Good Food Need Not Be Expensive
This is at the heart of what I believe. That is not to say it doesn’t make sense to pay for quality, it does. Nor am I ignoring the fact that organic foods cost more than their conventional counterparts, because they do. I’m also aware of the fact that many people in the U.S. go hungry and others can barely scrape together the pennies to buy a bag of chips.
So I can understand how some people view eating well as a luxury. But it’s not. Or at least, it shouldn’t be.
Chipotle is one good example of inexpensive good food, where for under ten dollars you can get a sizable meal that includes organic beans and sustainably raised meats. Incidentally, their new Niskayuna location reportedly opened yesterday. But All Good Bakers in Albany can be held up high too for its five dollar grilled cheese with a seasonal local side dish. As can places like the Jonesville Store.
The inverse also holds true. Cheap fast food need not be disgusting. People are all too willing to accept places like Arby’s for what they are. But at La Mexicana Grocery & Restaurant, you can get a wholesome taco for just two dollars. And while they aren’t made with sustainably raised meat, at least it’s real food.
Cooking for yourself is even less expensive, and I’m thrilled to have discovered the joys of buying wholesale from Adventure in Food Trading. But looking for sales can also be helpful.
When it comes to good food being expensive, one of the prime culprits in the region is Honest Weight Food Co-op. Wow. Some of their prices are just through the roof. This is one of the reasons why there is such a hunger for a Trader Joe’s in the area. Even Whole Foods makes some of the prices charged at HWFC look cheap.
But the co-op does have good sales.
As it just so happens, they post their sale information online in a handy dandy spreadsheet format. It makes it fairly easy to cut and paste into excel and find the best deals of period. The current promotions are good until January 3, 2012. Now, let me tell you about some of the better deals.
Apparently the co-op regularly sells a 32-ounce bottle of organic mangosteen juice for $21.79. Did I say “wow” already? Maybe it hasn’t been selling at that price, because now it’s marked down to $9.99 and at a 54% markdown it’s the biggest deal of the bunch.
At 40% off a fairly reasonable price to begin with are the Ines Rosales Sweet Olive Oil Tortas. Until the end of the year, they are a remarkably inexpensive $2.99. If you’ve never had these things, now is the time to get down to the co-op and give them a whirl.
The sweet tortas are somewhere in between a cookie and a cracker. They are thin and crispy. Their tops are burnished with caramelized sugar. Periodically you’ll find an anise seed, to give the cracker a bit more depth. I like to sit down with one of these on those rare occasions when I get to enjoy a leisurely and contemplative cup of coffee.
There are six in each container, and they come in other flavors too. Just last night I enjoyed the savory rosemary and thyme version with some of my favorite split pea soup. It was a natural pairing, and Little Miss Fussy enjoyed using the cracker as an edible spoon.
Saveur magazine loves them too.
The co-op sometimes gets a bad rap. Keep your eyes out on the specials, stay away from the crazy expensive frozen meats and the sterile cheese counter, and carefully inspect produce before putting it in your basket. Then even this generally pricey local store can help you eat well without dropping a lot of money.
FUSSYlittleBLOG 
I really appreciated this post. I try really hard to support local industry as much as possible- but the push back I get from my family is that it’s too expensive to eat fresh or eat organic. As you laid out here, with perfect examples, it isn’t. I’ll bring some of these examples up in the future!
You are really pushing it with all the Chipotle promotion. While I do enjoy thier food, a lot of thier marketing to me is more feel good fluff and the devil is in the details. They publish very little about where things are actually sourced from and their food with integrity motto is more of what they strive to do rather than what they are actually doing.
“It means that whenever possible we use meat from animals raised without the use of antibiotics or added hormones.”
“And it means that we source organic and local produce when practical. And that we use dairy from cows raised without the use of synthetic hormones.”
Based on those statements, where is the guarantee of organic beans and sustainably raised meats that you speak of? It sounds good and I would hope they are doing everything they can to meet thier own standards but it leaves a lot of questions in my mind. This sort of reminds me of your experience at Jake Moon, but with Chipotle you are dealing with a large corporation that is beholden to shareholders, is growing rapidly, and needs to continue to increase profits.
I just don’t understand why you keep writing about how “crazy expensive” Honest Weight Food Co-op is, and why you give them such a hard time. So don’t buy the mangosteen juice. The co-op is our local, member-owned store. It is not perfect, but for the most part, its heart is in the right place. If you became a shareholder and did your weekly hours, you would get 24% right off the top of your bill. A monthly worker gets 8%. And yes, shopping the sales saves a bundle, especially when combined with the shareholder discount. You would also have a vote in co-op practices and policies. You could join a committee that may be working on changes you want to see.
The bulk department is an amazing money-saver, with top-quality staples and hard-to-find products, especially the nuts, dried fruits and spices, which are fresher, better quality and usually less money than most other stores. The produce department provides a retail space for dozens of local farms. The cheese department will gladly cut you a fresh, not-previously-cut-and-wrapped-in-plastic slab of an available cheese if you ask them to. The co-op’s well-informed staff constantly seeks out and sells all kinds of products I believe you support: local and/or organic, fair trade, natural, no-crap-added, rare, etc.
You have to be choosy (or perhaps, fussy) there, as with any store, on what you spend your money on, but in my opinion, they have basically fair prices for good quality foods.
Huh. It used to be 10% for monthly workers.
Yes, I’ve heard the argument for “if you’re a member and work your hours” you can get good discounts. Well, apparently, that’s even less if you only have time to be a monthly worker, which I imagine most working adults don’t have the time or energy to devote 4 hours a week to yet another obligation.
I agree with you that you can find some good deals at the Co-Op if you shop carefully. What I like about it, is it has much of the fresh produce you’d find at, say, the Troy Farmer’s Market but is open every day, at convenient times. The produce is of higher quality than the supermarket, comparably priced, and is often local/regional.
Obviously, Daniel agrees that you can find good deals at the Co-Op if you are willing to do some work, which is why he is outlining this. Most people share the opinion that the Co-Op is “crazy expensive.” Because, for a lot of their merchandise, it IS. For example, Luna Bars are $1.60 a bar, when you can get them at Hannaford for $1. Similarly, Chobani is nearly doublt the price at the Co-Op as it is at our local supermarkets. Now, they often run sales on Luna Bars, and there’s a lot of local, noncommercial dairy that is not available at other stores, so it’s a trade-off.
I’ve been to a Chipotle twice and wasn’t impressed (Clifton Park and Latham). What do you order when you go? Maybe I’ll give it a 3rd try. Ironically, for about the same price, I have had some pretty good locally sourced organic lunches at the co-op.
I’ve got to concur with a lot of the comments here: I’m not a Chipotle fan. I don’t know. It’s just not something I would ever crave, I guess.
Concerning the Co-op, I whole-heartedly agree: Good food need not be expensive. But I’m also a proponent of the fact that real change doesn’t happen quickly. The “good food” movement is gradually taking shape at the rate (I believe) of a generational shift. Prices aren’t going to be slashed by next year, or in five years, but perhaps by the time my young children are off buying their own groceries, they’ll have ready access to affordable, wholesome food. Slow infiltration of real food into the convention system is happening, and it’s probably for the best (shocking the system rarely works… even socially beneficial programs like Social Security have seen their heyday). Of course that slow change isn’t ideal, but at least it’s the most sustainable option.
I’m also not naive to the fact that money speaks. Even fans of HWFC should encourage a Trader Joe’s to show up in the Capital District to spark a price competition and force HWFC to knock down prices.
PS – Why does no one talk about the Fresh Market anymore? Just curious.
After reading The Cheese Traveler post last week I decided to drop by the Delmar Farmers Market Saturday to check out the wares. The cheesemonger was deep in conversation with someone else so I didn’t get to speak with him, but I did see a number of cheeses with price tags of $29.99 per pound. Some I recognized as cheeses available at Honest Weight for several dollars less per pound. As someone else pointed out, the co-op workers will cut cheese to order, so if you don’t want the plastic-wrapped pieces in the case you have another option.
On occasional visits to Price Chopper or Hannaford I look around the produce department and most of the prices are comparable to HWFC. With my 24% member worker discount it’s cheaper for me to shop at the co-op. Of course, I occasionally spend some money on luxury items, but no one is forcing me to do that.
re fresh market – was there last week and still not overly impressed. produce on my visit was sparse and pricy. lots of additives in their prepared items including baked goods. definitely not a whole foods type market, and not a place i prefer to shop for ‘fresh’ food.
oh those olive oil tortas are outrageously good!
RE: The Cheese Traveler. The Cheese Traveler is modeled after the premier cheese shops in Boston, New York City, Portland and other cities, whose hallmark is that they offer only cut-to-order service so that the customer can sample whatever he/she so chooses. You can imagine that this method is labor-intensive because it is customer-oriented.
The Cheese Traveler (TCT) never wraps any cut-to-order cheese in plastic because the plastic suffocates the cheese, killing off its natural and intended flavor and texture, moreover leaching plastic chemicals and flavors into the cheese. TCT offers a farm-to-table approach and only sells fresh, local hand-crafted cheeses which are more costly because they are small-production and carefully selected, handled, and sold with the customer’s utmost taste in mind.
TCT’s more expensive cheeses are local sheep’s milk cheeses, which have typically been avoided by sellers in the Capital District because they are so costly. Sheep give the littlest milk per milking, but offer the highest butter fat and nutrient-rich content for the money.
The Capital District has some amazing local cheesemakers that are worthy of our support. Buying from TCT is supporting local farms and shows that you value small-production, nationally and internationally recognized, award-winning cheeses made from real animals that graze on real pastures close to where you live. You can even visit the farms to see them! Meeting and talking to Eric Paul is well worth the wait. He is the most knowledgeable fromager in the area and is happy to educate his customers on the care and handling of their cheeses.
Buy local–support your local farms. Sometimes it’s cheaper, sometimes, not; but it is a known fact that produce loses its nutrient content the longer it sits on a shelf. So what are you buying really? I’m willing to pay a little more for farm to table freshness because I’m buying nutrients in my food. And growing a garden at CDCG is a better use of my time (for air, exercise, good vibes, cost-effectiveness) than working those member hours.