Food shopping

Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

I had to head over to the other side of town to pick up some clamps at Home Depot for a carpentry project. (Im building some shelving units for a friends reloading bench). Since CostCo and SuperWallyWorld are fairly close to each other I figured I’d do a walk though and do some price comparisons.

WallyWorld wins on grape juice and canned vegetables. CostCo wins on Chicken broth, canned fruit, and apple sauce. Differences were kinda niggling….seventeen cents a can on vegetables, that sort of thing. But when youre buying a case of 24 at a time, it can add up. And, with the economy looking grim, every penny helps, y’know?

I enjoy going through these warehouse food stores because I love the bulk packaging. I also appreciate the things you dont find in every store. One item I found today that Im somewhat excited about is Welch’s grape juice concentrate. I loves me grape juice. Normally, you buy frozen concentrate and leave it at that. Here, however, we have room temperateure Welch’s grape juice concentrate packed in, essentially, a pop can. Makes 48 oz. with an average cost of $0.03 per oz. Thats 25% cheaper than any other form of Welch’s. Plust the room temperature thing is nice too. Shelf life is about a year, so I’ll pick up a dozen later this week.

Speaking of shelf life, ain’t technology grand? I was in CostCo and they had the chick there doing the food samples. Product in question was hash brown potatoes from dried. Reconstitute them for a half hour in hot water and fry ‘em up. They were damn good. So I wander down the aisle and find them. Hmmm…no expiration date. Wonder what the shelf life is. Flip the package over, find the company’s toll free number and whip out the cell phone. Got my answer and made a note to buy these things on my next trip. (One year shelf life, by the way, but I expect that with proper storage it should be at least several times that.

At t his rate, my post apocalyptic breakfasts are going to be better than the breakfasts Im having now – corned beef hash, hash browns, scrambled eggs, grits, oatmeal and orange drink. Hell, I dont eat that well when there isn’t a crisis.

Also found vacuum sealed packages of Italian risotto which I may have to try. As I understand it, risotto is a laborious project in the kitchen requiring much attention but it looks like an excellent meal with a shelf life that appeals to me.

.22 ammo came down a bit. Last check at WallyWorld it was $12.50. Girlfriend picked some more up the other day and said it was about a buck below that. Still….signs of the times, man.

2 thoughts on “Food shopping

  1. yes one can find

    a lot of “room temp” items for the pantry shelf, along with vacuum sealed bacon and suasage patties.what is more, is shopping from several diffrent stores, taking advantages of sales and prices.

    one interresting condiment, sometimes available in individual serving packets, is horseradish; great with beef, pork, or deer. stores that sell stuff for parties and resturants sell all sorts of codiments in these individual serving packets which can be used without opening a bottle or jar, needing refrigeration afterwards.

    and stocking up on disposable paper dishes/bowls and plasticware saves on soap and water in a crisis. such items can be “burned and buried” later on. but like you, good to have a nice hot breakfast before shooting the nieghborhood zombies in the next aftermath morning. Wildflower 08

  2. I Am Legend on Blu-Ray

    I had to thumb through your archives to find your review of “I Am Legend” which I did not read when you wrote it (thanks for the spoiler cut) and found that we had similar thoughts regarding “why doesn’t this guy have a .45 or 12 ga. for close encounters” or at the bare minimum a couple of military flares or a powerful rechargeable spotlight with him?

    The safe house idea was a good one as well, I would have set up a few places that I could get to in the event that I could not make it to my primary residence by sundown.

    I don’t know if you saw the alternate ending, which was even more unfaithful to the book but rather interesting in it’s own way. Apparently it’s only on the HD versions of the DVD but I do know that it’s available to watch in YouTube format on the ‘net if you haven’t seen it.

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