I wish I could. I would undoubtedly waste less. As much as I try to plan out a weekly menu, there is always something that screws it up and results in me having to dump something at the end of the week. One thing I have done is to plan only Saturday-Tuesday and force myself to squeeze in time for at least one mid-week trip for Wednesday and Thursday dinners.

One thing I miss most about living in Paris was walking out of my subway stop at the end of the day and having a twice (or three times) weekly farmers' market AND a decent grocery store AND a cheese shop AND a butcher AND a wine shop within no more than 150 feet. Not to mention the tobacconist who would just wave me into his shop to grab whatever I wanted and just leave money on the counter while he and his buddies hung out at the cafe next door.

This week it was pork chops that I had to trash at 5pm and run to the store to find a replacement. Once a week is fine for staples (milk, cold cereal, etc.) but meat I don't keep for more than a day, and fish is consumed the day it's purchased.

If you are living in Wheaton/Silver spring, MD area, there is another Asian grocery store other than Han-Ah-Reum.
It is called 'Lotte Plaza' at 13625-A Georgia Ave. (301) 962-3355
Sizewise, Super H is the biggest Asian grocery store among all but you can get almost same thing at Lotte, too.
I go to Super H weekly basis. If you would like to have a tour, I can give a tour for you.
Even though it is far away from your location, it is worth to visit. I did Super H tour three times and people liked to know more about Asian food and grocery with lower prices.

There's also Grand Mart, with locations in Gaithersburg, Germantown, Alexandria, Centreville, and Seven Corners. I can't vouch for the continued existence of any of those locations; I've only been to the Seven Corners store, which I love. Great selection of mostly very nice produce at really appealing prices.

From our experiences at Grand Mart, I'd put them more in the Safeway class. The times we've shopped there (the one in Alexandria), the veggies have looked tired, the kimchi is getting old (you can tell when the package balloons) and the meats weren't all that great (YMMV). A new Grand Mart is opening on Backlick Rd where the old Hechinger Plaza was but is going to be a more Spanish oriented store. I'm not sure if it has opened yet but it wasn't open when I was there two weeks ago to go to Gamasot (great Korean food).

I am SO jealous of that kind of experience. I used to be able to do something similar when I lived in Toronto and I miss that so much. That whole European food shopping experience is one reason we are likely to move to Montreal soon.

As for WF produce - not only are the prices criminal, but the quality is atrocious. We go to the SS WF and I rarely find produce that is comparable to Giant, let along the farmers markets. Something things have been consistently bad - garlic and shallots especially. I usually have to throw away about half of what I buy. And the corn this season has been awful! Even Giant had better local corn. We kept getting crap grown in Florida that probably spent a week in shipping. The only reason I shop at WF now is for their meat and occassionally for bread.

Han Au Rheum is my favorite place for produce and whole fish. The fact they don't tell you where the fish comes from is annoying but their selection is second to none.

And while I'm harping on SS stores, I refuse to shop anymore at Upstream. I bought some salmon steaks (over $50 worth) and got them home, only to discover (just before cooking time) that they had left the scales on the steaks. I called them immediately and the manager tried to tell me that EVERYONE sells salmon steaks with the scales on. Then he went on to say that EVERYONE eats salmon with the scales on. I haven't been back there since.

Were they steaks, or filets? If steaks then sometimes the skin is still on. They should have been scaled though - that's just dumb.

Mmmmm....salmon scales. Love dem salmon scales.

They were steaks. I would expect the skin to stay on but no scales. I couldn't believe this guy was able to look me straight in the eye and say that people want the scales left on. And he's the store manager. *sigh*

Passed on Flower Ave: "North, South, Central American and Carribean market." That's a lot of territory.

The G'town Safeway has gone to hell in a handbasket. Whereas I used to eschew the Veazey Street Giant in favor of a trek to the social Safeway, lately I've been giving the new and sorta improved Giant a chance so the decline in G'town was a surprise. I stopped in last night around 8:30 and found empty shelves and checkout lines with minimum of six waiting customers each. The shelves were empty in that "12 inches of snow predicted for tomorrow" way. But after a week-long business trip, the cupboards were bare so I stood in the massive lines in order to take home a few of the necessities.

In short, massive suckage.

If only they would leave some of that here to be sold locally, we might be able to purchase something resembling ripe fruit or fresh veggies.

I am completely with JLK on this one. I have had more than one instance lately where I have walked in, seen lines down the aisles, bare shelves and have walked out. After them being out of the first four items on my list, I have given up.
As an aside, I know it is the "Social Safeway" but is it more "social" than ever? The last few times I have been, I have sort of felt like I am at a frat party. Not that there's anything wrong with that, I'm just saying.

Do you mean the store at Veazey Street?

I was at the Safeway in Chevy Chase last night. It is teetering precariously on the brink of being a dump.

I think he means the one at Wisconsin and Western behind the Friendship Heights Metro where the Clydes is.

No. The Giant near the Clyde's in Chevy Chase. I guess it is technically on Western Ave., but it is in the same complex as Clydes, the new Potomac Pizza and Gifford's, etc.

It's called "El Grande" and it has been open for about 2 weeks. The place is indeed large and has a wide variety of latin & asian products. Produce is very nice, clean, and well-organized. As of Sunday, they were running some crazy specials too -- limes 20/$1 (not a typo), eggs $0.01/dozen (yes, they are from chickens; no, they didn't give me bird flu), etc. Lots of (seemingly) fresh seafood too -- some live in tanks, many others on ice. Much better than the GrandMart on Little River Tpke!

The parking lot is not nearly large enough, so bring some patience with you if you go...

she

On a monitor screen there is no gender....

Sorry--I knew a gentleman (the owner of the much missed Saigonaisse in Adams Morgan) named Tin so I just assumed...

Never assume...

Jennifer

It is quite possible to drain the brine while packaging your olives. I almost never worry about how much the pits weigh since they are just part of the olive, pitted olives being an abomination unto the Lord.

i can't help worrying about paying for the pits. i should probably worry more at home about neglecting to pit one before i toss it into something, although the worst i have ever done, and i did it a few times the other night, is to try chopping the pits. i don't mean chopping unpitted olives. i mean inadevertently mixing the pits in with the flesh and then chopping the pits. at this point you know that something is out of order, and it may not just be your glasses, although the anti-reflective coating has been washing off slowly, for months, corroding the lenses, and your brain may not have been doing as good a job at compensating for the visual impairment as you thought.

If you'd like to pay less for your olives, the Mediterranean Bakery (off Pickett St by the Home Depot) in Alexandria has a VERY reasonably priced, if not extensive, selection. My favorite is the spicy Tunisian mix ("You sure? It's really spicy?" "Yes, I like it spicy") that runs $3.95/lb. They also have a 'provincial' (Provencal?) for slightly more, along with a couple of varieties of black olives.

Try this URL. It lists all Korean Grocery stores in the US :
http://www.koreanfeast.com/korean_markets_in_the_us.htm

You've just named my prime grocery store pet peeve. Not just with carrots, but with other types of produce. Why do they bother to tie three spears of broccoli together with rubber bands? And why not have loose asparagus? grrr. Yeah, I know, it's economy of scale, but still.

When I had a macaw I bought fresh greens for her. Probably drove the WF people nuts to ring up $0.17/kale, $.22/collards, etc.

At least with those, they're usually just trying to get you to buy more than you want by making it slightly incovenient for you to buy less. At Whole Foods, anyway, they have the asparagus in rubber-banded bunches, but the price is per pound, so you can undo the bunches if you want. The carrots, though, are priced by the bunch (or bag).

Which reminds me of my Babylonian Captivity (my exile in North Carolina). In the supermarkets down there, all of them, it seemed, they sold potatoes other than russets only in bags of at least 5 pounds. No loose potatoes except russets. Even if I want 5 pounds of potatoes, I'd really like to select them myself. And then there's the nightmarish Food Lion, that sells many things only in packages...mushrooms, for example. The nice mushrooms are on the top of the shrink-wrapped package where you can see them; when you get the package home and open it, you find all the dried-up, shrivelled mushrooms underneath. Food Lion really sucks.

Have I mentioned that the Giant on East-West Highway is a total clusterf**k? No? Well it is.

Word. I haven't been there since I learned that 1) you stand in line for no less than 20 minutes, regardless of whether there are two people in front of you or twelve, and 2) it only sporadically had limes. And not good ones, either.

The CVS in that shopping center has issues too, like filling prescriptions that you haven't asked for. And don't even get me started on the effing parking lot.

A good thing: I got a terrific robiola today at Balducci's.

Being from NC and thus having experience with Food Dog (er, Lion?) there are definitely some bad stores around, though Harris Teeter at least makes up for it as far as supermarkets from NC. There's a new store in the Food Lion chain called Bloom. Marketed much more upscale. The stores are clean, you pick up a scanner on the way in and scan things as you pick them up (which keeps a running total for you) and then to check out you just hand the scanner to the cashier (or maybe just in a machine, I don't remember), pay, and you're out of there. Don't know exactly how they work as I haven't actually used one yet. Also electronic kiosks around the store to give you ideas on recipes, wines, etc.

I'm definitely jazzed to here about a HT closer by as I really dislike the Giant, Safeway, and Magruder's nearby. Granted the Bailey's Crossroads Giant is still closer than the HT, but I'm willing to go a little bit out of the way to get to a HT. Going to Pentagon City for that HT is a bit much though... it'd be worth it if it weren't for the horrible parking situation.

I checked out the Giant just off Piney Branch yesterday. JPW is right - the meat dept. is less white bread than most area stores. Terrible produce though.

Good: WF has pork butt on sale for $2.99 a pound.

Unbelievable: young woman (late-20's) seeking help at the pepared food counter, utterly perplexed by what to serve with "pasta in plain tomato sauce."

Eatzi's...terrible for the employees, but not surprising. They were terribly overpriced, and bound to get creamed once Whole Foods moves across from White Flint mall and Balducci's opens in Congressional Plaza.

Corporate directive - yes. They do it at my Safeway too, and they do it at the Safeway in Walnut Creek, California. Sometimes I'll say "yes" when they ask if I need help bringing bags to my car, just to give one of the bagger kids (some of whom I know from the neighborhood) a break to get outside for some fresh air. But I was told they are not allowed to accept tips.

There's no doubt the Safeway has improved in terms of service, appearance, and selection, and of course this was the result of corporate directives, probably in response to the threat of HT competition. That much is fairly obvious. But the improvement we're talking about here is such an infinitesimal step up from abject mediocrity that HT will easily rule the roost once it arrives.

I'm not sure its any more annoying than the "underpaid drone" answering the room service line at my hotel saying "how can we help you today, Mr. W?" Why not Safeway? I'll take a "thanks" over indifference any time. (I also wonder if anyone, hotel guests otr shoppers, is impressed by the "Mr. W" thing. I mean, the one checkout person who really does know my name works at a cramped, slightly smelly store in Mt. Pleasant and calls me Charles and that actually does add a little joy to the experience).

Actually, in terms of underpaid dronage, I'd be curious how Safeway stacks up against HT. I will say two things for Safeway: they were downtown serving poor communities long before the suits at Harris Teeter decided the median income in Adams Morgan and Capitol Hill had finally risen high enough for them to move in; and they do pay their employees union wages and benefits.

Not that I won't shop at at HT if it ever gets done -- the A-M HT, as well as the A-M Safeway are on my walk home from work. But my enthusiasm knows bounds.

Exactly. False courtesy is generally preferable to genuine rudeness. That's why my wife and I have never moved back to Germany.

Safeway's enforced brand of courtesy is not just false, it's brainless. My last name is somewhat easy to mispronounce. Safeway cashiers regularly look at the receipt and say, "Thank you, Mr. ... [awkward attempt]?" (The question mark indicates a lilt in the cashier's tone that asks whether he or she has pronounced my name correctly.) It just irks me that, thanks to some memorandum circulated to store managers nationally by a Vice President in Charge of Satisfying Customer Experiences, I have to listen to the same line over and over again from people who really couldn't care less what the answer is.

(As an aside, I have a similar beef with Petsmart. They appear to have received a similar memo, which requires them to ask me what kind of dog I have and how old he is when I buy dog food, even if he is not with me. I am sick of telling them this information.)

And the thing about asking whether I need help with my loaf of bread, come on. That's just silly. Despite my earlier rant, the employees there do have brains, and it would not be unreasonable to entrust them with the discretion to decide which customers should be offered help.

Ultimately, I agree that false courtesy is preferable to genuine rudeness. However, for me, indifference layeth between the two, and it is preferable to false courtesy.

I suspect that most of the people working the registers at that Safeway do not have a great deal of background in customer service. Corporate HQ, in full knowledge of this fact, therefore issues edicts of behavior that create the artificial atmosphere you decry. It happens in America all the time. It's regrettable, but at least they're making the effort to improve.

Hah. Anything is preferable to indifference. "There's only one thing worse than being talked about..."

I wonder if my good friend Miss Manners would differentiate between "courtesy" and "false courtesy." She might say that there is only courtesy and its absence...the "magic words" and so on are not meant to demonstrate sincerity, even though they may, but they add a little lubricant to social and financial interactions, whether the impetus is a memo, genuine appreciation or me whacking my daughter on the shoulder and spitting "say 'thank you'" into her ear.

As for the grocery thing...I give them a by on that because so many handicapped parkers have complained over the years that people are rude to them when they use the reserved spots because their disability, though real, is not visible. Corporate probably doesn't want to single anyone out ("what, you think I'm too old to carry my own groceries!") or miss someone ("hello, it's a prosthetic hand. I can't carry those stupid plastic bags!").

The pet thing has got to be pretty annoying, though.

The mindless thing that annoys me is the seemingly now-universal practice at all supermarkets, no matter the brand, of asking "Did you find everything all right today?" or equivalent. They all started asking that about three years ago, I think, and I have no idea what the point is. I don't think they're trying to elicit actual information. What if I say "No, I couldn't find any canned potatoes"? What are they going to do about it? Or "I found the canned potatoes I was looking for, but it took me ten minutes"? Will they then offer sympathy?

(Please note: I am not actually looking for canned potatoes, a food item that has always bewildered me. Why are there canned potatoes?)

My Safeway card was procured by Mrs. JPW. As she has a first name that would work equally well for either gender, the check-out people don't hesitate to call me by her last name.

Even when I use my credit card to pay.

This drives me nuts too, and I once asked the check out person what s/he would do if I said I couldn't find something. Cashier claimed that s/he would help me locate it. I'm standing there thinking, "what will all the folks behind me think of this while I continue the wild goose chase for the canned potatoes, while they wait behind me? Isn't it obvious that I have given up all hope of finding the canned potatoes if I've made the decision to get into line?"

[caveat continued from The Hersch re: my actual interest in canned potatoes--I didn't even know there was such a thing!]

For the first time, this morning while in the Darnestown Harris Teeter, I replied to that question with "well, no, there were a few things I couldn't find." After the cashier finished the transaction, the bagger helped me move the cart out of the way, walked me to the correct aisle, helped me carry the items back, then opened another terminal to ring up those items.

Customer service isn't dead yet.

Nah, they're doing that in all of their stores. I personally find it obnoxious but if it makes them happy to call me Mr. Safeway Shopper, who am I to object (I dont' ever put my real name on affinity cards, there's enough data mining going on as it is without making it easier for them to create a 'shopping profile' of you).

they sometimes pop the question in whole foods, (did you find everything you were looking for?) usually in spurts, i suppose after they are instructed to do so at staff meetings. i alwaysd reply that i found more than i was looking for.

At Balducci's in Old Town when they ask that question I have to bite my tongue to keep from answering.

Sutton Place had gone down hill but Balducci's has taken it to another level and it isn't up. For a while we had high hopes. It seemed they were trying. My big complaints are with their deli counter, their cashiers and the fact that half of what I buy turns before the sell date.

Several weeks ago we talked to a manager who seemed to be concerned when we complained for the tenth time about the deli department. He told us about the new deli manager and the dificulity of turning it around. This week when I wanted to complain again, but didn't, we listened to another couple complain to the same manager about the same things as we had. They got the same asnwer as us. They told the manager that they had complained to him for the last time (he obviously didn't remember them), they said they would not be back, they preferred Balducci's for some things but would now shop at Whole Foods and Trader Joe's. Our complaints: staff that is busy talking to each other to wait on customers, two employees making one sandwich for one customer (I do not kid), cheese that was wrapped so that I could not separate one slice from another. I ended up with a lump of chesse rather than slices. Smoke salmon that was sliced so thick I should have bought a salmon steak, and attitudes that imply I should not be bothering them. The list goes on and on.

The cashiers seemed to have never learned that tomoates are soft things and squash and squish when heavy bottles and cans are placed on top, as is bread and cheese. They also think that double bags means two separate bags rather than putting two bags together. I don't get this at a Safeway or Giant when I am paying inflated prices at Balducci's I would expect that the cashiers know how to bag, is this common sense or am I losing it?????????

I could go on and on but I will stop.

Safeway in Old Town well it is just a sin. The only good thing I can say is that the Staff is nice and they do try but the store just seems forsaken. Why would the smallest Safeway in the area carry mostly bulk items? Most of the homes in the area are small with little or no storage space but our Safeway carrys a large quantity of bulk items but always seems out of certain items that the neibhborhood uses a lot such as floor wax.

For heaven's sake, do you really get bent just because some $8/hr checkout clerk attempts to do their job and say something polite to you?

I get "Thank you Mrs. Shorter (I don't use "Mrs"), you saved $10 today by using your bonus card. Do you need help with your bags?" almost every day. A smile and "Thanks Mary, I'm OK with them" is all it takes. Easy peasy.

And Safeway is a union shop - hence no tips. And they pay overtime, offer health care, and pay double time on holidays. Worth the slightly higher store prices to me.

FYI: Comparison shopping tips:

Clementines are $4 for a 5# box at Giant this week. (Last week, Safeway had the same deal.)

Pomegranates are $1.50 at Safeway. They are the same quality & size as the ones on sale for $2.50 at Whole Foods.

Quinces are regularly priced at $1.99 apiece at Safeway. They are regularly priced at $2.99 each at Whole Foods.

Okay, I admit, I am basing my criticism on one experience, too, but it was also a disappointing purchase of unsalted pistachios (in their shells) for baking Christmas cookies. The almonds didn't look good enough to buy.

The only thing I find I have to watch out for at Whole Foods is the pricing system. Bulk almonds (in the plastic bins) cost more than the ones sold under the store brand in one-# bags. The nuts sold in clam shells are the most costly. I can see selling popular nuts in 1# bags at a discounted price to entice the shopper to buy more than the 3/4 cup needed for a recipe. However, charging so much more for the "convenience" of snatching up a priced, labeled clam shell doesn't make a lot of sense.

Here's a shout-out to Brookville market in Cleveland Park. I had intended to walk to the MacGruder's "Farmers' Market" next to Palena to find the ingredients for cauliflower soup, but decided to check Brookville first. I found a beautiful bunch of beets for $1.59, a lovely cauliflower (@$2.99--not such a bargain, but the going rate around here) and a couple of other things. Then I checked out MacGruders and found them to be a bit more expensive for stuff that didn't look as good as what I had already bought.

BTW: Brookville has individual duck leg confit from D'Artagnian, if anyone is "game" to try them. I couldn't find a price and that stuff is off our menu for the indefinite future (except in restaurants, of course ). They also have squab. I always thought one had to go to Dean and Deluca for those, but apparently not.