# Is there anything more difficult to find in a grocery store than Velveeta? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 13, 2017, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-more-difficult-to-find-in-a-grocery-store-than-velveeta/784383 "2017-04-13T15:50:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2017, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-more-difficult-to-find-in-a-grocery-store-than-velveeta/784383/21 "2017-04-13T17:20:11Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > I would eat the hell out of that. > > I always think peanut butter is hardest to find in a strange store. My current store puts it on the bread aisle. So does mine, along with the jellies/preserves. It makes sense to me. So many people like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. They carry the Velveeta in the pasta aisle. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2017, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-more-difficult-to-find-in-a-grocery-store-than-velveeta/784383/22 "2017-04-13T17:31:02Z")
I was in WalMart once trying to buy grated Parmesan. I asked three different employees, they all thought they knew where it was, but it wasn’t there. Then, the other day, I was as my usual supermarket, and I looked where it used to be, and it had been moved half way across the store, to a completely different area. My store also puts Brauhschweiger among the spreadable cheeses, because they don’t know that it’s meat. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2017, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-more-difficult-to-find-in-a-grocery-store-than-velveeta/784383/23 "2017-04-13T17:37:37Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > But the real puzzler is sauerkraut. You ask someone and they send you to one place. A person there sends you to another part of the store, etc. No one will know where it is! There are even employees that don’t even know what it is. Oh, good one. Our store keeps different types in different places. I think you can find it in a bag near the hot dogs, and also in jars in the refrigerated section. Near the eggs. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2017, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-more-difficult-to-find-in-a-grocery-store-than-velveeta/784383/24 "2017-04-13T17:39:30Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > I was in WalMart once trying to buy grated Parmesan. I asked three different employees, they all thought they knew where it was, but it wasn’t there. Then, the other day, I was as my usual supermarket, and I looked where it used to be, and it had been moved half way across the store, to a completely different area. > > My store also puts Brauhschweiger among the spreadable cheeses, because they don’t know that it’s meat. That’s generally where I find it, but all those things are pretty close together: deli meats, sliced cheeses, spreadable cheeses, braunschweiger. And it’s clearly not the case that they’re mistaking it for cheese, at least here, because one of the brands (Scott Peterson), you can actually see the liver sausage itself. The meats and cheeses that you can hang up in their packaging get hung up, and the ones that require shelves (like the spreadable cheeses, braunschweiger, hummus and whatnot) get their own area. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2017, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-more-difficult-to-find-in-a-grocery-store-than-velveeta/784383/25 "2017-04-13T17:52:04Z")
More difficult — powdered milk and shredded coconut ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2017, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-more-difficult-to-find-in-a-grocery-store-than-velveeta/784383/26 "2017-04-13T18:00:37Z")
Around here, hot oil (chili-infused oil). It _ought_ to be easy, but the supermarkets here seem to only carry it when they feel like it. When they do, it might be in with Ethnic Foods or it might be with Sauces. You never can tell. Similarly, one store here feels the same way about Dove Dark Chocolate Promises (Pepper Mill’s Favorites). Not the other Dove chocolate varieties – they’re always there. But they apparently capriciously decide sometimes that they’re not going to carry Dark any more. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2017, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-more-difficult-to-find-in-a-grocery-store-than-velveeta/784383/27 "2017-04-13T18:08:40Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Around here, hot oil (chili-infused oil). > It _ought_ to be easy, but the supermarkets here seem to only carry it when they feel like it. When they do, it might be in with Ethnic Foods or it might be with Sauces. You never can tell. One that infuriated me was a brand of tomato sauce called [6-in-1.](http://www.escalon.net/products/6-in-1/All-Purpose-Ground-Tomatoes) Actually, they’re ground tomatoes, and they are perfect for all manners of pasta and pizza sauce making. Love the stuff and it’s a fairly usual ingredient for at least being the base of Chicago thin crust pizza sauces. Anyhow, there was one store (Mariano’s) where I never could find it, so I assumed they didn’t stock it. Until ond day I went to the Italian import aisle, where it was there alongside all the imported tomatoes. All the other domestic brands are in the regular canned tomato aisle but, for whatever reason, 6-in-1 ends up in the ethnic aisle. I mean, does it even _sound_ like an import brand? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2017, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-more-difficult-to-find-in-a-grocery-store-than-velveeta/784383/28 "2017-04-13T18:24:12Z")
Preach it, OP! Around here the two main stores stock Velveeta either on the “International” aisle (?) or between the mustards and the salad dressings (??). Neither aisle is near the Velveeta & Shells, which is with the rest of the mac & cheese stuff right next to the Hamburger Helper and canned soup. ---
**Author:** ![Pabitel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bbce88/32.png) [@Pabitel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pabitel)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2017, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-more-difficult-to-find-in-a-grocery-store-than-velveeta/784383/29 "2017-04-13T18:32:49Z")
Try finding ghee, or tahini, or pesto. Most large groceries now carry these even in the hinterland where I live. But the ghee isn’t with the other shortenings or oils, The tahini isn’t with the peanut butter or nuts and the pesto isn’t with the other Italian foods. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Zyada](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zyada/32/3028_2.png) [@Zyada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyada)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2017, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-more-difficult-to-find-in-a-grocery-store-than-velveeta/784383/30 "2017-04-13T18:34:18Z")
Raisins. Sometimes it’s in the baking aisle, sometimes in the aisle with the sweet snacks. One place had a small display of dried fruits in the fresh fruit section. Another had the white raisins in the baking aisle and the rest elsewhere. I swear I once found them between fruit juice and (dry) cereal. Since there are more dried fruits as snacks nowadays, at least they tend to be easier to find as they take up more room. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2017, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-more-difficult-to-find-in-a-grocery-store-than-velveeta/784383/31 "2017-04-13T18:41:16Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > I was in WalMart once trying to buy grated Parmesan. That would have been my nomination. And bread crumbs. Both ingredients in my go-to salmon recipe. I’ve also had difficulty finding taco shells, and the little envelop of taco seasoning. You ever have the experience where your local store seems to just move things around to fuck with you? My local supermarket completely reorganized a couple of years ago. For a good year after that, it was almost amusing to see all of the shoppers essentially engaged in a scavenger hunt. “Well it was RIGHT HERE last week!” Seems to have calmed down since. And why don’t all stores of a single brand sock similar products arranged similarly? Our suburb has 2 Jewels, but they are laid out completely differently, and each one has some products which the other never stocks. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2017, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-more-difficult-to-find-in-a-grocery-store-than-velveeta/784383/32 "2017-04-13T18:52:01Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > You ever have the experience where your local store seems to just move things around to fuck with you? Yes. I’ve bitched about it a number of times here on the board. And since I last posted this in [November](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=809818), they’ve rearranged the produce twice in that time, most recently a few weeks ago. > [@](#): > > This drives me crazy, too, OP. My local grocery store pulls this sort of shit at least once or twice a year, although it feels like three or four times a year to me. And it’s not moving the goods up or down a few shelves; it can be on the shelf across from where it originally was, it could be in an adjacent aisle, or it could be clear in a another part of the store, depending on the item. Fuck, they even do this with produce. Green peppers used to be on the left wall when you walk in. Now, they’re about twenty yards away on the right wall. Lettuce used to be on the right; now it’s on the left. LIquor section, same shit. Wne use to be aisles two and three, with hard spirits against the wall and across from it. Now wine is on the wall, spirits in aisles two and three. The bread has moved around so many god damned times in the store. Sometimes it’s in the aisle against the fridges. Sometimes, the aisle before that, sometimes on free-standing shelving in the middle of the store by the deli section. Cans of peanuts went all the way from aisle 10 to aisle 2. Drives me absolutely fucking batty, ask my wife. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2017, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-more-difficult-to-find-in-a-grocery-store-than-velveeta/784383/33 "2017-04-13T19:24:51Z")
Moving over to CS. ---
**Author:** ![sitchensis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sitchensis/32/4892_2.png) [@sitchensis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sitchensis)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2017, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-more-difficult-to-find-in-a-grocery-store-than-velveeta/784383/34 "2017-04-13T19:25:18Z")
Jiffy muffin mix. Sometimes it’s with the flour. Sometimes near the cake mixes. One time it was with the pancake mix. Some stores try and keep corn muffin mix with the others. Some stores separate corn muffin mix off with the other corn muffin mixes. It doesn’t help that the boxes are pretty small and usually tucked up high on a shelf. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2017, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-more-difficult-to-find-in-a-grocery-store-than-velveeta/784383/35 "2017-04-13T19:26:49Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Yes. I’ve bitched about it a number of times here on the board. And since I last posted this in [November](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=809818), … Wish I’d seen that Pit thread. I thought I was a bear in stores, but my wife is friggin BRUTAL. Clerk asks, “Can I help you?” We ask a question and it is immediately apparent that clerk know NOTHING about their stock, as they proceed to read the carton or something. To which my wife says, “Apparently you CAN’T!” Or we go to check out, and the cashier starts asking us about our plans, or commenting about our selections, and my wife says something like, “I’d prefer if we restrict this relationship to a business transaction.” Makes me realize how she puts up with the likes of ME! ---
**Author:** ![Lee\_Q](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/aeb1de/32.png) [@Lee\_Q](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lee_Q)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2017, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-more-difficult-to-find-in-a-grocery-store-than-velveeta/784383/36 "2017-04-13T23:44:44Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > We need an app for this. > > Seriously. > > Home Depot’s web site tells you if an item is in stock and gives the aisle for a specific store. > > Big grocery chains should do the same. > > An App that let you choose the store. Enter cereal. And it says aisle 3A I think Walmart has an app that tells you the aisle, though I have never used it. My vote for something impossible to find and never where it logically should be is chocolate syrup, the kind you have on ice cream. Once in a while a store will have some of those wire basket thingys attached to a door on the ice cream aisle, the kind of basket that holds specialty or one-off items like toys. But even then it’s usually a generic kind, never Hershey’s and certainly not the more ‘gourmet’ kinds of toppings. WHY??? Why would a store stock this item anywhere else except near the ice cream or, at minimum, milk? I buy it so seldom that anytime I do, I’ve forgotten again where it’s located in the store and have to ask every single time unless I want to walk up and down, up and down. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2017, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-more-difficult-to-find-in-a-grocery-store-than-velveeta/784383/37 "2017-04-14T00:02:42Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Preach it, OP! Around here the two main stores stock Velveeta either on the “International” aisle (?) Maybe they thought it was Finnish. 😃 All it’s missing is a couple umlauts. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2017, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-more-difficult-to-find-in-a-grocery-store-than-velveeta/784383/38 "2017-04-14T00:03:00Z")
Marshmallow Fluff. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2017, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-more-difficult-to-find-in-a-grocery-store-than-velveeta/784383/39 "2017-04-14T00:27:47Z")
It’s plentiful, stacked up on a shelf in the refrigerated (mundane) cheese section. Right above the cello-wrapped 'Murican cheese slices, the 2/$5 blocks of cheese, the Baby Bells, the hummus, the port wine cheese balls. Right round the corner from the cream cheese, onion dip, sour cream, I’ve never seen it otherwise than in this cheese section. Right across from the yogurt/cottage cheese/cheese sticks and sliced cellophaned Sargento cheese/ ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2017, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-more-difficult-to-find-in-a-grocery-store-than-velveeta/784383/40 "2017-04-14T00:31:03Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > It’s plentiful, stacked up on a shelf in the refrigerated (mundane) cheese section. Right above the cello-wrapped 'Murican cheese slices, the 2/$5 blocks of cheese, the Baby Bells, the hummus, the port wine cheese balls. Right round the corner from the cream cheese, onion dip, sour cream, I’ve never seen it otherwise than in this cheese section. Right across from the yogurt/cottage cheese/cheese sticks and sliced cellophaned Sargento cheese/ If you’re speaking of Velveeta, quite often, around here, it’s not in a refrigerated section at all, but rather on the store shelves at room temperature. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-more-difficult-to-find-in-a-grocery-store-than-velveeta/784383.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-more-difficult-to-find-in-a-grocery-store-than-velveeta/784383.md?page=3)