Quality and Price of Produce (US- Michigan Centric)

[ebay313]

So, it's been mentioned a lot here about how the ability to eat healthy is highly linked with class when discussing fatphobia. (So, link to feminism: class, fatphobia, and the many fatphobia threads that have happened, and unfortunately probably will again in the future, were people tell us how it's just soo easy to not be fat, which is unhealthy-

Comments

[coaldustcanary]

A lot of research talks about how impossible it is for small grocery stores to be a good as big ones but I have some contradictory experiences.

That doesn't seem to jive with my own experiences, either. I've seen some very nice big grocery stores, but most of the ones I've liked the most were small, some even mini-mart sized. (Granted, most of them were rural. I've never lived in a very urban area.)

And I'd leave it to a Brit to tell me if I'm wrong, but it seems when I'm in the UK that most of the nicer places I shopped for food were small and more centrally located in the cities versus the adequate-but-not-great ASDA (Wal-Mart owned, of course) out on the fringe.

[happiestsadist]

I'm in Canada, but one of the local smaller grocery stores has the best produce selection and prices, even compared with the huge chain stores. It bills itself mostly as a meat place, (My family used to get meat there, though I'm now a vegetarian), but it also does a ton of wholesaling to restaurants, which means that there's an incredible selection (if not always consistent) of even produce that would be too "exotic" for the big chains to carry at crazy-low prices. (Think $1.00/pint blackberries in January.)

I'd say it's more the exception than the rule, but there are a few exceptions.

[clafount]

Hey Spartan! MSU grad here. I lived in East Lansing for about 12 years before moving to South Lyon when my husband and I got jobs in this area

[speaksoftlylove]

Hmmm, I wish I had something to add, source-wise, but I don't. I work and go to school in Detroit, although I now live downriver, but I often grocery shop in Detroit. I get all of my produce at Eastern Market, usually; the prices are agreeable and they get cheaper on Sundays, when the vendors are trying to move their goods. The only time I get meat, I get it from Honey Bee's or E&L in Mexican town. So I guess you could try those places, if you're interested.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

[ebay313]

Yeah, Livonia is a fairly well off city, but it's not exactly bloomfield hills, or even northville, or farminghton hills (et cetera).
So following the pattern I would expect Livonia to have better and lower cost produce than detroit and redford, but I would expect to find even better in farmington hills, northville and bloomfield hills and such. (I know that the closest whole foods to us is I think in Farmington Hills.)

[the_living_end]

northern california-centric- in my old neighborhood (mostly very poor to working class at the time) we had a grocery store where you pack your own groceries and it is supposed to be less expensive. it is owned by safeway. i recently found out that the prices are actually higher at this store than at the safeways in nicer areas. i can tell you for sure that the quality of meat and produce is quite poor.

[rosehiptea]

I lived in a neighborhood of Southern California that was like that, and had a similar store. I didn't run a price comparison but I do remember that the produce looked really awful. The meat didn't seem so bad, but you can't live on only meat.

[the_living_end]

haha. yes! i hated shopping there. we often drove up to rockridge just to have a more pleasant experience buying groceries.