Wow...Prices are much cheaper at my local Hispanic Grocery

[cally]

I've gone a few times to my local Hispanic grocery and prices are much cheaper on some items. I bought cut up fruit for $2.50 a pound and chicken breast (not skinless or boneless) for $1.39 a pound. Some of the whole fruits and vegetables are much cheaper as well as the tortillas and some bread. I've also shopped at a local middle eastern store and found spices and some cheeses much cheaper. Just another way to possibly save money.

[mikelgb]

1. Yeah the local Carnecerias are the way to go for cheap goods

[BlooInBloo]

2. Same at the various Vietnamese grocery spots here in Seattle.

[slampoet]

12. The places in little Saigon (seattle) are great.

When i lived there a few tears ago I shopped exclusively at International district places (except for Pikes Place Market of course).

Not only do these stores sell a lot of Asian things but also they sell Hispanic foods too and one of my regular places even stocked a few western things just for me (milk, sour cream) just because they were looking to get more Caucasians into their stores.

[Mabus]

3. I love my local Asian food market

For one thing I can get 15 pieces of Shu Mai for less than $2. I also got some garden plants pretty cheap. Like you, I've found that I can find a number of things much cheaper there. Lucky for me, the Asian Food Mart is in the same block as my grocery store. I stop there first and buy what I can before going to the regular grocery store. Unlike you, I hadn't thought about mentioning to anyone.

[EFerrari]

4. I've noticed that for years but can't figure out how they can charge less

when their volume is so much lower. :shrug:

[Indenturedebtor]

7. Family owned and operated?

Paying people under the table? Who knows?

[izquierdista]

9. Transportation

They are not spread out all over the country like Kroger and Albertson's. They save when they source things locally and don't maintain huge warehousing and distribution networks. Food4Less always has better produce prices than the major chains, even though they sell Kroger canned goods.

[AngryAmish]

11. They buy on the spot market

They go to the local food wholesalers and see what the prices are. They are not locked into long-term contracts so go from place to place. Now the blackberries might go bad a few days before they would if you buy from Whole Foods but they tend to be riper. Food is a perishable commodity so it is cheaper the closer it is to spoiling. Raspberries tend to go bad in a day or two - but who can keep them around that long? They are too tasty.

Other costs are lower - advertising, non-union workers, rent or building costs lower.

[slampoet]

15. Actually i have seen high prices CAUSE spoilage at my local Chain Market

For example, Exotic citrus in the Rhode Island Stop and Shops.


A shipment of Key Limes comes in and since it comes in the end of winter, 90% of New Englanders aren't in the mood for Key Lime Pie (which they somehow consider a summer dessert even though the fruit is NEVER ripe then.)

Also add to the fact that 90% of them have never been shown how superiour the Key Lime is to the regular lime.


So in the middle of this Stop and Shop decides to charge $6 for 15 Key limes or enough to make just one pie.

These limes in Rhode Island NEVER sell.

So into the spoilage discount bin they go where I buy them for a dollar when they are two weeks away from spoilage but they don't look perfect pretty anymore.

The fact is that these stores are trying to encourage people to buy preserved and preprepared foods so they don't even stock recipes for these exotic fruits, so their customers don't know what to do with them and even if you had a customer who was sophisticated enough to know what to do with a budda's hand, or a star fruit, that same customer would be sophisticated enough to know you can get these things cheaper from produce specialty stores rather than markets. Essentially Stop and Shop has no right to be selling fruit that has a 70% spoilage rate. Yet they continue to do it and jack up the price in order to try and make up for the rot.



BTW - I recently got key limes for $2 for about 150 of them in Florida.

[MartianChild99]

5. Ethnic groceries

I love our local Indian market for spices. But I have got to remember to check there for coconut oil and dried cconut. Whole Foods wants $3 for a whole one with the shell removed...wonder if it still has the coconut water inside? Have to shake it and see.

[LibertyLover]

6. We have an Amish market near us and the prices there are better

than the supermarkets for meat, dairy, eggs and cheese. Those are the main things we buy there. They have vegetables as well, but we usually buy those from local farm stands or Whole Foods. The quality. especially for the meat and dairy,is better too as far as I can see. We are getting milk in old style glass bottles that you bring back to the dairy area and the taste is so much better than the milk we had been getting at the grocery store. The initial cost is more, there is a $2 deposit on the bottles, but after that, it's roughly the same cost for a better tasting product.

[spinbaby]

13. The Amish/Mennonite bulk stores are great!

It's a bit of a drive to ours so I don't go that often, but they have great prices on baking supplies, pasta, nuts, spices, etc.

[AlCzervik]

8. next time you go look for Malvaviscos Marshmallows, they're HUGE, not HUGH

and frikkin awesome, biggest marshmallows ever. I buy them during the summer for cook outs.

[w8liftinglady]

16. Yum..that sounds muy delicioso..I'm there

[Warpy]

10. I live in the ethnic part of an ethnic city

which means I have an international grocery, several carnicerias, a paleteria, and half a dozen Asian markets within scooter range. In addition, the food co op and Sunflower Market are close.

And people thought I was nuts for buying in this area...

[Doityourself]

14. I love the authentic ethnic stores...I shop them frequently...

[cally]

17. kick for evening crowd

[wishlist]

18. We buy most of our produce from Hispanic vendors at local flea market

Our weekend flea market in N.C. has quite an array of Hispanic vendors with beautiful displays of fruits and veggies at lower prices. One couple in particular gives regulars like myself and spouse great deals since we always buy several items from them. Their cantelopes, nectarines, peppers and tomatoes and corn are of the highest quality but we always run out before the week is over and wish we had bought more from them. We also enjoy talking to them about how they fix some of the more unusual items that we are not familiar with.