Stores & Shopping

7 Supermarket Rip-Offs

by the editors at Men's Health, Posted Mar 23rd 2011 @ 12:00PM

grocery store meat counter Photo: Emmanuel Dunand, AFP / Getty Images

Walking into your average supermarket is a lot like being a contestant on "Jeopardy!" If you think hard, choose wisely, and give all the right answers, you can go home with a carload of cash and prizes. But make a few mistakes and you'll leave with an empty wallet-not to mention a lot of empty calories.

In fact, even the lowest-priced supermarket in your neighborhood is brimming with complete rip-offs-health foods that aren't healthy, gourmet foods that aren't gourmet, specialty items that just aren't that special. Here are just some of the foods you're overpaying for, compliments of Eat This, Not That! Supermarket Survival Guide and Cook This, Not That!.

Filed under: Stores & Shopping

Food Draws Customers to the Mall

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by Jason Best, Posted Mar 9th 2011 @ 4:00PM

shopping mall Photo: Getty Images

Quick, what's the first thing you think of when you think of malls? The Gap? Pottery Barn? The ever-present surplus of Twilight t-shirts at Hot Topic?

Whatever you think of, it probably has nothing to do with homegrown tomatoes, locally raised veal, and artisanal cheese. But mall owners across the country are looking to change that.

Forget roving bands of disaffected teenagers gnawing on giant pretzels. Today, malls are looking to attract a decidedly more lucrative demographic: foodies.

According to Bloomberg News, "grocery is the next frontier" for those once-iconic behemoths of American commerce now struggling against obsolescence. In May, mall operator Macerich Co. will open The Market at its Santa Monica Place mall, where vendors will hawk things like heirloom coffee, small-batch vinegars, and artisanal meats and wine. It will also feature a cooking school and a soufflé bar.

Filed under: Business, Stores & Shopping

Grocery Chain Announces Price Freeze on Everyday Items

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by Jason Best, Posted Feb 25th 2011 @ 3:00PM

Wegman's frozen foods section Photo: Adam Kuban, Flickr

It's becoming harder and harder to believe the ubiquitous promises made by grocery stores everywhere: "Thousands of low prices!" or "Low prices every day!"

What with food prices hitting record levels around the world, what does "low" mean anyway?

But the surprise gambit by one regional grocery chain caught our attention: Wegmans has announced that it's freezing prices on 40 products through the end of the year.

Filed under: Business, Stores & Shopping

Is Our Food Too Cheap?

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by Slashfood Editor, Posted Feb 22nd 2011 @ 11:00AM

packaged meat at the grocery store Photo: Anthony Albright, Flickr

"Family packs" stuffed with pork chops. Jumbo boxes of breakfast cereal. Gallon jugs of orange juice. The aisles of our huge mega-marts and wholesale food retailers are filled with enormous quantities of food. But do we really need it? Michelle Madden at The Huffington Post asks: Is food too cheap? Do we eat too much (in particular low nutrient-density food -- the cheapest of all), and waste too much, because we pay so little and therefore don't value it?

Read the whole essay at The Huffington Post.

Filed under: Stores & Shopping

A Fee for Using Plastic Bags: Is Your State Next?

COMMENTS 56

by Jessie Cacciola, Posted Feb 7th 2011 @ 2:00PM

plastic bags being banned Photo: AlishaV, Flickr

Choosing not to bring a reusable bag to the grocery store might cost you in the near future. Lawmakers in Connecticut have proposed a bill that would charge 5 cents for plastic or paper bag use, with a hearing scheduled for Wednesday. Plastic bags are already taxed in D.C., and Oregon has similar legislation in the works.

The 5-cent fee proposed by Connecticut lawmakers would be used for municipal recycling efforts, reports the Associated Press, but it also serves as a deterrent. Now that resuable totes are easy to come by (most grocery stores have them for sale), environmentalists want plastics done away with.

Filed under: Stores & Shopping, Eco-Friendly

The World's Most Ridiculous Frozen Foods

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by Slashfood Editor, Posted Jan 28th 2011 @ 4:00PM

obama fingers, dumb frozen foods Photo: fortinbras, Flickr

Dumb products show up in the supermarket every day (honestly, does anybody really need a box of frozen crustless peanut butter and jelly sandwiches?), but the folks over at Buzzfeed have a list of 15 products that take stupidity to another level. The microwaveable pork rinds and pickle juice popsicles are bad enough, but the breaded Obama Fingers are borderline offensive. However, we'll put in one tiny dissenting vote about the bubble gum ice cream -- most kids we know go wild for the stuff.

Read the full list of 15 WTF Frozen Foods at Buzzfeed.

Filed under: Stores & Shopping, Frozen Food

USDA Food Map Tells Us How We Eat Across the Country

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by Jessie Cacciola, Posted Jan 28th 2011 @ 2:00PM

USDA food atlas maps Photo: USDA.gov/FoodAtlas

Last week the updated USDA food map was released, detailing our country's food environment by county -- who has better local food, more farmer's markets, better availability to grocery stores? What are people eating most per capita in each county? How much food assistance are we getting? And who goes out to restaurants more? It's all right here.

The updated tool is part of First Lady Michelle Obama's initiative to end childhood obesity, reports the Washington Post. And it's a treasure chest of information. According to the map, Oakland County, Michigan, had 983 fast food restaurants in 2009, and 1,042 in 2010. In 2009, Minnesota's Hennepin county had 15 farmers markets -- and by 2010, they had 39. Impressive. That's more than San Diego, which lost 7 percent of its farmers markets over the same time. Washington Post contributor Jennifer LaRue Huget spent an hour on the site and found some interesting facts about Montgomery County, Maryland, where she was born. Among other statistics, she discovered that in 2006, residents there consumed 230 pounds of produce per capita at home and 320 in prepared foods.

You can search by state or see the entire country lit up in color-coded categories. And the data is seemingly endless -- you can investigate anything from how far households are from the nearest grocery store to how many stores accept Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Lose a very investigative hour of your own at USDA.gov.

Filed under: Trends, Stores & Shopping, Food News

Packages Shrinking: Why You're Paying More For Less

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by Jessie Cacciola, Posted Jan 7th 2011 @ 2:00PM

Haagen-Dazs ice cream container Photo: cafemama, Flickr

Yes, you've gotten bigger since your first carton of Häagen-Dazs but the carton's actually getting smaller. Or at least its bottom is caving in and air is being whipped in, dropping the contents by 2 oz. (a 12.5% reduction from 16 oz. to 14 oz.) with no change in price.

In the latest issue of Consumer Reports, senior editor Tod Marks found a list of products that are shrinking to raise company revenues in tough times, including Hebrew National hot dogs, Kirkland Signature (Costco) paper towels, Tropicana orange juice and Kraft American cheese packs, which now contain two fewer slices. And are none cheaper. It all started with a roll of toilet paper that claimed to be the "thickest ever," when in fact it was short 52 sheets.

"They've got a point," writes Marks. "Higher commodity and fuel costs are expected to spike in food prices by as much as 3 percent in 2011. But if manufacturers are skimping when costs go up, why aren't they more generous when costs hold steady or fall?" Companies claim they wanted to prevent sticker shock, so they decided to keep prices the same and instead charge us more for less product and hope we wouldn't notice.

Filed under: Business, Stores & Shopping

How the Supermarket Feeds Your Veggie Frenzy

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by Slashfood Editor, Posted Nov 8th 2010 @ 3:00PM

fresh produce Photo: edge of the continent, Flickr

You go to your local grocery store to buy a frozen pizza and walk out with a bag of frozen peas on the side. (Well, they were sitting right next to the Three-Cheese Pie.) Or maybe you visit the produce aisle and find yourself feeling as if you're in a cozy kitchen -- the lights are diffused, and they're shining right on those turnips. Why not buy turnips for dinner, you think. Huh? Where did that come from?

The marketers who tempt you with end-of-aisle displays of wildly colored cereal boxes and eye-level rows of boxed mac-and-cheese are now being employed by supermarkets to help customers select more fresh food, reports NPR. Moving fresh food to the front of the store works (the path of least resistance usually does), Brian Wansink, the co-director of the Cornell Center for Behavioral Economics in Child Nutrition Program told NPR. When stores change their marketing schemes, such as trading in the harsh fluorescent bulbs for softer, more direct spotlights, he says, they sell around 30 percent more.

Let's face it. Produce spoils and the markets have to move it or lose it. That it's also better for you than a bag of chips is the bonus. And consumers are trying to eat more healthy foods, or at least that's what we claim. Just remember when you reach for the veggies, that placement, lighting, and even signage (calling eggplant "French aubergine," for example), are now giving you a helping hand.

Filed under: Stores & Shopping, News

What's Behind the Front-of-Package Label

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by Jessie Cacciola, Posted Nov 2nd 2010 @ 4:00PM

cereal box food label Photo: Colin Purrington, Flickr

The fight over facts presented on the front of packages are about to come to a head. The battle has long been over the selective truths and marketing ploys that riddle our cardboard boxes, from those that tout immunity to those that give a nondescript check of approval. Now, the Grocery Manufacturer's Association (GMA) has announced a front-of-package labeling initiative that will supposedly work to "inform consumers and combat obesity," as the organization's October 27th press release states.

Too bad, though, that it actually comes after the FDA-sponsored memo from the Institute of Medicine, "recommending that FOP [front of package] symbols only mention calories, sodium, trans fat and saturated fat," writes nutritionist and NYU professor Marion Nestle in a recent article for The Atlantic Food Channel. But rather than advertise what could be bad in a product, companies would much prefer to let you know what's good about it, notes Nestle.

According to the press release from GMA, "This program will add important nutrition information on calories and other nutrients..." and "to appeal to busy consumers, the information will be presented in a fact-based, simple and easy-to-use format." We would hope they'd be fact based, but don't think this means you shouldn't look to that table on the back. Companies will focus on the nutrients they do provide, but may choose to omit those facts that can harm.

Filed under: Stores & Shopping, Health & Medical, Food Politics