Average families have been shopping at ethnic grocery stores for a long time. HMart, etc. prices are up too, and the tariffs don’t help.

Anonymous wrote:I am an Asian, I find Asian store prices comparable to Trader’s Joe, I shop for my meats, eggs, produce, cheese at Trader’s Joe. I only go to Asian store for Asian cooking specific stuff. I have all these stores within 20 minutes of my home.

I purchased baby bok choi the other day. Four small baby bok choi cost something like $3.50 or $4.50 at the grocery store. I try to go to an Asian grocery store for some produce if I'm planning to make Chinese food at home, but the nearest one is 20 minutes away.

Sodas are now $7 for a 12pack of cans - on sale. I don't drink sodas except once in a while but still. Hamburger meat is $7.99 a pound. A package of Perdue chicken breasts, 2-3 to a package, is $10 minimum. Apples are $2+ a pound.

How are regular families supposed to be able to pay these kinds of prices? We are empty nesters. How on earth are middle class and working class families with kids managing to pay these kinds of prices??

I am an Asian, I find Asian store prices comparable to Trader’s Joe, I shop for my meats, eggs, produce, cheese at Trader’s Joe. I only go to Asian store for Asian cooking specific stuff. I have all these stores within 20 minutes of my home.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You would be surprised if you leave the DC Metro area how much prices come down in food and consumables.

Ever hear of Sharp Shoppers grocery store?
.
BTW, if you have an upcoming expensive repair on a car and can limp along 150 miles away, you may find it's 1/2 the cost or less.

Yea this is true with everything really-and we are not even talking about “rural” areas. I used to live in Raleigh, NC which is obviously one of the more expensive areas of NC. I remember very clearly when I had to have a specific part replaced on my HVAC and it was $300. A couple years ago we had to have the very same part replaced here and it was $1600. Even accounting for different brands and inflation that is pure insanity.

The water supply valve to my toilet failed and wouldn't turn off the water. It wasn't an emergency by any means. No leak or anything. Called the Mr. Plumber. Charged $500!!!!! Turn the water main off. Opened up some faucets to drain down the water. replaced the valve...less than 15 minutes total. $500!

That $500 has to cover the callback costs about the garage disposal that was "working fine before you touched things."

Anonymous wrote:It's the traffic preventing people from driving to those different places to shop, that takes hours ---- drive, shop, checkout line, load bags, drive to another store or drive back home, unload from car, put away. Easily 3-5 hrs in certain areas of DMV.

it takes me no more time to go to Lotte than it takes me to go to Giant. I don’t even understand what you are talking about. Are you under some strange impression that it takes us Asians longer to grocery shop than Americans? Giant for me is more of a hassle because the produce selection is anemic and what they do have it is hit or miss if it’s fresh.

Anonymous wrote:It's the traffic preventing people from driving to those different places to shop, that takes hours ---- drive, shop, checkout line, load bags, drive to another store or drive back home, unload from car, put away. Easily 3-5 hrs in certain areas of DMV.

And then cook. Then cleanup. Repeat.

It's the traffic preventing people from driving to those different places to shop, that takes hours ---- drive, shop, checkout line, load bags, drive to another store or drive back home, unload from car, put away. Easily 3-5 hrs in certain areas of DMV.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I shop in bulk and I shop from Costco and from ethnic markets.

The fact that I can cook from scratch, I can cook many different cuisines, and I am familiar with many different kinds of ingredients allows me a lot of flexibility. My friends comment on the veggies I buy from ethnic stores because they have never seen or tasted it, let alone cook it.

Shopping at various ethnic markets to save money is not realistic for working parents with kids.

LOLOLOL! I've always shopped at Asian markets. Why is this harder than going to Giant? I find most American grocery stores do not move enough product to keep everyting consistently fresh and its is more time consuming leaving a store wtih only half your groceries becuase the cilantro and dill was rotting, or could only be found in small quantites in moldy plastic boxes.

In any conversation about food and cooking when the idea of doing anything other than buying convenience food at whatever chain grocery store is closest to you comes up, there is always the peanut gallery to say how it's sooo hard. Cooking from scratch on a budget? Too hard!! Eating mostly unprocessed food? Only for the privileged. Wahhhhhhhhhhhhhh Bargain shop different stores? Oh who has the time for that??

Fully agree, but there are different people commenting. Some might not actually "have time for it" and the ones complaining have plenty of time. Point out there are plenty of options and you can choose and move on.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I shop in bulk and I shop from Costco and from ethnic markets.

The fact that I can cook from scratch, I can cook many different cuisines, and I am familiar with many different kinds of ingredients allows me a lot of flexibility. My friends comment on the veggies I buy from ethnic stores because they have never seen or tasted it, let alone cook it.

Shopping at various ethnic markets to save money is not realistic for working parents with kids.

LOLOLOL! I've always shopped at Asian markets. Why is this harder than going to Giant? I find most American grocery stores do not move enough product to keep everyting consistently fresh and its is more time consuming leaving a store wtih only half your groceries becuase the cilantro and dill was rotting, or could only be found in small quantites in moldy plastic boxes.

In any conversation about food and cooking when the idea of doing anything other than buying convenience food at whatever chain grocery store is closest to you comes up, there is always the peanut gallery to say how it's sooo hard. Cooking from scratch on a budget? Too hard!! Eating mostly unprocessed food? Only for the privileged. Wahhhhhhhhhhhhhh Bargain shop different stores? Oh who has the time for that??

It’s only going to get worse

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You would be surprised if you leave the DC Metro area how much prices come down in food and consumables.

Ever hear of Sharp Shoppers grocery store?
.
BTW, if you have an upcoming expensive repair on a car and can limp along 150 miles away, you may find it's 1/2 the cost or less.

Yea this is true with everything really-and we are not even talking about “rural” areas. I used to live in Raleigh, NC which is obviously one of the more expensive areas of NC. I remember very clearly when I had to have a specific part replaced on my HVAC and it was $300. A couple years ago we had to have the very same part replaced here and it was $1600. Even accounting for different brands and inflation that is pure insanity.

The water supply valve to my toilet failed and wouldn't turn off the water. It wasn't an emergency by any means. No leak or anything. Called the Mr. Plumber. Charged $500!!!!! Turn the water main off. Opened up some faucets to drain down the water. replaced the valve...less than 15 minutes total. $500!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I shop in bulk and I shop from Costco and from ethnic markets.

The fact that I can cook from scratch, I can cook many different cuisines, and I am familiar with many different kinds of ingredients allows me a lot of flexibility. My friends comment on the veggies I buy from ethnic stores because they have never seen or tasted it, let alone cook it.

Shopping at various ethnic markets to save money is not realistic for working parents with kids.

LOLOLOL! I've always shopped at Asian markets. Why is this harder than going to Giant? I find most American grocery stores do not move enough product to keep everyting consistently fresh and its is more time consuming leaving a store wtih only half your groceries becuase the cilantro and dill was rotting, or could only be found in small quantites in moldy plastic boxes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A dozen eggs is what, $5 now? Minimum wage is $12.41. About 20% of workers in Virginia earn less than $20 an hour. Imagine working for 30 minutes just to buy a dozen eggs.

Eggs at Aldi are $0.99/dozen. You can always tell who in these threads is just pushing an agenda and doesn’t actually do their own grocery shopping.

Really? I need to go to Aldi. I get 36 eggs for $7 at BJs and thought that was cheap.

Sorry, no, PP is wrong. The price you're paying is on par with Aldi.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I shop in bulk and I shop from Costco and from ethnic markets.

The fact that I can cook from scratch, I can cook many different cuisines, and I am familiar with many different kinds of ingredients allows me a lot of flexibility. My friends comment on the veggies I buy from ethnic stores because they have never seen or tasted it, let alone cook it.

Shopping at various ethnic markets to save money is not realistic for working parents with kids.

That depends entirely on where you live.

Fairfax has an H-Mart, 99 Ranch, and India Bazaar all within like 5 minutes of each other. Wheaton has an H-Mart, a Vietnamese grocery, and countless smaller Hispanic stores all next to each other. Rockville and Gaithersburg both has many ethnic supermarkets.

In fact I'd be hard pressed to find more than a handful of neighborhoods in the area where you don't have at least one ethnic supermarket, mainly the whitest of white bread suburbs so I guess it's unsurprising that DCUM believes nobody lives near one.

Union run stores are to expensive