 |
|
Amuse
Blogs
Food
Life
Links
News
Pictures
Rants
Site
Tech
Words
These days I get paid money to cook for other people. Not a lot of money yet, but that's sort of beside the point because I'm having a great time doing it. Because I cook, I also spend a lot more time than the average person hanging about supermarkets, farm stands, wine shops (well, okay, liquor stores, but "wine shop" doesn't make me sound like a boozehound), and other places to buy all the many and varied ingredients that I use in preparing dishes. So, as you might expect, I've come to have some opinions about them.
By and large, I know where I can get exactly what I want and I also know what to expect from different vendors in terms of quality, but once in a while I make a point of stopping at some of the places I normally don't patronize, just to make sure I am not missing some incredible bargain, undiscovered treasure, or convenient pick-up spot (for food that is; don't get any naughty ideas).
And so yesterday, on my way to go cook for a client, I chose to stop at a Stop & Shop supermarket to pick up a few last-minute items to bring along. I realize "Stop & Shop" is a common name for supermarkets, so I will get a little more specific. I mean this New England supermarket chain and, even more specifically, this particular Stop & Shop (Store #0096). I do not regularly shop at Stop & Shop for anything, but this is the one closest to my house and is right at an onramp to Rt. 95, so it is a convenient place to stop on the way to my client's home. My thinking was that if it turned out to be acceptable in terms of food quality, I could make it a regular stop for some items.
Now, even before I walked in the door, I was not hopeful. There was a time when we were regular Stop & Shop customers, when we lived in our first house (The Little Blue House), because it was convenient and offered better customer service than the other big-player supermarket in town (then Star Market, now Shaw's). But even then we regularly refused to buy some items in that store, most notably produce, because the quality was so poor. We were more willing to drive far out of our way to go to a first-quality farm stand store than to buy the atrocious fruits and vegetables at Stop & Shop. So my expectations for the quality of the produce department were quite low. Unfortunately, everything on my pick-up list was a produce item. Still, for convenience's sake, I was willing to give it a try.
Calling the quality of their produce "atrocious" would be an understatement if you could have seen what I did. Containers of strawberries with visible mold. Rotten and rapidly decaying tomatoes and onions. Withered and spoiled green beans. This store is literally selling garbage and calling it "fresh produce". Fortunately for my client (and for me), the one item I really needed I was able to get directly from a packing crate in good condition, and I was able to make do with what I already had instead of having to purchase this slop.
I'm aware of the realities of our commoditized food industry -- namely that we here in the Northeast are lucky to have fresh produce at all for 10-11 months of the year, because our growing season is painfully attenuated and our climate not suited to growing anything less than "hardy". And I realize that all the grocery chains must, by necessity, buy in vast bulk quantities from growers to supply their stores. But I also know that the pool of produce vendors available to these grocery chains is not terribly large and that they buy from the exact same vendors for many of the items. Even farm stand places like Wilson's and Russo's and Arena Farms buy from these vendors in their off-seasons. And yet there is an undeniable hierarchy of quality of goods, which places those farm markets at the top, more selective grocers like Whole Foods in the middle, and the Stop & Shops and Shaws markets at the very bottom.
I can't tell you how utterly appalled I was, and I am vowing here in this quasi-public forum that Stop & Shop has lost me as a customer for good, not just for their produce, but for anything. Because if that's the way they run their stores, it makes me shudder to think about what you might be buying at the deli, in the fish case, or in any of the other "fresh" items they offer. My professional reputation has to rely in not a small degree on the quality of the ingredients I use, and I can't jeopardize the trust of my clients, not to mention their health and safety, for the sake of a convenient location or a bargain price.
I am sure your client would thank you if she knew. :-)
Posted by shelley [URL] at 06/22/06
© BrianKaneOnline.com 2000-2007