Good food and supermarkets.

nogganoodle · Post by **nogganoodle** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 11:08 am

So which brands of good ole american food are good (and cheap)? I dont want to spend $100 or so on food for the week and find that it is some undigestible crap!

I'm sure you can't go wrong with noodles, but I don't want to have live on them a week

Also, which supermarkets are good value for money?

phil · Post by **phil** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 11:48 am

Louise has a page of links to shopping centers in and near Reno at
http://civilizedexplorer.pbwiki.com/ind ... =CivExReno
so drop by there and read up on buying supplies in the area.

Generally, supermarkets have similar prices on food. They use low food prices as a draw and then try to sell you non-food items at higher prices but with the convenience of one-stop shopping. shrug - there's some merit to not driving all over to save fifty cents, but that's a judgment call on what all you're buying in addition to food.

Uh, what brands are good? Uh, what's good? Cultural differences on food make suggesting "good ole american food" potentially a disaster, especially since there's no recovery once you're on the playa. My guess is that you'll be able to find stuff similar to what you're accustomed to (whatever it may be), so stick with what you know.

nogganoodle · Post by **nogganoodle** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 11:58 am

I posted this over on Tribe and a lot of people are mentioning Trader Joes as a good, cheap place. I would assume that they are worth visiting.

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 12:30 pm

Trader Joe's is okay. they have decent variety, a lot of exotic and health food-no gmo-and they are relitively small.
I'd never buy produce there (all pre packaged) but I won't buy at safeway either--once you go farmer's market you never go back. (I don't know about Reno Farmer's market.)
I find them a little twee, but for instance they carry the only chai powder with Milk instead of FAKE MILK that's really HYDROGENATED OIL that I've found (which is a real plus at work.)
Non union.
http://www.traderjoes.com/index.asp
In case poking around on the website is helpful to you.

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 12:47 pm

Or try these

nogganoodle · Post by **nogganoodle** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 12:50 pm

Oh they look GOOD! I may just have to go and have a wander about. If theres one thing I love in life its good food

Dork · Post by **Dork** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 12:53 pm

Trader Joes is pretty good, they stock more organic/healthy stuff than most other chains. It's still a bit of a crap shoot if you haven't tried the food in question though. Even among highly recommended brands like Tasty Bites, some flavors are better than others. Some of them I love, some I just can't stand.

For value - it's all about the sales at many stores. Safeway is the best/worst on this - they have somewhat high prices for most things then sell certain items at deep discounts or buy one get one free. If the things you want are on sale it's great, if they aren't you'll pay a bit more. Overall, though, it's probably not going to make a huge difference which store you shop at compared to all your other expenses.

If you were to buy the food at home, what would you get? Are you up for cooking your own food on the playa or are you looking more at pre-packaged stuff?

nogganoodle · Post by **nogganoodle** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 12:56 pm

Are you up for cooking your own food on the playa or are you looking more at pre-packaged stuff?

Half and half I guess. I'm a chef by trade so it would be nice to have a break from cooking while I'm on my holidays.

Post by **AntiM** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 1:05 pm

Where will you be shopping? If in Reno , the Smith's are a good supermarket.

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 1:57 pm

Dork wrote:Safeway is the best/worst on this - they have somewhat high prices for most things then sell certain items at deep discounts or buy one get one free. If the things you want are on sale it's great, if they aren't you'll pay a bit more.

A lot of these stores have discount cards that are keyed to the home phone number. I can give you my mom's phone # for Safeway and Albertsons, if you like.