response 14 of 81:

Nov 22 00:55 UTC 2000

  Larry's #0 touches on one of my pet peeves -- another example of the
  customer contempt mentioned in #0 can be found (sometimes strikingly)
  in grocery-store bakery sections.

  At some time in the past fifteen or so years it became fashionable for
  upscale grocery stores to have specialty sections like a deli counter,
  etc, where they'd offer selections that had previously mostly been
  the purview of smaller independent specialty stores.  One of the more
  common specialty sections to roll into stores at this time was a bakery
  section where they'd offer fresh-baked breads, cookies, cakes, etc.
  This movement became so popular that most larger grocery stores now seem
  to feature such a section.  Even smaller stores do, although the goods
  often aren't baked on the premises.  When this trend first started,
  I was quite happy about it -- some of the store bakeries were pretty
  good and virtually all were good enough that I much preferred a loaf of
  their store-baked bread to a loaf of "Wonder Hearth Krust" or whatever
  was the only option available before if you weren't fortunate enough
  to live in a neighborhood with a good independent bakery.

  However, as the trend spread from the high-end specialty stores and
  was adopted by most full-size chain groceries, the quality of the baked
  goods declined dramatically, even in those stores which had previously
  had pretty decent bakery sections.  These days I'm amazed at the low
  quality of the products the store bakeries turn out.  They clearly know
  how to make visually appealing baked goods but have just as clearly
  found a way to make them virtually inedible -- certainly unenjoyable..
  Largely this comes from using the cheapest available ingredients --
  fake butter, fake vanilla, the lowest possible quality chocolate
  (when they use chocolate at all), etc.  Often the stuff even smells
  good: if you happen to walk past the bakery section just as they're
  taking out loaves of bread or a tray of hot cinnamon rolls it's pretty
  hard to remember the sawdust-like "chocolate" chip cookies you bought
  the last time you were in that store -- cookies that not only didn't
  taste like chocolate but didn't actually taste like much of anything.
  What's the point of a tasteless cookie?

  What's most galling to me is that not only do the baked goods being
  sold in these sections often cost as much or more as (and taste worse
  than) the pre-packaged goods available in the same store, they also
  cost just as much as the goods available at the few remaining decent
  independant local bakeries but outsell those bakeries by many times --
  in fact they've done a remakable job of killing most of the neighborhood
  bakeries that still survived.  It drives me crazy that people are so
  oblivious to taste that they're willing to buy the baked goods produced
  by a Kroger bakery section, but clearly people *are* buying these goods --
  the grocery business is very competitive and I doubt that the stores
  would devote so much floor space to bakery departments if they weren't
  either turning a profit or bring customers into the store..

response 16 of 81:

Nov 22 02:57 UTC 2000

I have not given myself over to my Mountain Dew addiction (disgusting stuff,
really), but I have found that it is highly impractical to attempt to break
it from within my current situation.  It is highly integrated into my work
schedule.  When that changes, I might be able to kick the caffeine as well.

response 18 of 81:

Nov 22 04:08 UTC 2000

Refrigeration slows down the mold greatly.  THe commercial stuff has
preservatives in it.  Bread can also be frozen but it gets a bit dried out.
As toast you would not notice the difference.

response 20 of 81:

Nov 22 08:34 UTC 2000

Never heard the saying 'variety is the spice of life' huh.

response 22 of 81:

Nov 22 15:44 UTC 2000

        I'm not so sure about Hudson's.  Perhaps it was my age at the time,
but I always held the store in a sort of awe in the 1980s, and wondered if
the employees were specially trained like butlers or other professional
servants in how to be polite and respectful - even if their customers weren't
- but these days I see a more human, if more realistic, side to their staff.

        I'm still floored by the professionalism of the staff at La Paresienne.

response 24 of 81:

Nov 22 20:49 UTC 2000

Re #18: Never tried refrigerating it.  I was afraid it'd either get soggy or
pick up refrigerator odors.

response 26 of 81:

Nov 23 07:23 UTC 2000

My refrigerator wasn't self-defrosting, but I'm not sure what that'd have to
do with it, to be honest.

response 28 of 81:

Nov 23 14:53 UTC 2000

Brach's and Meijer anecdote:  One winter, Meijer put Brach's Mainline
chocolates on promotion.  The shipments to the Okemos store were piled high
on M-carts that eventually found their way underneath the backroom heaters
at the dock doors.  

Hundreds of units were eventually discovered to be single,melded massein bags
that used to contain many pieces instead of one massive candy bar.

response 30 of 81:

Nov 24 02:34 UTC 2000

Non-self-defrosting ones are the same, except they periodically melt off the
ice that collects on the coils, instead of letting it build up, right?

response 32 of 81:

Nov 24 17:43 UTC 2000

These days I mostly shop at the coop, which is a rather tiny downtown grocery
store.  Years ago I used to shop at White's Market (On William St near campus)
which is even tinier.  I'm generally impressed at the way these tiny groceries
seem to have just about everything you need.

What's really weird though is that when I go to the mega-gigantic super-duper
Kroger on Maple Road to get a few items late at night, I'm always disappointed
in the selection.  I think they carry fewer different brands of chips than
the Co-op does (of course, they have a almost a whole aisle containing just
Lays chips).  Given that they are about 10 times bigger than the Coop, you'd
think they'd have ten times more different brands, varieties, flavors and
sizes.  You'd think they'd find space to offer a respectable selection of
organic foods, which after all are popular enough in town to keep a couple
stores mainly devoted to them in business.  But in fact, they seem to carry
very little besides the biggest name brands.  You'd think that things like
canned fava beans, which are only occasionally at the coop, would be
consistantly carried, but them, but the have only the most ordinary bean
varieties.  Meijer's grocery section, which can't be half the size of Kroger's
seem to have more selection.

The sheer bigness of the place inclines one to expect that it would have a
lot to offer, but it really seems to fall short.  Kind of lame, really.

response 34 of 81:

Nov 25 04:55 UTC 2000

Big Market on Huron St. has canned fava beans and other Mediterranean imports.
So does Alladin's Market on Packard southeast of town.
Self-defrosting refrigerators are the the ones where the ice periodically
melts off because they are set to do this at timed intervals.  The non
self-defrosting ones build up ice in the freezer and you have to turn them
off once in a while and let it melt.  I think they stay more humid since the
ice it actually in the refrigerator most of the time.
Fresh fava beans are sometimes found at the Zingerman's owned fruit and
vegetable market at Kerrytown, in season (not now).  YOu can also get dried
fava beans at the first two stores, and soak them overnight and boil your own,
cheaper than the canned ones and a lot less energy wasted on making the cans
and recycling them.  And it heats your house when you cook.

response 36 of 81:

Nov 25 21:19 UTC 2000

That is not exclusively the case.  The truth is a mix of paid-for 
placement, and store marketing choices.  Products offered as loss-leaders 
(such as a basic staple like milk) are not usually promoted for fee, but 
because basic marketing requires it.