Portland’s worst vegetables
I’m inspired to write this based on tonight’s visit to Safeway, my least favorite place for produce in town.
I’ve grown used to Safeway’s bad produce. I’m finally to the point that I don’t ever buy anything there unless it appears immediately edible and I plan on having it within the hour. Otherwise, it goes from presentable to ass in little over an hour.
However, tonight Safeway’s crappiness was proven to me as never before.
My wife and I were finishing an evening of baby-gift registering at Target when I remembered that I had forgotten to buy her sprouts for her lunchtime sandwiches this week. As Safeway is the closest grocer to our home, and I didn’t see how sprouts could be messed up, I suggested we swing by for a quick stop. And she agreed…
So, we’re in the veggie section at Safeway (39th and Powell, to be specific), when I finally (after three passes around the veggie section) locate the sprout section. It was so hard to locate because 3/5 of Safeway’s sprout selection was sold out. No alfalfa sprouts. No spicy sprouts (whatever that means). No clover sprouts. Only onion sprouts, and broccoli sprouts.
So, we started weighing the advantages and disadvantages of each, and then had our decision made for us by the “best by…” dates. For all of the broccoli sprouts, which had all started developing sludge in the bottom, the “best by” date was 8/6. OVER A WEEK AGO.
For the onion sprouts, the date was 8/11.
Yuk.
I managed to be nice as I told the young man manning the veggie section. But it just further confirmed to me that Safeway has the worst vegetables in the city.
The best?
New Seasons, the Farmer’s Market, and (generally) Fred Meyer’s.
Your thoughts and/or experiences with any of these?
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Funny, I was at the newly remodeled Lloyd Safeway tonight because I just needed a lemon and some peach nectar. The lemons were lousy and they don’t carry peach juice. Walking around I noticed they don’t seem to carry a large stock of anything and there were many spots that were open. I wondered if they might be having cash flow problems.
Rusty,
A friend always said - “Safeway gets it’s produce by following the Fred Meyer truck and picking up what fell off.” I don’t think Fred Meyer is any better than safeway. new seasons, whole paycheck, zupan’s, lamb’s thriftway, even trader joes’ is better than the big corporate stores.
fooddude - the reason the new safeway on lloyd is so sparse is that the tweakers and methheads keep stealing everything. even after a remodel, it still feels dirty. and this is the 2nd remodel in 6 years.
Uncle Tom’s on the corner of Southeast 23rd and Hawthorne. Fresh food all the time.
My parents live in Rose City, near the Safeway at 72nd (I think) and Sandy Blvd. The produce (whenever I come home to visit) is normally pretty terrific. I was there in July and got some amazing cherries and watermelon there. Another good bet for produce is WinCo, it’s cheap and there’s a mind blowing amount of variety.
I’ve noticed that your supermarkets in the city often have crappier stuff. That Fred Meyer’s at 39th and Hawthorne is waaaay worse than ours out here in Vancouver. The Safeway here in Vancouver near where I live is up and down, but often is pretty good. Often better than Fred Meyer’s. Even the Winco out here can be good.
But you want the worst in town: Wal-Mart. UGH! I can’t believe so many people resign themselves to such bad food. Sure, it is cheap, but no cheaper than Winco and often more expensive. But from produce to meats to seafood to even deli crap, it’s terrible!
Keep in mind that it could also have everything to do with when the produce area’s stocked. Trying to find stuff on a Tuesday (when the new sale items to match the circular roll out Wednesday, for example) is tricky, whereas it’s better, say, on a Friday (before the weekend) or on that Wednesday (first day of the sale.)
And I often shop at that Safeway (necessity, people - it’s the one close by) and have found an okay produce selection from time to time. I might ask the produce guy next time I’m there what their stock schedule is…