We can't actually shop at the supermarket anymore- there just isn't enough food that is appropriate for us to eat. We buy at our local coop, a farmer's market, and directly from farmers.

Where is this mythical supermarket that actually has food you can eat?

Janine

::raises hand sheepishly::
I do this all the time. You're a brave woman for admitting it bacongirl. I know it's terrible, and I shouldn't, since I am still quite overweight, but when I see someone tooling around the store with a cart filled to the brim with frozen pizzas, 7 kinds of Pasta-Roni, and gallons of "fruit punch", I can't help but feel superior. I can't however, even fathom the idea of commenting commenting on someone else's cart. I'm sure that there are those, when faced with my cart full of meat, heavy cream, and pork rinds, (along with lots of veggies of course)who feel quite superior to me. I really don't care, I just find it humorous to imagine.


and...
I hate Self service checkouts! I would rather wait in line than use them. There always seems to be some issue, and by the time you call for help and get it figured out, you would have been through the line, anyway.

I had to come and post this here!

I went to the grocery store yesterday to grab a few things: chicken breast and sardines for the cats, tamari sauce, odds and ends. I have some cabbage in the fridge and am feeling ambitious, so thought I'd grab some ground beef and make cabbage rolls later this week. I'm scanning the meat section...ground turkey, chicken, pork...no beef. So I grab the meat dude, a youngish, overweight guy with a great smile, and ask him if there's any ground beef. We look, and finally I spy some - lean ground beef in a 2lb tube, or extra lean ground beef in "regular" packaging. Meat dude hands me the extra lean and says "Only one left, but it's extra lean so really good." I grabbed a tube and said "Actually no, I like more fat in my ground beef so I'll take this one." He looked at me and said "You shouldn't, you know - that stuff'll kill you." I just smiled at him and said "Hmmm." He actually went in the back and got another guy to look for more ground beef for me, so I wouldn't take the lean stuff.

I considered telling him I'd lost 20lbs so far eating fatty meat, but didn't. Anyway, my point is...we're being judged all the time, even while we're judging! So it's fair

well, since you live in Philadelphia you are lucky enough to have the Reading Terminal Market and some other ones and especially Whole Foods so you don't really need to go to the supermarket..

I live out in Conshy but I don't have a hard time finding what I can eat in supermarkets..

I went to Safeway a couple of weeks ago and they were out of my favorite breakfast sausauge. When I got to the checkout line the cashier asked me if I had found everything and I told him no and explained what I was looking for. He then proceeded to tell me that the store was a "market" store and they stocked their items by what "type" of people shopped more frequently and what they were buying. He then told me that I didn't need to be eating all of that fat and sausage....at which point I thanked him for his response and told him that when he lost 68 pounds eating fat and sausage I'd be more likely to listen to him

Now see, since I spent much of my life in management, I feel strongly than when one has an experience like that, they should let management know, so they can do something to better train, or correct, that kind of behavior. What a bonehead!

Years ago, my husband left me and my daughter, and to get on my feet, I had to go on welfare. But I was working. They just supplemented me with a small check and food stamps.

When I was putting things on the belt, a guy from behind me said, "I'm paying for all that!"

I turned and said, "I beg your pardon?"

And he repeated the "I'm paying for that! You're sucking off my tax dollars and I end up paying for all that."

I told the jerk that I'm only getting my taxes back in the form of food stamps. and he said, "Oh you WORK?"

Some people watch everything you have in your cart and make judgements about you and your family.

I have a friend who has had a kidney transplant. The antirejection drugs made her gain a lot of water weight. She used to be average sized but the extra water made her look bloated. She was just grateful to be alive without dialisis.

Some insensitive jerk told her if she would stop eating all that junk she had in her cart, she wouldn't be so fat! GRRRRRR



It's nice that the food police DO like some of the things we approve of, isn't it?

I have to admit, I remember when I first lived on my own going to the store and resentfully watching the person in front of me pay for his steaks and seafood with stamps--and then looking pitifully at what I could afford to buy with cash.

I try not to be so judgemental in my old age.

People make judgments about you for lots of reasons even more ridiculous than what is in your grocery cart. Is it right?.. no, but is it reality?... absolutely.

There's a huge difference, though, between having a thought in your mind and being the kind of a*#hole who would comment on someone's food stamps or their weight in the check-out line.

Girls at my work are always talking about trying to lose weight. They talk about going on walks and stopping soda, and then cart large boxes of movie style candy and snack on it all day. I guess they think it doesn't count. Meanwhile they make funof my sunflower seed snacks like I'm crazy!!! I love them.

If it's low fat candy, then they probably do think that it doesn't count.

I wish everyone would have to do that once, just to see what it's like.

I bet a lot of people's attitudes toward food stamps and the people who need them would change.

Um, Whole Foods is off our list, too. Isn't that a supermarket? We find it just too darn expensive for what you get - they are oriented towards vegetarians in my opinion and the meat and fish are very expensive and there are few cheap cuts. We are really lucky to have a small coop near us for greens (Mariposa). One thing we've discovered recently is buying meat and lard direct from Lancaster County grassfeeeding farmers. They deliver and we have a deep freezer. Reading Terminal is great, but the good food can often be very expensive there, as well. There is a fantastic new butcher's that has organic local meats that is reasonably priced, however. I'm going there tonight!

Janine

I sure wish I could've afforded steak on my food stamps. I couldn't even afford the $2 cuts of chuck that are totally tough.