Happenings: Opening Day at Whole Foods Tribeca

It's open! It's huge and I was completely disoriented, its layout being very different from the one I was accustomed to at Union Square, where you enter on the bakery, deli and cashier level and go down one floor to the rest of the store. At Tribeca, you have one wide-open floor plan. I think I prefer it. When you enter on Greenwich, you are right in the produce department, which I think is the most natural way to start any grocery shopping trip. You also notice things you don't notice at Union Square--like who knew WF made baby food in their deli (or is this a Tribeca thing?) or had so many eco-friendly household products?

It was beautiful! If you've never been to a store on opening day, you'll never know the absolutely perfection of every item on the shelf fully stocked and lined up to the edge. It was like a movie set.

I was surprised at how packed it was for 11 am in the morning! Tribeca housewives and their babies everywhere...not to mention the coterie of WF managers and workers, stationed at every aisle, ready to help you find this or that. Though I have to say, it's going to take them a while to figure out their own store--I was looking for tahini, and woman valiantly tried to find it for me, though she didn't seem to know what tahini was, as she was looking for it in the Asian food aisle. When asked the same question, another man, confident in the way managers are, took me directly to the spot in the deli fridge where the fresh tahini that I indicated I preferred over the shelf-stable version would have been, but alas, it wasn't there. He informed me that some of the stock was still coming in, so I bought the shelf-stable instead. He was really helpful in any case.

There are some new features in the Tribeca store. One is a sushi bar smack in the middle of the store called Genji. You can pull up to the bar and get sushi rolled for you or opt for a bento lunch. I took a look at the menu, and it's on the pricier side.
Exotic salt dispensers. How pretty is that pink salt? And that lavender salt too. Not sure how they taste, however. There are multiple checkout areas and multiple entrances-- one on Warren and one on Greenwich.

I didn't make it to the tour, but I did score a couple samples of really tasty olive oil and these takeaways:
The Kiss My Face soap smells so great, btw. Grapefruit...

All in all, my love of WF has only grown with this latest addition. Funny thing, though--even though the Tribeca location is closer to where I live, it's a couple blocks from the Chambers St. station, so I have to drag my grandma cart further than I do when I go to Union Square. For this reason, I may sometimes go up to Union Square when I have heavy grocery shopping to do. Otherwise, Tribeca is it, baby!

Happenings: Whole Foods Tribeca Opens Tomorrow!!

No more lugging the grandma cart to Union Square! Whoo-hoo! I'm such a dork--I actually went up to Warren Street yesterday morning, thinking it was opening on Monday, but the Whole Foods employees taping the "If you're here for the tour, enter on Greenwich St" sign on the door set me straight. (What tour, btw? Sounds like I missed some free food.) It's tomorrow, folks, and rumor has it the Tribeca location is larger than the Union Square one. Of course, I will report back after my trip tomorrow.

On My Mind: Grocery Day

Today was grocery day. It's always, and I mean always, an ordeal. Even when I go at 10:30 in the morning when they're still stocking the shelves and your few fellow shoppers are little old ladies with pushcarts and women blocking the aisles with strollers. I used to hand-carry all my stuff home, lugging a couple bags in my backpack and grabbing a couple bags in each hand, but now I have this ugly, but functional, folding cloth grocery cart. I console myself with the thought that I'm saving at least 10 paper bags each time. Lugging it up and down subway stairs sucks and I'm never able to buy everything on my shopping list b/c I run out of cart space and arm strength. Today, cauliflower, yogurt, oj, milk, eggs, brie, mozzerella, and chocolate were casualties. I always feel like such a pack mule. I remember the days I just loaded up my trunk and drove home. Anyway....!

Today, I did something different. In my effort to eat more locally, I stopped at the Union Square Greenmarket before heading to Whole Foods. In all these years of walking through the Union Square Greenmarket, I never really stopped to notice the variety of foods you can get here--beef, seafood, turkey, honey, flowering plants, baked goods, apple cider, bread. The honey guys actually bring their bees with them. I sucked on a small spoon of honey the guy gave me as a sample while eyeing the bees-- they were eyeing me back resentfully. "Hey lady! Where you going with our honey!"

I don't know why I have such a hard time buying food at the Greenmarket. It's the prices, I think. There was an article about the high price of organic food in the NYT recently.

In the end, I did buy a pound of cod from the fish guy, figuring it'd be fresher and tastier for tonight's dinner than the frozen stuff at WF. I also picked up some organic portobello mushrooms for $7.00/lb. I couldn't believe the price. I felt pressured to buy b/c I was the only person in the guy's stall and he'd been watching me mumbling to myself about the expense. He wasn't very nice, actually. Charged me $7.14 for a pound of mushrooms - you would think he could have rounded down at least. Oh well. Farmer's lives are hard, I reminded myself. But then I got to WF's produce dept and saw that portobello caps were $3.49 a package. I felt a little screwed. A dollar difference, maybe two, I wouldn't have felt so bad.

Which got me thinking about this constant problem I face grocery shopping in NY--not knowing what's a good deal. How can you tell when everything is overpriced? To solve this problem, I've started a spreadsheet where I record prices of items I regularly purchase from the different markets I most frequent--Whole Foods, Gristedes, Zaytuna, Fresh Direct and deli downstairs and this is what I've noticed.

• There's a reason WF is my all-around favorite--their 365 private label is often cheaper than the equivalent at the other stores and unless you want to trek to Chinatown for produce, there's no more convenient source produce. Yes, there's Manhattan Fruit Exchange and the Greenmarkets, but I'm talking about one-stop shopping here. It also beats Gristedes, whose quality and prices are iffy. What I buy at WF: meat, produce, bread, cheeses, cereal, specialty items, like capers and sun-dried tomatoes, snacks
  
• Zaytuna is very competitively priced, and being right around the corner from me, a great convenience. What I buy here: herbs (basil, tarragon, etc), mid-week replenishment of fruits and veggies, pasta, yogurt, cheese, milk & OJ (b/c it's easier to carrier from here)
• Gristedes depresses me, but I go there b/c on a few items, I'm very brand loyal, as you can see from what I buy here: Quaker Oats oatmeal, Hellman's mayo, Shake and Bake, Skippy peanut butter.
• My deli downstairs...is well, downstairs. I don't even have to change out of my slippers to go there, but I was surprised at how decent their prices can be. What I buy here: beverages, milk, eggs, snacks

So there you have it. I'm still learning. Soon, I'll be reciting prices to you like my mother - "Ack! 3.99 for grapes. I can get them for 2.99 at blah blah blah." One day, when I have kids, they'll thank me.