Organic/healthy/natural food-seekers: do you even ever go to Giant or Safeway anymore?

[Anonymous]

OP - not everything at Whole Foods/Trader Joe's is organic or as healthy as you think it is. I think people who shop exclusively at these stores are overpaying for things that they could buy at the normal grocery store (plus, Safety and Giant do carry plenty of organic options as well) but if you have the money, I suppose it doesn't matter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We do almost all our shopping at MOM. (Used to be "My Organic Market," now they call it "MOM's Organic Market.") It's great. Everything in the store is organic, so you don't have to read the labels on everything to figure out if it's conventional or organic like at WF. It's also significantly cheaper than WF.

Two differences cut the other way between MOM and WF. One is meat and fish selection. At WF, it's everything you could ever want. At MOM, it's very narrow. What they have is all good stuff and sustainable stuff, but it's expensive and there's not much of it. At WF, I wonder whether it's all as sustainable as I'd like, but at least it's labeled so I can do my own figuring, and you can find pretty much anything you want. The other difference is 365 brand--the one way to save money at WF. They don't have that at MOM, so you do end up paying more for organic brand stuff like canned food.

If you really want quality pasture-raised meat and eggs, they have them at many of the farmer's markets in our area. You can find them at Dupont, Vermont Ave., Rockville Pike, Bethesda Elementary, I imagine many others. That's the best way to be sure the animals lived natural lives--roaming freely, eating their regular diet, being treated humanely (in addition to being free of hormones and antibiotics). It's expensive, so to make the leap you also have to switch to eating meat less often and finding ways to stretch it. Which is what we should be doing, according to the health writers.

Just an FYI, the 365 brand at WF isn't necessarily organic. Its only organic if it specifically says 365 Organic.

[Anonymous]

When I'm at a chain store, I try to stick to the outer perimeters where I can find produce, dairy, deli, etc. I prefer Harris Teeter but shop at Giant as well.

I'm about to place an order for local beef and with the a unt of veggies I have frozen from my summer CSA, I'm fairly set for a while. Harris Teeter has a fair amount of organic frozen Items.

[Anonymous]

Another MOM shopper here. We don't eat very much meat, but I buy it directly from farmers (local deliveries or at markets) and do rely on MOM for chicken and eggs.

We'll buy from Giant in a pinch, Stoneyfield milk or their basic veggies that they offer in organic, but otherwise we pretty much only get Cheerios and distilled water there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP - not everything at Whole Foods/Trader Joe's is organic or as healthy as you think it is. I think people who shop exclusively at these stores are overpaying for things that they could buy at the normal grocery store (plus, Safety and Giant do carry plenty of organic options as well) but if you have the money, I suppose it doesn't matter.

Actually, Checkbook did a comparison, and if you're shopping organic, it's a little less expensive to shop at WF.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP - not everything at Whole Foods/Trader Joe's is organic or as healthy as you think it is. I think people who shop exclusively at these stores are overpaying for things that they could buy at the normal grocery store (plus, Safety and Giant do carry plenty of organic options as well) but if you have the money, I suppose it doesn't matter.

Actually, Checkbook did a comparison, and if you're shopping organic, it's a little less expensive to shop at WF.

You're missing my point. WF isn't ONLY organic food, so if you're buying everything there (organic and non-organic), you're spending more money than if you bought just your organic produce at WF and non-organic things at Harris Teeter/Safeway/Giant.

Again if you're only buying organic foods from whole foods, then yes that is probably the better choice, you'll certainly have more options there, but not everything at whole foods is organic. And I can buy many of the exact same products at Safeway or Harris Teeter for lower prices (Stacy's pita chips, crackers, or various cheeses, for example).

[Anonymous]

My family eats pretty healthy, but not necessarily organic, and I do almost all my shopping at Safeway. I do buy my meat and chicken at a kosher butcher though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP - not everything at Whole Foods/Trader Joe's is organic or as healthy as you think it is. I think people who shop exclusively at these stores are overpaying for things that they could buy at the normal grocery store (plus, Safety and Giant do carry plenty of organic options as well) but if you have the money, I suppose it doesn't matter.

Actually, Checkbook did a comparison, and if you're shopping organic, it's a little less expensive to shop at WF.

You're missing my point. WF isn't ONLY organic food, so if you're buying everything there (organic and non-organic), you're spending more money than if you bought just your organic produce at WF and non-organic things at Harris Teeter/Safeway/Giant.

Again if you're only buying organic foods from whole foods, then yes that is probably the better choice, you'll certainly have more options there, but not everything at whole foods is organic. And I can buy many of the exact same products at Safeway or Harris Teeter for lower prices (Stacy's pita chips, crackers, or various cheeses, for example).

This is really dependent on what you buy. There are very few things I buy at WF that I can find cheaper at my Giant, even many "non-organic" things.

[Anonymous]

The Giant near me sells horrible produce and fish. Pre-kids, I would shop at both Giant or Safeway and WF each week...but now, I just don't have time to go to both. So we go to WF weekly, but sometimes will drop into Giant/Safeway for staples.

[ThatSmileyFaceGuy]

South Mountain is not certified organic BTW. However I also buy my milk from them. It just tastes better. Beef and pork I buy a half animal at a time from a local butcher, eggs are from a friend

[Anonymous]

I buy most of my meat from farmers' markets. The quality is much better than Giant or Safeway. I don't shop at WF so I can't compare it with their meat. The thing I like about farmers' market meat is that I can actually talk to the producer about how the animals have been raised and what they have eaten. It's also a good place for getting cooking tips. I do this with my young sons so they'll (hopefully) grow up with an appreciation of good food and where it comes from.

[Anonymous]

I've found that Giant charges a premium for the "organic" brands that aren't Nature's Choice, so if you see one of those brands at Giant, it's always going to be cheaper at WF. Now, if you are just talking about doing regular shopping and not looking at whether something is organic or free-range, of course Giant and Safeway are going to be cheaper.

About the meat -- my father is a butcher and owned a meat market for many years. He is impressed by the Whole Foods meat counter, and doesn't like how it's handled at regular supermarkets. He thinks the prices are nuts, though. He's horrified by a lot of the meat/packaging/pricing he's seen at farmers' markets down here. So if he were living down here, he'd get his meat at Whole Foods.

[Anonymous]

We shop at mom, WF, and sometimes Roots or TJs. I hate giant and Safeway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've found that Giant charges a premium for the "organic" brands that aren't Nature's Choice, so if you see one of those brands at Giant, it's always going to be cheaper at WF. Now, if you are just talking about doing regular shopping and not looking at whether something is organic or free-range, of course Giant and Safeway are going to be cheaper.

About the meat -- my father is a butcher and owned a meat market for many years. He is impressed by the Whole Foods meat counter, and doesn't like how it's handled at regular supermarkets. He thinks the prices are nuts, though. He's horrified by a lot of the meat/packaging/pricing he's seen at farmers' markets down here. So if he were living down here, he'd get his meat at Whole Foods.

I really like that at WF, the ground meat is done on-site, which reduces the liklihood of contaimination from adding extra crap (amonia, etc).

[Anonymous]

Roots? Never heard of it. Where is it?