You may not use things like cumin, honey, or sage in every meal, but these are the kinds of ingredients that many home cooks keep on hand so they can use them whenever they’re called for. But how do you keep that paprika from turning into colorful sawdust? And what’s the best way to store that fresh parsley so it won’t be dried up and useless a few days after you buy it? [More]
supermarkets
Keep Your Onions & Potatoes Separated And Other Tips For Storing Fruits & Vegetables
By 4.5.14 — Updated: 1.20.17
We’ve all got kitchens and we all eat food, but not everyone can agree on where and how to store that food so it doesn’t immediately turn into a moldy mess or dry out into a worthless husk. We’ve already looked at the the best places and methods for keeping your bread, dairy and eggs fresh, and in this second Spoilage Wars installment, we’ll deal with the fruits and vegetables you endeavor to keep from rotting away. [More]
The Consumerist Quiz: Can You Match Popular Food Brands With Their Corporate Parents?
March 21, 2014
How closely do you pay attention to the companies that make the products you and your family eat every day? Many of the most popular brands of packaged food and beverage items in the U.S. are owned by the same few dozen multinational companies, some of whom own several competing brands. It’s time to test your knowledge of which big companies are filling your pantry. [More]
Safeway Has Limits For Soft Drink Purchases, Isn’t Sure What They Are
By 3.12.14
For some time now, we at Consumerist have been worried about Target, since the retailer’s pricing shows little to no grounding in reality. Now the disease has spread to Safeway, maybe. Reader David is still scratching his head over this shelf tag that he found last week. [More]
9 Tips For Buying Groceries Online Without Throwing Your Money Away
By 2.26.14
For those living in cities that lack convenient supermarkets, or for whom a trip to the supermarket is a huge pain in the rear-end, online grocery delivery services like FreshDirect or Peapod can be a godsend. But the ease of using these services also can result in some bad habits. [More]
Do Super-Sized Shopping Carts Equal Super-Sized Bills?
By 2.7.14
We’ve all been there. A quick trip to the grocery store for essentials turns into an over-flowing shopping cart. But what makes us purchase so much when we had planned to purchase so little? One thing that might be contributing to our over-purchasing is that shiny shopping cart. [More]
Study: Most Supermarket Coupons Pile On The Savings For Junk Food, Sugary Drinks
By 1.30.14
There you are, making sure every single store coupon you can possibly use is going to cut down on that grocery bill. But while the prices are slimming down with the discounts offered by supermarkets, the foods with the most discounts could be expanding your waistline. [More]
3 Lessons We Learned About The Produce Section That Will Change Your Next Grocery Trip
By 1.28.14
We all know there’s a grand design in place at the supermarket, with every detail planned and planted specifically to solicit the ultimate reaction: “I’ve gotta buy this.” It’s no different in the microcosm of the produce section, says a 30-year-veteran of A&P supermarkets, and the amount of thought that goes into convincing shoppers we want — nay, need! — to buy something will change the way you look at fruits and veggies. [More]
17 Supermarket Tricks, Tips And Insider Secrets You’re Probably Clueless About
By 1.23.14
We’ve always known the supermarket is a veritable jungle, set with snares and traps designed to lure even the most observant shopper into buying whatever that heavenly smelling thing is, or lulling us into a contented stupor so we linger longer in the aisles. And now thanks to the combined effort of experts, analysts and grocery store employees, we know even more. Prepare yourselves. [More]
Bag Of Frozen Spinach Comes With Free Bird Head
By 1.9.14
Poultry and spinach go well together, but that doesn’t mean that a Florida woman was happy to see that her frozen spinach came with some free meat. Mostly because it came in the form of the tiny skull (eyes included…well, one eye) of an unidentified bird. [More]
Introducing The Most Worthless Coupon Ever
By 12.27.13
Coupons and promotions are great things to get customers into a store and to get our attention, but sometimes you have to stop and say, “Wait a minute.” Here are two cases of inauspicious promotions that readers have spotted lately: a stack of worthless coupons, and a gift card advertised at its face value. [More]
Consumer Reports Finds Potentially Harmful Bacteria All Over Chicken Breasts
By 12.19.13
While hundreds of people around the country were getting sick from the recent salmonella outbreak, our co-workers at Consumer Reports just happened to be looking into the tiny life forms clinging to that popular poultry offering, the chicken breast. The results — that potentially harmful bacteria are lurking on and in almost every single chicken breast for sale at the supermarket — may not shock you, but they do highlight the growing concern over everything from what chickens are fed to how their meat is handled and prepared. [More]
Winn-Dixie Thinks No One Will Want To Buy Groceries If A Strip Club Opens Next Door
By 10.15.13
A grocery store could have the freshest produce, tastiest selection of deli meats and aisles fairly bursting with all kinds of items you’d want to buy — but does it matter who’s moved in next door? A Winn-Dixie in Florida thinks so, and is fighting to keep a strip club from opening its doors next to a location used by the store for 30 years. [More]
Harris Teeter Prepares Christmas Wonderland In Early October
By 10.7.13
“90 degrees out. Harris Teeter fully decorated for Christmas. Attached is just a small sampling of what I saw today there,” read reader Robert’s hysterical dispatch from the grocery store. “Santa hats and Christmas stockings at every register! Too soon!!!” [More]
New Law Would Modernize Nutrition Labels, Clarify Terms Like “Healthy” & “Natural”
By 9.19.13
While food production has gotten more sophisticated and complex, and we now know much more about how the human body is affected by a wide variety of ingredients, there haven’t been any changes to the food labeling provisions of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act since 1990, and some sections of the law have not been updated since 1938. So in an effort to bring nutrition labeling into the 21st century, lawmakers in both the House and Senate have introduced legislation that would require clear front-of-package labeling while clarifying when companies can use marketing buzz words that may be misleading. [More]
Check Out These Tasty Boneless Pork Bones
By 8.12.13
Reader RandomHookup was in the mood for an existential crisis, so he headed over to the meat section at Shaw’s. There he found a package of pork pieces that were labeled as boneless pork bones. Wait, what? [More]
Fred Meyer Not Sure How Unit Pricing Works
By 8.1.13
Customers at a Fred Meyer store were left scratching their heads as well as clutching their bellies in pain if they happened to notice this really bad deal on Pepto-Bismol at a Fred Meyer store. Tipster Scott took a photo of the items on the shelf. Somehow, buying a two-pack leads to the per-ounce price doubling, even when the price for that package is less than double the price of a single bottle. [More]
Trader Joe’s Customers: We Don’t Want Drugs In Our Meat
By 7.25.13
While many grocery store chains carry meat from animals that have been fed unnecessary antibiotics purely for the purpose of encouraging growth, the results of a new survey show that a large majority of all supermarket shoppers — but especially Trader Joe’s customers — would rather that their favorite food store stop carrying the drugged-up beef, pork, and poultry. [More]
