Re: Cost of Grocery Store Shopping
 

IMO, it's an insidious chain employers use to exploit you.

If you have a unique and marketable skill, you are always much better off working for yourself. However, in the US, you are then stuck with the fact that non-group health care insurance is essentially worthless.

Re: Cost of Grocery Store Shopping
 

I was have a re think about Obamacare. all it has done so far is send costs through the roof.

We have a small business and if I am reading it right we should be able to qualify for the maximum subsidy.

It still does beg the question of who is going to pay for it.

Re: Cost of Grocery Store Shopping
 

I'm now insured for $240 a month on Obamacare. I'm uninsurable without it unless I go to work for an employer. Brought my costs down considerably.

We pay an absolute minimum of two times what comparable nations do for a mediocre service. There's plenty of space for cutting costs to pay for it.

Re: Cost of Grocery Store Shopping
 

I can only go on how I've found prices in Orange County, NY, and I find it much more expensive than the UK (Manchester to be specific!).

Stores we use most often for food - Shoprite in the US, Asda in the UK.

Obviously some stuff will be cheaper, but things like meat, fish, bread, cheese, veg, just for example, far more expensive.

Re: Cost of Grocery Store Shopping
 

I'm in CA right now we have a family of 4 (we've been 6 for while in the past but one kid left home and my Mom only stays a few months) Now my bill is about $150 a week it wasn't much more than that for 6 of us. Prices have shot up recently.
Safeway.com only shows the sale prices and specials for that week when I look at it.
For example I'm paying anywhere from $3.20 to $3.99 a gallon for milk
Orange juice is $3 to $4 for 1.75 L
Bread if I'm lucky is buy on get one free the one we get is near $4 a loaf, or on sale for $3 each, other than that it's fluffy white stuff that is gross and sweet.
We don't eat a lot of meat as that is expensive mince beef mid range so not all fat and not diet lean is about $3.50 a lb
Cookies are close to $4 a bag

Re: Cost of Grocery Store Shopping
 

It varies a lot in different cities. Manhattan is absolutely ridiculous (I once paid $6 for a loaf of bread - not that nice either, and $7 for three tomatoes!), when we were in Chicago - we lived close to a Walmart and prices were more reasonable there. Same with drugstores.

Re: Cost of Grocery Store Shopping
 

We are one on this issue, however this has yet to be addressed.

Obamacare is not available as far as I know in CO.

Re: Cost of Grocery Store Shopping
 

It was a miracle anything got through with the health care bill. Strangely enough, if the health insurance companies had had to compete with a government controlled universal health care plan, then there would have been something to kick the monopoly out. But despite the oft-heard claims of government inefficiency, they obviously thought they couldn't compete and bought such an outcome instead.

If Obamacare is not available in your state, there should be a pre-existing condition insurance plan run by your state instead.

Re: Cost of Grocery Store Shopping
 

Horrendously expensive, I did look at it a long time ago and I seem to remember $1000 a month.

Re: Cost of Grocery Store Shopping
 

Pointless, then. Protect your assets. Go to the county hospital if you get ill and get treated. If actual bill exceeds $X, file for bankruptcy. Stupid way to run anything, but it's not like you have a choice.

Re: Cost of Grocery Store Shopping
 

It's not just the cost of groceries you need to take into account - you really need to compare the *quality* too.

Most of the cheap food items are high in high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, salt/sodium and pumped full of preservatives or MSG (monosodiumglutamate) which is a 'flavour enhancer' - it can cause the 'jitters', headaches and hair loss if a lot of it is consumed.

You will often see items such as breakfast cereals labelled 'natural and artificially flavored' (sic). Why would I want anything artificially flavoured? It's often horrifying to see the list of ingredients on the cartons and cans....many of which are unpronounceable. I avoid those items.

As already mentioned, sliced bread is usually pretty disgusting here, the only palatable white bread is the Italian bread, the rest is sweet - even the wholemeal bread. The supermarkets don't clear the bread off the shelves daily as they do in the UK....the 'sell by dates' could be into the middle of next week as they have so many preservatives in them. However, I've found that the freshly made bakery loaves tend to be very expensive; I bought a 'Tuscan' rustic loaf today and it was almost $5. (I love the Kingsmill and Warburton loaves in the UK!)

Many food items have been genetically modified or irradiated - I understand this is still banned in the EU. Many 'fresh' food items have been picked weeks before they are ripe and put in cold storage....leaving them tasteless. For example, strawberries are enormous compared to English strawberries, utterly devoid of taste and can last as long as a week before starting to go mouldy... Peaches and nectarines are rock hard - even the 'tree ripened' ones and again are usually tasteless. However I'm in New Jersey, and fresh produce generally travels long distances, especially during the Winter - maybe it tastes better in CA.

What many people do in the US is to do 'coupon shopping'; the Sunday newspapers tend to have pages of supermarket coupons. I almost never use them (I was stuck behind someone at a till a couple of days ago, when she went to pay she bought out a stack of coupons and then her iPod where she'd downloaded them so the cashier could scan the barcode....it took ages....grrrrr!). Many supermarkets also have loyalty cards where you can get discounts too (nothing like the 'nectar' cards in the UK though).

A very popular grocers is Trader Joe's (owned by Aldi! - but far nicer). They have their own-label products, not all of it is organic but has far fewer preservatives than many of the big conglomerates. I go there a lot but can't buy all of my shopping there; there is a limited selection of cleaning and toiletry products for example and they don't have a fresh fish or meat counter, it's all pre-packaged.

http://www.traderjoes.com/ (my favourite product there is their Lemon & Triple Ginger Snap ice-cream....OMG it's so delicious!)

By the way there are a few Aldi and Lidl stores in the US ie. hardly any.

The most expensive nationwide food chain is Wholefoods where their produce is almost all preservative free and organic (they have some in London and one in Glasgow - in the yuppy/trendy affluent areas) and commonly known in the US as 'whole paycheck'.

http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/

TBH when I'm in the UK I'm almost in raptures going round Tesco's, Waitrose, Sainsbury's etc. I'm so disappointed with the horrible yoghurts in the US - a lot of them especially the Danone ones have the aspartame sweetener...I'm craving the Tesco's Finest "Champagne Rhubarb" yoghurt and the "Devonshire Fudge" ones right now! Forget about nice refridgerated desserts like trifles and gooseberry fools - they don't exist here :(

Don't even get me started on horrible American chocolate! I never, ever buy choc bars here unless they're imported from the UK or Switzerland and if I see the candy if I'm in a convenience store there is absolutely nothing which tempts me (eg. a Picnic bar or some Munchies.) Just as well I suppose :D

Educate yourself on how food is produced in the US: I strongly recommend that you watch a copy of Food Inc. It's a real eye-opener :eek:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Food-Inc-DVD...7356704&sr=1-1

and this too:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Super-Size-D...7356774&sr=1-1


:ohmy:

Re: Cost of Grocery Store Shopping
 

Forgot to add; it may be just the State I'm in (New Jersey) but the supermarkets only really sell food and only the larger ones may have a few appliances such as toasters, coffee makers.

Only the very largest shops eg. Walmart and some Targets have non-food related items but in general their food aisles are more of a smaller add-on to the main part of the entire shop and the food is mainly pre-packaged and certainly no butchers, bakery, fishmongers section etc.

Walmart owns Asda in the UK and apart from a few 'George' items it is nothing like the UK counterpart. I very much dislike Walmart (they have questionable employee practices and destroy local shops in many communities) and only go there if I can't find an item (eg. buttons) anywhere else and I can't stand the place - it truly is full of obese shoppers and they check your bags and till receipt as you exit the store to ensure you haven't been shoplifting. Here's something to make you laugh and horrify you at the same time:

http://www.peopleofwalmart.com :eek:

In my local area none of the supermarkets *ever* reduce the price of food which is close to its sell-by date....they keep it at the same price until it expires!

Re: Cost of Grocery Store Shopping
 

Get a breadmaker - I got one in the UK and never bought supermarket bread again while I was living there (hate the stuff). Just got a replacement one here in the U.S this Christmas.

Now, if I could just find a way to make decent sausages...

Re: Cost of Grocery Store Shopping
 

:lol: OMG Engishmum that was all very well said, I was trying to be gentle and didn't want to scare the poor woman.
So Ditto to everything you said, and no the fruit isn't much better in CA, the peaches are still rock hard, It makes me wonder if it's the type they are growing. I really yearn for one of those huge juicy drippy peaches we got in Spain when we'd go on holiday, every year I get suckered into buying peaches they smell so good and can be used as a bocce ball.

Re: Cost of Grocery Store Shopping
 

They can be found, but usually have to go to local farmers markets, which tend to be very good, if pricey.

Around here, there's quite a few and they're great....as for the grocery shop, Trader Joes tend to sell stuff from local suppliers in season, so the peaches and apples tend to be quite decent in summer but they're grot rest of year as they're brought in from California.

Hannafords is another grocery store that tends to sell local produce and they promote the stuff made in the state the store is in quite well.