RSSTop Ten Shopping Tips
June 12th, 2008 by Joe, Co-founder of Rouxbe
1. Shop Tuesday to Saturday. Did you know that most fresh food starts to arrive on Tuesday and Wednesday to most markets? In other words, if you shop on Sunday or Monday, you are often buying older product.
2. Stay away from marinated meats and seafoods. When meat and seafood starts to get older, many stores bring in fresh and marinate the old. It’s how they cycle food. Sometimes they even charge more for it? Make your own marinade.
3. Ask the experts when looking for specialty ingredients. If you are looking for Thai ingredients, phone your local Thai Restaurant and ask them, where they buy specialty ingredients. They’ll usually help you out.
4. Check dates on dairy. They always push the older stuff to the front of the fridge so you’ll likely need to reach to the back.
5. Get to know your local butcher. If you buy a great cut of meat one day, go back and introduce yourself and say “I just wanted to say thanks… that was the best steak ever.” (same for fish monger). You will become a VIP and get great product every time.
6. Buy local & shop at your local farmers market (most cities have them so find them). Aside from the obvious environment reasons for doing so, the food picked fresh and delivered to local farmers markets, will always be tastier and healthier than food that is transported through from farms, to wholesalers, to distributors, and then finely – days later – to stores.
7. Be picky when buying meats and seafoods. When I order meat or fish, I always wait to see where the person behind the counter will go to grab it. Interestingly, this is usually the older stuff. Ask for another piece near the back or bottom of the pile. Or, say, I’m buying this for a few days from now, do you have anything really fresh in the back?
8. Bring your own environmentally-friendly bags, or better yet, buy a “Feeding Bag“. Plastic bags are just plain bad news! Feedbags can be bought at Wholefoods and each bag feeds 100 hungry kids through the World Food Programme’s School Feeding Program – something we are all passionate about here at Rouxbe with Rouxbe for Life.
9. Stop buying dried herbs today if you can buy fresh. There is just no comparison. The one exception, and this is just my craziness here… I kind of like dried oregano better than fresh (I can accept the pending backlash for this statement).
10. Think about people that don’t have food. Every time you eat and/or drop $100 at a store, spend a moment to think about all those around the world and even in your backyard, that don’t even have food. And if so inclined, do something to help. You can start by one day, dropping some food off at a local food bank or getting your family involved, cooking a big pot of spaghetti sauce, then personally taking it down to a local shelter just before dinner. It will change your life.
Have any useful shopping tips you’d care to add?
Great tips. There is also that old saying to never shop on an empty stomach to reduce impulse buying.
Great tips. All of them!!! And the last one is especially meaningful and I shall act on it.
My only suggestion would be that if you know of something local that is not being offered at your store, go to the manager (find the right person) and let him know. I recently was able to introduce Save On Foods to a favourite local miller who produces steel cut oats (that they were purchasing from IRELAND and OREGON). I mentioned the “buy locally” mantra in an email to their head office, complete with the website of Anita’s, and they have made contact and should be offering these wonderful, organic and way less expensive items.
You won’t get what you don’t ask for.It won’t happen if you don’t ask.
Judi
Great stuff here; thanks! I’m definitely going to use some of those tips that haven’t crossed my tiny mind before.
A supplemental suggestion: if it’s possible, walk to your shops. I am lucky enough to have butcher/fishmonger/produce market as well as a big “regular” store, all about 20-25 minute walk from my home. Wear a backpack, like a daypack or schoolbag size, and use that to carry your purchases. Not only will you think about just how much food you are buying (since you have to carry it home!) but you’ll focus more on things you will use right away — fresher the better, right? And the bonus: getting some fresh air and exercise.
And about the fresh herbs: grow them yourself! Even if all you have is a windowsill, you can still have pots of basil, parsley, thyme, chives — all compact plants. So what if you don’t have huge amounts; nothing beats snipping off a few bits to scatter on top of your dishes. And whenever I’ve had to buy fresh herbs, I end up throwing out the last half of the (plastic) package.
another tip to add to your website.
Buy some extra dry or can food stuf’s and drop them off as donations at yur local senior centers. Most of them have needy persons they can give them to. Many seniors are among the lowest income persons and they go without enough to maintain decent diets.
Great tips thanks.
I dont agree with the plastic bag comment though.
I believe that these woven bags, so called environmetally friendly, are actually worse than using plastic bags.
The woven type are felt to have the same environmental impact as 5,700 plastic bags – you know the type you get on a roll.
Of much more interest are PLA bags, these are biodegradeable bags made from corn.
We have a plastic bag tax here in Ireland and it’s the usual pathetic effort from governments that have not got a clue. By the way the tax collected does not get spent on the environment!
I have to agree with my friend there from Ireland !! What they do with the $$ they make. Now here in the states i love the bond measures to build a new road and take the toll off of the road as soon as the bond is paid.. I never it realized how long it takes to pay off a bond. Either that or the politicians use of 22/7= ?
Now in my serchings on here some lad in Canada has come up with micro organisms that eat up the plastic bags.. If he were enterprising he could install a bucket of them in your local grocers and just insert the bag on the way ion2 the shop!!!
I must say we are sure doing a super good job of messing up our home… Just a few ramblings on a Sunday evening Bill
I am hard pressed to see how #8 and #10 have anything to do with “better cooking”. Isn’t that what this blog is supposed to be about?
The site is about food and yes it is also about “better cooking”. And this will always be our main focus at Rouxbe. However, for us creating a company is not all about commercial gain.
It’s not about private of commercial. It’s about cooking. environmental or politically correct comments have their own place to reside.
Then Rouxbe’s Blog just might not be for you Todd.. Sorry. The people working at Rouxbe all value contribution, and helping raise awareness of these issues is important to us.
Thanks for sharing your feedback though.