Frozen Four at Ford Field?

[RichH]

[Q]Jerseygirl Wrote:

 Whole Foods is the Noah Welch of grocery stores: vastly overrated.[/q]

That's the sentence of the month, right there.  
 ::laugh::

[CUlater 89]

[Q]RichH Wrote:

 [Q2]Trotsky Wrote:

What the heck is the Ithaca Beer Company?[/Q]
It's a micro-brewery founded by classmates of mine in the late '90s.  The brewery is housed in a former bakery south of Ithaca on Rt. 13.  You can go there for a tour (though it's a very small facility, tastings, and they also fill growlers.  Their beer can be found in lots of stores, bars, and restaurants around the Central NY area.

Personally, I think the beer quality is OK, not outstanding.  Some of their seasonal brews are quite nice, notably the new-ish Cascazilla and Gorges Smoked Porter.  The Apricot Wheat is usually popular for people who like a bit of fruitiness in their beer.


but the website hasn't been updated in a year.[/q]

Their root beer (and one other non-alcoholic beverage) is sold at the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory, although it wasn't anything special the one time I tried it.

[jtwcornell91]

[Q]Jerseygirl Wrote:

 Whole Foods is the Noah Welch of grocery stores: vastly overrated.[/q]

Whole Foods is kind of like an expensive version of Trader Joe's.  I've been doing most of my shopping there since Albertson's pulled out of New Orleans.  Every so often I go to Sav-a-Center if I need something that's not food or not whole (e.g., Coke products), but as often as not I get those things from the Rite Aid on the corner).  The one thing I have to go to Whole Foods for is the bread (again, since Albertson's closed, although Sav-a-Center has started carrying the same baguettes as Whole Foods).  Also, it's more pleasant going to Whole Foods since they know what my canvas shopping bags are for.  The one thing I have to go somewhere else for is breakfast cereal.  Winn-Dixie is just depressing.

[billhoward]

[Q]RichH Wrote:Spouses??  Um, that's an...odd way to put it.  How about shoppers?  Or consumers?  Or people?

Having grown up with a Wegmans right down the street from my house, I guess I took the quality of the chain for granted until I saw how much the out-of-towners appreciated it during my undergrad days in Ithaca.  And I never fully appreciated it until moving to places without Wegs.  And to be fair, having a chain like Wegmans only helps to increase the quality of the competitors in the area as well.

And there are Trader Joes (Traders Joe?) in the east.  MA, LI, CT, Philly, DE, NJ, MD, and VA.  It isn't quite the same if they are in states that don't allow wine sales in grocery stores (NY, CT, PA at least).  Can't beat the price of Two Buck Chuck.
Locations:

Of course, after reading about the cult of Whole Foods in McPaper last month, I'm kinda interested:

And for those of you who aren't in the loop of WNY news, Wegmans was recently named by Fortune Magazine as the #1 company to work for in America.[/q]It's a gender thing. Should have said wives not spouses. My wife and her friends spend a half-hour at cocktail parties talking up TJ to lord it over friends living in non-TJ towns. The men are off on more important topics like regular vs. synthetic motor oil, or DirecTV high-def vs. cable high-def.

You can't beat the price of two buck Chuck ... but the quality, well, there's so much you can do with a $3.50 bottle of wine no matter how respected the grocery store it comes out of. None of the spouses cited in the above paragraph ever bring TBC as a hostess gift. A selection of passable cheap wine is nice, but wouldn't you rather have the two full aisles of wines available in any half-fast California grocery store?

No matter how great a place Wegman's is to work, it you're making $8 an hour and working Friday nights and Sundays, it ain't such a great place to work.

You are absolutely right that Wegman's is first rate and a good store makes competitors get better or be gone.

[Rita]

and as the clock strikes 4, i'm reminded about the best thing about trader joe's.... big blocks of ghiradelli chocolate for ~ $1.50 each. ymmmmm. perfect for keeping in your office when the afternoon sugar low hits.

[CUlater 89]

[Q]billhoward Wrote:

 It's a gender thing. Should have said wives not spouses. My wife and her friends spend a half-hour at cocktail parties talking up TJ to lord it over friends living in non-TJ towns. The men are off on more important topics like regular vs. synthetic motor oil, or DirecTV high-def vs. cable high-def.

[/q]

I don't that is really typical.  Consider that most of the people discussing this "issue" here are male, or visit Chowhound.com to see how many folks (females and males) chime on the merits of TJs, Wegmans and other markets.

[KeithK]

Using an internet site as a basis for assessing the interest of various groups (in this case men vs. women) is no better than using anecdotes (as Bill is).  Lots of self-selection involved.  

[billhoward]

This could lead to a continuation of the Must All Great Chefs Be Male? discussion. I don't think they must. But if you read Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential you might suspect the Animal House nature of some great restaurant kitchens would contribute to the preponderance of men.

Reading Kitchen Confidential is a better use of time than talking up Trader Joes. Because only by reading KC will one understand the first rule of dining out: Never order seafood on Monday.

Corollary? If Cornell fans watched Harvard play in the Beanpot (always held Mondays), it would be unmannerly to toss fish, no matter how much you dislike Noah Welch.

[judy]

[Q]CUlater 89 Wrote:

I don't that is really typical.  Consider that most of the people discussing this "issue" here are male, or visit Chowhound.com to see how many folks (females and males) chime on the merits of TJs, Wegmans and other markets.[/q]

You do realize this is primarily a hockey message board...right? That may have something to do with the lack of female opinions. :-P Us females are few and far between but we are here.

mmm...Whole Foods...
They could easily take my entire paycheck. Great pre-made section (can't compare to Wegman's except that they're closer). And it's a great way to clean out your system...just be careful if you only eat from whole foods for 2 straight weeks, the first drop of grease might send you into shock.
Is Trader Joe's also all organic? I'll admit that the presentation of foods at W.F. keeps me going back...and sometimes, I can just eat dinner there with all the samples they have

[billhoward]

This conversation about Wegman's vs. Trader Joe vs. Whole Foods must be disheartening to students on this board whose choices center on campus food, campus food, and campus food.

[Trotsky]

But the females we have... they are SUPERIOR females. [/deadpan]

[Liz '05]

[Q]billhoward Wrote:

 This conversation about Wegman's vs. Trader Joe vs. Whole Foods must be disheartening to students on this board whose choices center on campus food, campus food, and campus food. [/q]

Nah, my choices have never centered exclusively on campus food.  Primarily, yes, but only when I was a freshman.  Since then, I've got Collegetown restaurants to eat at - and eat there I do, since I'm too lazy to cook anything other than a microwaved meal - and Wegman's to shop at when I either pretend that I'll cook or decide to split a bottle of wine and block of cheese with a friend as "dinner."

On a side note, Ithaca was beautiful today B-]

[CUlater 89]

[Q]judy Wrote:

 You do realize this is primarily a hockey message board...right? That may have something to do with the lack of female opinions.  Us females are few and far between but we are here.[/Q]

[Q]KeithK Wrote:

Using an internet site as a basis for assessing the interest of various groups (in this case men vs. women) is no better than using anecdotes (as Bill is). Lots of self-selection involved[/Q]

Umm, my point was that the food shopping topic (like hockey) is no longer a one-sex topic of discussion.  As evidence that some males can speak knowledgably about the relative merits of different markets, I cited the discussions here and at one of the most popular food discussion forums.  Thus, my experience has been that many males also take part in such discussions.

[Q]judy Wrote:

Is Trader Joe's also all organic? [/Q]

No.

[KeithK]

[q]Umm, my point was that the food shopping topic (like hockey) is no longer a one-sex topic of discussion. As evidence that some males can speak knowledgably about the relative merits of different markets, I cited the discussions here and at one of the most popular food discussion forums. Thus, my experience has been that many males also take part in such discussions.[/q]I get your point and you may well be right.  But the only evidence you cited was internet chat boards and one really shouldn't draw many conclusions from that.

I would guess that you're right - food-shopping is no longer a one-sex discussion, particularly among younger and more urban people.  I would also suspect that it's a topic that is stil more important to women than to men overall.  But that's just based on intuition, which is even less reliable than self-selected internet surveys!

[ugarte]

[Q]billhoward Wrote:

 This conversation about Wegman's vs. Trader Joe vs. Whole Foods must be disheartening to students on this board whose choices center on campus food, campus food, and campus food. [/q]This was an attitude that drove me crazy when I was in school. At Cornell, the campus food is awesome. I spent three semesters at SUNY-Albany, where the dining hall norm would have been grounds for a s.1983 suit if served in prison.