The New York Times seems to think so. Indeed, many grocery stores in urban areas are closing up shop, and all that's left is a big open lot and a smattering of mom and pop convenience stores left in their wake. But despite the name, convenience stores aren't always, well, that convenient, especially when you're in need of fresh fruit and veggies, low-fat snacks and fresh poultry or seafood.

A study by New York's Department of City Planning estimated that over 750,000 New Yorkers live five blocks or more from a supermarket. And when that's the case, most people opt to drive or cab it to the store, especially if they have lots of shopping to do or little ones in tow. And at the end of a long work day, many people just don't have the energy - or the time - to stroll down to the grocery. (The study also found that there is enough need for 100 additional supermarkets across the city).

So what's a hungry person to do? Most people simply go without fresh produce and other things that are carried by larger supermarkets. Others are currently shopping at a store, but worry about it closing, because the only other option is miles away.

What about you? Did you or someone you know ever have trouble getting to a decent grocery store, especially if you live in a populated urban area?

I have a cell phone that is just a phone. It makes calls. I am online eighty percent of my day. When I'm out of my house, I like to talk to live human beings.

The Los Angeles Times reports that "Wil Shipley, a Seattle software developer, uses his iPhone at the Whole Foods fish counter to check websites for updates on which seafood is the most environmentally correct to purchase. He quizzes the staff on where and how a fish was caught."

Why not trust that the guy behind the fish counter knows about the fish he sells? Do we only place our trust in Google now and not the people who work in our neighborhood shops?

Do you think it was smart for Wil to question the fish counter staff or just plain rude?

Trader Joe's is a newcomer to my neck of the woods, opening in Chapel Hill just a few months ago. I'm a huge fan – whenever I can deal with the crowds I head over there to pick up my growing list of favorites. So far my favorites include their almond butter, Greek yogurt, sweet and spicy walnuts, paper bag pecks of "eco apples," Triple Ginger snaps, dried mango with chili and red pepper hummus.

But I have also had some real losers. The frozen hamburgers I had a few weeks ago were as hard as hockey pucks, with a weird, almost gamy smell. An apricot flan tart tasted of sticky cardboard, like an office meeting Danish left to dry for a week on the boardroom table. I was thinking of picking up some dessert for tonight, but I don't want to risk another disaster.

There have been plenty of Trader Joe's "favorites" lists in the past, but seeing how their stock changes so ridiculously fast, I'd love to start another one. So tell me, please, what's your favorite thing at TJ's? What to avoid?

Speaking of Dean & Deluca...lately I've been on a bit of a kitchen spending spree. Not only have I been going to the regular grocery store to buy basic things like eggs and milk to force myself to cook and eat at home, but I have been shopping for gourmet food stuff as well as kitchen utensils, gadgets, and equipment.

For the most part I have been loyal to...no one! Because I do a lot of the shopping online, I skip from Crate and Barrel for ice cream bowls to Dean & Deluca for pretty little things like spice tins to Williams-Sonoma for a pepper mill. I even found myself hoarding all those 20% and $5 off coupons to Bed, Bath and Beyond and getting Brita filters there. In other words, I have no favorite.

However, I know that many people do. At the very least, people have favorites for certain types of things, and might include small local stores. Where are your favorite places to shop?

While we occasionally post about products on Slashfood, whether cool gadgets, beautifully designed dinnerware, or some other hot new item, we very rarely talk about actual shopping.

That's changing tonight because this is something that cannot be kept to ourselves. Amazon.com has a 10-piece Cuisinart Chef's Classic Stainless 10-Piece Cookware Set that's originally priced at $400, on sale for $149. That, my stainless steel cookware-less friends, is a steal, particularly since you can get this shipped for free!

Thanks to Elise of Simply Recipes for the heads up.

Of course, it's only for a few weeks, to see how the other half lives.

Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski and his wife are going to live on just three dollars worth of food stamps a day raise awareness of what poorer people have to face in their everyday lives.

It sounds great I guess, but is it really an accurate representation? I mean, what car is the couple going to drive to the store in? When they get back from the store, what kind of house are they living in, what kind of bed, what kind of TV are they watching, how much money do they have in the bank if they need it for an emergency? When I was a little kid, my family was on food stamps for about a year, and I think a lot of other factors weigh in on what happens to you when you have to be on them.

You ever get in one of the modes where you eat the same snack for days and days and weeks?

That is what's happening with me right now with Planters Chocolate-Covered Cashews. They come in cans now (the bags vanished several months ago). They're big cashews, and the chocolate is delicious too. I have no scientific proof to back this up, but it seems to me that when companies cover their nuts with chocolate, they seem to use bigger nuts. It's especially noticable with whole cashews. Maybe they just seem bigger because they are covered with chocolate, I'm not sure. I just know I'm going through whole cans in one sitting while watching television or reading.

San Francisco is considering making a change that will affect most shoppers in the city: they're talking about instituting a ban on the use of plastic grocery bags. Lawmakers are blaming the bags for everything from "littering streets and choking wildlife" to playing a major part in global warming. The expect that such a change will save the city millions of dollars, although taxpayers may have an increased out-of-pocket expense for reusable canvas (or other materials) shopping bags and alternative plastic bags that would serve the functions that reused grocery bags often do now (lining small trash bins, picking up after dogs, etc.).

San Francisco is not the first city to consider such legislation. Plastic bags are either taxed or not used in parts of South Africa, Ireland and Taiwan. Bangladesh has banned them and Zanzibar, Rwanda and Paris are also considering a ban. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors will vote on the measure next week and, if passed, it will take effect in six months.

What's a luxury department store to do when it hits the century mark? If it's Berlin's KaDeWe, or Kaufhaus des Westerns, the answer is simple. Let them eat cake, and lots of it.

Yesterday the store served up an enormous 20-foot tall cake to celebrate its 100th birthday. As you can see here, the confection's lowest tier was adorned with a replica of the store, including marzipan customers, complete with shopping bags. An enormous cake is especially fitting for the luxe KaDaWe given that it has a renowned food hall. With 164,042 square feet of selling space, the store also happens to be Europe's largest.

Me and my sweet tooth are holding out for one of New York City's great retail destinations to whip up a similar cake for a special occasion.
[via Spluchster]

When confronted with winter storms, grocery store owners, managers and employees note an interesting phenomenon dubbed the "squirrel effect." The term applies to the fact that when confronted with any sort of disaster or potential disaster, shoppers come into the store and hoard whatever they can lay their hands on, much like squirrels stocking food away for the winter. The same reaction happens when natural disasters - hurricanes, tornadoes, etc - seem to be on the horizon, as well as directly after a disaster occurs.

At one point in time, "stocking up" meant grabbing kitchen staples, water and canned goods. Bread, milk and bananas are all popular items. But these days the definition of a staple food has changed somewhat and more shoppers are forsaking the component parts for the whole. Stores in the northern part of the country, for example, sold out of pizzas and other frozen goods, as well as sodas. Rental videos/dvd were also hot items, with people anticipating that a lot of time might be spent indoors while snow fell outside.

Here in California, I do have an earthquake supply kit (no frozen pizza in that, though), but there aren't many disastrous occasions to anticipate unless you count traffic. What do you - or would you - stock up on if you were to squirrel away some supplies in the face of a storm?

The Boston Globe has a new interactive feature at their site, where they take a look inside the refrigerators of several local residents. They take a look into the fridges of college students, couples, and couples with several kids. There's also a fridge used by three adults that live together.

I think this is a great idea, though I don't think the Globe went far enough with it (and the fridge used by the single person isn't used by a single person at all, it's used by roommates). But the feature just seems to be a shot of the fridge, then buttons you roll over to see certain items. So we see beer and fat free cheese and meals, but I'm not sure what we're supposed to get out of it besides that, and it gets kinda boring.

Though I gotta say I really want that giant fridge owned by the family in Waban. Mine is 15 years old and falling apart. If you're wondering what's in mine, it's mostly Diet Coke, Perdue chicken, and Dove dark chocolate.

Skyr isn't carried in too many American stores, but the Icelandic yogurt definitely has its fans. It is thicker than conventional yogurt, largely because it is strained, much like Greek yogurt. You are most likely to be familiar with the yogurt if it is carried at your local Whole Foods, where it is packaged into small containers and flavored like conventional yogurts, with berries, vanilla, etc. Despite the generally positive reaction from consumers, Whole Foods no longer promotes the fact that they carry Skyr, or any other Icelandic products, because of the company's offical policy of dissapproval for Iceland resuming commercial whaling last year.

The average consumer, perhaps the average Skyr fan, in the US isn't aware of the whaling issue and because Whole Foods hasn't promoted it, they're not likely to - especially because Whole Foods is planning to stock more Icelandic products this spring. Whole Foods will be carrying Nói Síríus chocolate easter eggs in approximately 70 stores. To entice WF to stock the eggs, Nói Síríus seems to have offered them at almost no cost, as the marketing director of the chocolate company said "There are no profits involved, this is first and foremost a sales experiment." More will be imported next year if they prove popular. Whether Whole Foods will be promoting them now, or in future, is still unknown, though it certainly seems like it would be a good business strategy to promote the products you carry if you're going to carry them at all.

Since excluding imported organic products from using the word "organic" is probably not something that is going to happen in the UK any time soon, farmers are still looking for ways to strengthen their appeal with consumers and the position of their products on supermarket shelves. They are now proposing that the country of origin be clearly labeled on all products. Currently, all foods processed in the UK can claim to be "made in the UK," but this labeling scheme would have the country that the ingredients were sourced from identified.

The real motivation behind it is that foods sourced from elsewhere have less traceability than UK-based products, as manufacturing and processing standards may be lower elsewhere. A move like this would potentially increase the trust that consumers have in UK-made products, where the processing standards are known, and as a result, support UK-based farmers.

Most boxed chocolates come in a variety of flavors. The chocolates might be all truffles, each infused with a different herb or liqueur, or a simple mix of creams and nut-filled chocolates in milk or dark coatings. The blends are great when you want to share and have people who like different flavors, textures and consistencies, but when you have a box mostly to yourself, it's a waste to have the box half-full of chocolates that you don't like. The best way to get exactly what you want is to head to your nearest chocolatier and pick out an assortment that fits your tastes.

If this isn't an option for you for some reason, you're in luck because there are two online retailers that will allow you to choose an entirely custom assortment without ever setting foot in a store: See's Candies and Russell Stover. See's lets you choose from 75 different candy options, then adjust the percentage of each type that will be found in your 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5-pound box. A 1-lb mix is $17.50. Russell Stover gives you three different types of boxes ranging from 1/2-lb to 5-lb. You can't get quite the same variety as See's offers, since you are limited to a set number of types per box size, but there are still plenty of options. A 1-lb, heart-shaped box is $11.96.

I'm not exactly sure how much time or energy this web technology saves, but apparently, Grocist allows you to scan products to create an electronic grocery list.

You keep a barcode scanner in your kitchen and when you run out of a product, you scan the barcode from the package before you throw it away. The web application searches a UPC database to determine the product and keeps a running grocery list for you.

While the idea of this sounds pretty cool, I can't see how scanning a barcode is any faster or easier than jotting something down on a list that's taped to your refrigerator door. I also can't really see people running out to buy a barcode scanner. Additionally, using Grocist assumes that a lot of your groceries are packaged goods that would be found in the UPC database. I don't know this for sure, but the last time I went to the grocery store, there weren't any barcodes on garlic and lettuce.

However, if the Grocist were to actually send that information at the end of every week via email to the grocery store who could deliver the groceries to my front door, then I'd pay attention!

[via: Lifehacker]