal cheeses, deli, bulk foods and spices, and a huge produce department with an organic section as big as the whole produce section in most supermarkets. People go on first dates there and sometimes marry.
When my niece interviewed for grad school at UC Berkeley, they even touted the stores as a reason to move here.
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Loved ‘the Bowl’ (the original) when we lived there. I thought of it as one of the first real food movement grocers along with The Food Mill in Oakland and the Co-Op on Ashby.
I hate digital coupons. We get the store circular on Thursday, but can’t load the coupons until Sunday. And they’re not right in my wallet to remind me at the store, where I have to jump through hoops to connect to the Internet to see what I’ve loaded, etc…
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Not to mention that it would be easier to find everything if they didn’t keep rearranging the store, or putting variations of the same product in wildly different places.
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The self-check-out registers as Costco here seem to serve as express lanes for people with only a few items, which is a good thing.
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They do the rearranging on purpose. Because wandering customers are more likely to pick up stuff on impulse. So, resist!!
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I’m sorry that your grocery store doesn’t have a good webmaster that takes care of the website for its customers.
One of the other major grocery store chains here doesn’t care if their website works or not, so I stopped using their digital coupons and rarely shop there.
For me, the Safeway circular comes out on Tuesday and I can load my digital coupons early Wednesday morning. I use a desktop computer to load the desired items then print then out the list. The print out is a starting point for my grocery list and I jot down what is not on sale that we are going to need.
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