I think that whoever mentioned that Americans shop less might have hit on something.
I go grocery shopping literally once every two weeks or so. I do not like going to the store, because it’s generally a hassel. I’ve had chilled food before, and yes, it was good, great even, but the frozen stuff’ll keep in case I forget about it (this happens often, and sometimes the stuff isn’t frozen). If I know I’m going to eat it THAT DAY, then yeah, I’ll buy chilled rather than frozen. Otherwise, forget it. I’ll space and it’ll go bad and then I’ll have wasted $2 on nothing.
Now DELI STUFF is an entirely different kettle of fish. I LOVE deli stuff, and could never forget it was there, usually because it doesn’t last long enough for me to forget it. And now…I wish I had the Wal-Mart deli’s white mac and cheese. I hate Wal-Mart, but damned if they don’t come up with some really good deli foods.
The neat thing about Central Market is that they have the Dinner for 2 pre-prepared dinners, but they also have the (much better, IMO) gigantic deli counter type thing with multiple varieties of chilled pre-prepared food.
So rather than getting a fixed menu, you can go up there, and get, for example, a miso-marinated salmon fillet, some spanish rice, and some kind of squash. It’s really sweet- my girlfriend and I do it sometimes on the weekends as a sort of date type thing.
The “deli counter” food at Central Market is definitely fine. Cooking something like spanish rice, eating a bit & freezing portions for future use is definitely more economical than buying one serving or two. But some of us are not so efficient & the leftovers end up spoiled.
So buying just what’s needed can also be an economy. (At least, that’s what I tell myself.)
But Central Market has many pitfalls for the unwary shopper. Like the exotic produce that you might “forget” to cook in a timely fashion. Or the excellent but pricey wines & beers. Or the baked goods that sabotaged so many “carb-free” diets…
Sadly, chicken tikka masala is the one dish that not ONE of the supermarkets get right. For it to be authentic, it has to be day-glo pink and sweet. The supermarkets ruin it by using natural colorings and ingredients. :mad:
Random thought: perhaps the hole in the market recently found by chilled meals in the UK (the “I can’t be bothered to cook tonight” feeling), is one already provided for in America to a greater extent, by fast food?
I don’t think it’s fast food so much as restaurants in general. And things like pizza delivery - not only do you not have to cook, they bring the food to you!
I don’t know how often on average a Brit goes out to dinner, but Americans do it more and more every year. And I’m sure the average restaurant meal here is cheaper than it is in the UK, as we don’t have VAT or any of that stuff. When I visited London we ate pub food a lot because the restaurants were pretty pricey. I was also surprised by how expensive food was in the grocery too - maybe it was just because we were in a large city, but staples were far more expensive there than where I bought my groceries at home.
Another thing that is catching on here are places like Dream Dinners, where the food is all chopped and portioned out for you, but you put it together and package it yourself. Then you take it home and freeze it. It’s a way to do a whole bunch of meals quickly all at once. Our local Dream Dinners is booked solid on the weekends for a couple of months in advance. I would imagine this sort of thing would appeal to people who are not only busy, but who are picky eaters, or must feed one, since you can customize the meals. They have all the spices, too, so if you want to try something new, you don’t need to buy a large jar of a (potentially expensive) spice that you might never use again.
The reason I mentioned fast food and drive-throughs was because it has to be something which isn’t also pretty common in Britain. Sitting in my little village, I could get deliveries from several pizza places, three or four curry houses, and a couple of Chineses. However, there’s only two drive-throughs within half-an-hour’s drive of here.
The cost of living is higher here all round, not just in the areas it was noticeable to you (although don’t tar us all with London’s brush )
Psst: we have that here, too. And Indian, and Chinese, and Thai, or indeed whatever cuisine we want.
I agree, absolutely, based on personal observation. Eating out in the US is relatively very cheap indeed.
Er… don’t you have the hidden price bomb of sales tax at the register? Or doesn’t that apply to restaurant food?
Definitely too, though see sales tax comment - our sales tax is all inclusive in the tag price, whereas yours arrives at the end, which pushes your price up a bit. But still, US groceries are rather cheaper than ours. That said, if you buy stuff at ethnic groceries, the ridiculous supermarket markups aren’t included: the other day I bought two onions, an apple, 2" of fresh root ginger, and a bulb of garlic, and the price came to 28p (~50c). In a British supermarket that would have cost about £3 or possibly more.
That is such a fantastic idea. Anyone got some spare venture capital so I can set one up here?
Yes, I thought that might be part of it. That and the greater distances people may have to travel to supermarkets leading to less frequent shopping trips. I doubt that the greater distances affect distribution much, though. In Britain these chilled foods have to make fairly long journeys (in hours, if not miles) from no doubt ultra-efficient ready meal factories to distribution centres to stores, kept chilled throughout.
I did look at the Trader Joe’s site because so many people mention it here, but what they seem to offer is more like ready-prepared ingredients for you to assemble a meal with. Maybe I got it wrong. By “ready meal” I mean pre-cooked meals in little cartons that you merely have to heat up. Mass-produced, not prepared at the supermarket/deli.
I dunno, I had Americans/Canadians say that to me and under interrogation it has emerged that the “grocery store” involved is Marks & Spencer or something. M&S’s food is eye-wateringly expensive even to Brits! But I don’t suppose there are many ASDA’s in central London.
I wasn’t implying that you didn’t. I’m saying that people in other places may make different choices based on their situations. There could be a whole set of reasons why, for instance, a ready meal in the UK might be more popular than delivery (say you pay VAT on restaurant food but not grocery food, for example). I don’t know that ready meals are more popular there than other convenience foods for a fact, but I do think Americans really prize convenience - more so than in many other parts of the world. So whatever is going to be the easiest is going to be preferable as long as it’s not seen as being too expensive.
And as for taxes, our taxes don’t hold a candle to yours. We like to bitch about 'em, but in comparison they are quite low. Of course you get what you pay for sometimes too …
Current Employer recently started promoting a line of “chilled” dinners – you find them over in the cold case by Prepared Foods. We’ve sampled a few of their offerings. Very tasty, especially the shrimp.
The issue is cost. A container serving 2 costs around $6. Sure, it’s made with fresh ingredients and supposedly has nothing artificial, but in my neck of the woods it’s a lot of money to spend without any guarantee of leftovers.
Ready meals are quite a bit cheaper than the equivalent delivered food (typically £2 vs. a delivery charge or minimum spend of maybe £10, although the portions would be bigger). I think you’re right about the VAT. And delivery/takeway choices are limited in many areas to the same old Chinese, Indian, Pizza, maybe Thai options that you get everywhere. And you have to wait 30 minutes for them to turn up.
Meanwhile the local Tesco/Sainsbury/etc. hypermarket will have more variety and I would dare to venture often better quality, and you can buy them in advance and eat them whenever the fancy takes you.
Good point. Before anyone goes off on one, this is purely discretionary; nobody is relying on it or is pre-emptively taxed on it, since UK restaurant staff get paid minimum wage or higher.
