caretaker

I bought my first $5 produce box on the flashfood app, and it seems ok. There are a bunch of mandarin oranges on the bottom, and it's all in pretty good shape. I think the theory is they weigh out $10 worth of stuff that's could go bad in days, then mark it $5 and post it. I regretted not getting the one with the avocados, but only momentarily. There will be other opportunities. My original thought when I saw the citrus and apples was make a pitcher of sangria, but that way lies madness. It's a great way to get your servings of fruit in, but any recipe that uses that much booze is going to leave a mark.

caretaker

Checked flashfood and they had this dry French salami with blue cheese in it, and at $2 per I bought 5 of the tasty little devils.

I thought their stated reg price of $9 was way high, but for $2 I'm in.
https://www.presidentschoice.ca/prod...se/21047826_EA

caretaker

This is tempting, but I must control the urge. It isn't sliced (as depicted), but actually a big chunk of Ziggy's brand. It's really tempting but I'd be eating smoked meat sandwiches for a week:

6

BristolUK

And the best before date is tomorrow. Does it freeze? Bacon's no problem but I haven't frozen other cold cuts before.

caretaker

There is enough sodium in this (like the salami) that it will be good for weeks.

Atlantic Xpat

Apropos to groceries...

That nice Galen Weston fella, he of the Christmas Presidents Choice ads, i currently in dispute with his workers here in Newfoundland. Despite making extra gabillions of profit during the pandemic, Dominion (Loblaws in Newfoundland) stopped paying their workers the pandemic premium. Added to that, for the last couple of years they've been moving everyone to casual, part-time contracts to avoid paying healthcare etc. The workers are unionised and have been on strike for a couple of months. Now I'm no fan largely of organised labour but if this pandemic has proven one thing it's how much we rely on those essential workers in stores & as such they bloody well should be paid a decent wage. Sure, Galen might have to forgo a new sweater this year, but Loblaws would still be very profitable. But no, the company is refusing to even talk any more and rumour has it that they will just as likely pull out altogether for a year and then go back with franchised stores (as I believe is common in the rest of Canada). In short, Galen is being a dick.

The consequences for food security are not great here. Yes we can shop at Sobeys, Wallymart, independent chains and of course Costco, but a scenario where we lose all of the loblaws stores is not a good outcome.

abner

If only it preserved my heart in the same way it preserved my desired meat intake...

caretaker

I thought I'd scan the app before putting the coffee on, and then I thought, "I'd like a nice salad and maybe beef tacos for supper, and something sweet as well" I'll scoot down to that store and pick up early, so maybe have bifstek ranchero for breakfast and put the taco portion in marinade. Getting tomatoes, cucumbers, garlic, and cilantro should be a fast shop before picking up the flashfood stuff, and I'll be set. Total cost is probably less than going for lunch and a beer.
Edit: I went back and added a big bag of green beans to that for .74. Very healthy!

Former Lancastrian

Remember all Unions are evil and irrelevant today according to some posters and your views will vary as to if you work in the private or public sector. Safeway were also guilty of this many years ago before they were taken over. Very few if any grocery chains hire indeterminate workers though employees at Costco might be an exception and most surveyed enjoy working for this company.
Current minimum wage in your neck of the woods is $12.15 per hour so do you honestly think Galen is going to pay them more if he can avoid it?
Now call me cynical but isn't the private sector a case of profit over people?

BristolUK

Today I finally hit the magic "50%" saving shown on my grocery receipt. No best before reductions involved.

Just a shame that it's the last day that IGA will deliver to my area. It's a real shame as they have stuff I don't see in other supermarkets and they do flyer prices whereas Instacart seldom does and sometimes has a big mark up. Today Instacart for Walmart is charging over $16 for 4lb of oranges.

The manager told me they have just four delivery customers in my area. I suggested he advertise their service so people know about it. I could pay them four times their usual delivery rate and still save $$.

Former Lancastrian

FFS just put a mask on get in the car, drive to IGA, socially distance and spend as little time in the store

BristolUK

Did you forget I don't drive?

scrubbedexpat091

Some unions are good, some are bad.

The grocery store unions in BC tend to be bad, and cave into the company to preserve jobs even if that means paying min wage.

Some of Air Canada's unions are not much better, the ramp (well before COVID hit) starting salary was min wage in Vancouver. Of the 3 big companies who provide ground handling to aircraft, the 2 union companies had the worst pay.

Public Sector unions have more leverage too which helps them.

Unionize a Wal-Mart store, Wal-Mart will just find a way where the store is no longer profitable to operate and shut it down which they have done in the past.

Sobeys has closed some union Safeway stores in BC, and a year or so later open as Fresh Co and no longer union.

Loblaws has had some franchise stores go on strike in BC, they just shut some of the stores down rather than negotiate with the union.

Lower skilled private sector workers don't have leverage against these big companies, even if unionized.

I worked at a union hotel, eventually was bought by overseas investors and shut down for 21 months, and reopened non-union under a different name.

scrubbedexpat091

Wal-Mart tonight had frozen meat with simple label on it, and very low price, looked at them and the label says "Sysco Specialty Meat" and appears they were meant to be sold in restaurants, sold frozen in vacuum packed individual packages with a basic label, not your typical retail level consumer packaging.

BEVS

That looks good.