My Hatred for Jewel is Raw and Unmatched

Or slightly itchy. This is in MPSIMS because, honestly, it’s a flipping grocery store. And also because there can be no rational disagreement, because Jewel is the spawn of Satan.

It wasn’t like this at the beginning. When I was but a wee little Angel, Jewel was the Mecca of all things grocery. They were some of the first ones to come out with generic brands–and nothing brings back the nostalgia like going through the utility room and finding a olive-accented-white box with “BLEACH” stenciled across it in flat black. Later, when they had mostly retired the austere 80s look (ha! Bet that’s the first time anyone’s ever said that), they had the President’s Choice brand.

Now, the President’s Choice brand was an example of everything that was right with Canada (except for Cherry Blossoms, but, again, I digress) that was imported to the US and sold as a local innovation right here in Chicago. They had awesome cookies, and awesome macaroni and cheese. I mean, seriously; the macaroni and cheese was good enough that my sister and I preferred it to Kraft as children. And Kraft Macaroni & Cheese is kidnip.

Right around the time that I left for college, though, I noticed that things had changed. They stopped carrying President’s Choice Macaroni & Cheese. And the really good cookies. The aisles seemed to get narrower. The stores got more crowded. That’s not really Jewel’s fault, except that they apparently pump something in the air that makes people not look where they’re going.

But I still went there sometimes. Not all the time, 'cause, really, their prices are insane, and not in the Crazy Eddie I’m-gonna-get-admitted-to-the-asylum-'cause-it’s-so-cheap way. No–they’re crazy in the you-want-how-much-for-that way. Pretty much every grocery store here that’s not Dominick’s is cheaper. But that didn’t matter to me, as long as they had Chef’s Kitchen Frozen Pizza in cheese & sausage.

For me, this was how frozen pizza was supposed to be. Granted, that might be because I grew up on 'em, but a lot of people here on the SDMB liked it, too. And whenever they went on sale, those suckers sold out.

Of course, that won’t happen now, because the Jewels here have stopped carrying them. When I asked, they said that they’d been discontinued in favor of the take and bake, which are sold at the Chef’s Kitchen station. Explanations of the fact that Chef’s Kitchen the brand is kind of different were to no avail, and the take and bakes are both more expensive ($8.99! I’ll just order Pizza Slut, thanks) and way too big for my needs. Plus the sausage looks different and weird and creepy and not frozen.

So. . .Jewel. I hates it. And, I swear, now that they’re out of Moro oranges (whistles innocently), I won’t be there for at least four or five months. Until peaches are back in season. Because I love me some on-the-way-home peaches.

Stupid pizza-killing bastards.

Were you expecting them to save your soul or something?

I guess you weren’t meant for her, nor she for you, after all.

Yeah, well. . .these foolish grocery games’re tearing me apart.

(I’m in Chicago. Jewel’s a grocery store. It didn’t occur to me that Jewel is also a singer :o )

I came here to express my heartfelt support, and was jazzed when my eyes passed over

Then I saw it was about the grocery stores, not the singer.

I got nuthin’ now.

Well, she did steal Joel’s sister’s boyfriend for a while, but that was years ago.

I was kind of hoping this thread would be about the singer…damn,I got nuthin’. We have Publix and Winn Dixie here and neither one of them has pissed me off to any noticeable degree lately.

I want you to know that you’re not alone Angel. I was in Jewel on Sunday to buy a few frozen pizzas. The family next to me was doing the same – ranting and raving about the loss of Chef’s Kitchen.

And FWIW, I live in Chicagoland, but still thought this was about the singer at first.

This is terrible news indeed. I must go there immediately (after work) to verify that this is not some cruel practical joke. If this is true, my world is no more.

Even worse than thinking the OP meant the singer, I misread the title as “Jews”.

Yeah, those original Jewel-brand frozen pizzas were good. Otherwise, I have no use for Jewel, except the occasional alcohol run. Their produce prices are a LOT more expensive and their selection a lot worse than some of the other groceries near me (Pete’s Market or Cermak Produce, to name a couple.)

But you’re right, I do remember them being much better and economical back in the day. But their produce prices are the main reason I never go back to them.

I thought you were talking about the singer as well. The local theater played one of her new music videos before the Percy Jackson movie. Meh.

I did the same thing, upon rereading, I thought the OP was going to be a bad grocery tale about the singer. Call me ignorant, but I’ve never heard of Jewel, the grocery store

I wonder how many pages that thread would run and how quickly the mods would lock it.

I miss Jewel’s! Or maybe I just miss American grocery stores in general.

On a side note, I don’t know why I always think of it as Jewel’s when it’s actually Jewel.

Because that’s our little Chicagoan quirk. We like to put possessives at the end of a number of business names that don’t have them.

Like Walmart’s? That doesn’t make sense… I always assumed that Sam Walton was a good guy and would never “own” anything in that sense of the word. Always.

I’ll bet those take-n-bake pizzas beat the pants off of Pizza Hut or Dominoes. I get Pappa Murphy’s all the time, and it’s some of the best pizza to be had. I know they are more expensive than the Chef’s kitchen ones, so it’s not a replacement, but you said if you had to pay that much you would go to Pizza Hut. You might want to rethink that. It sounds like they use pretty good sausage too, because that stuff you get from most chains or frozen pizzas is pure crap. Proper sausage should be raw and unfrozen when you put it the pizza in the oven.

Now, now. Jewel does have the new brand–Culinary Circle-the pasta is fantastic! And the pizza, too. Jewel is now owned by Safeway (has been for a few years), so blame Safeway for the changes.

i was expecting this to be about the singer