This video:
reminded me that there are many places to buy food. Not only are there the greatest places to buy (fresh) food, aka farmer’s markets, but there are more mainstream grocery stores and supermarkets. There’s Whole Foods, and Trader Joe’s and here in SF, there’s Rainbow Grocery for the Organic/Natural foods as well as Safeway and CalFoods and Mollie Stones for just about everything else. There’s also Lucky and some other markets that are just produce or just meat and there are Russian markets and Chinese markets and a bunch of other places to get food to cook at home. So as you can see, we have a variety of places to go food shopping. However, I remember only being able to go to Publix and Walmart for food when I was living in Florida. To me, this was unfortunate because Florida, like California, there’s an abundance of produce at their finger tips. It seems like a waste to have a Walmart in a place like Florida. Though, I guess people mostly buy other things at Walmart than food. Anyway, I thought the discussion I had with a few friends a while back was interesting because it debated shopping in one place versus shopping in multiple places and why. Is it the prices? The convenience? Both? I like to save money when I shop, but I also like getting the best food (though I am brand-loyal to some things) and I know that I might shop at multiple places to get what I want. I know others would shop at multiple places to get the best price. Others just want to buy everything in one store. In. Out. Done. So tell me, where do you get your groceries?
Cake Sharing 
I have a blog post coming about this subject later tonight (foodyarnstuff.wordpress.com). I really wish I could get all my groceries at one place and have them be affordable, fresh, and convenient! But I just don’t think it’s possible! For quite a while I split my ‘fresh shopping’ and ‘pantry shopping’ between Target and Jewel-Osco, they’re right next door to each other and only a mile or so from my house. However, since taking on a vegan diet, Target has almost no ‘alternative’ foods, and Jewel’s produce is horrible! So, I feel like I have to take my entire grocery budget (and some of our ‘eating out’ budget) to Whole Foods in order to get fresh and somewhat affordable (some of their store brand stuff is cheaper than the only ‘organic’ items at Jewel), but produce is more expensive (although always fresh and great looking!) Or split between Trade Joe’s and Whole Foods – neither of which are convenient to my home – or even convenient to go to in the same day really, which stinks because I like to be done with shopping one day a week! Ugh… groceries… who decided we needed to eat at all!! 😉
I know what you mean about getting it all in one place, and being a vegan or vegetarian can be tough, but at least you have a garden to help you out a bit with that! 🙂