I paid 10.99 per pound for egg salad yesterday at Wild Oats.

WTF, you wonder? Why did I even bother? Well, I found out at 9:15 the night before that I needed to bring a huge bowl of egg salad for a dinner gathering last night. I’d normally just make it myself – but I work full time, and already had a jam-packed calendar. So I made a quick detour by the Wild Oats near my house mid-afternoon to grab some egg salad.

I blanched when I saw the price – but I was also over a barrel . I still needed egg salad; I had no time to even try New Seasons instead. But I consoled myself by the assumption that, for 11 bucks a pound, I’d be getting some primo egg salad – loaded with seasonings, full of flavor and some vegetable crunchy goodness alongside the eggs.

No dice. Literally – the chunks of egg were enormous. The seasonings were nil. And I’d just paid 11 bucks a pound for a pile of bland randomly sliced eggs and organic canola-oil based mayonnaise. I hadn’t even gotten any diced celery, for goodness sake!

Even my teenaged son – not normally big on food nuance – noted the deficiencies – “Mom, this needs a major hit of mustard! And some pepper. And can we chop those eggs up a bit?” And after some major doctoring at our end, we finally managed to produce something worthy of consumption.

And I’ve just crossed the Wild Oats near my house off my list, even for emergency runs. Might as well build in enough time to get to New Seasons instead – or make my own damned egg salad.