Medford Whole Foods bird house?

[m00n.livejournal.com]

Has anyone else noticed that the new(ish) Whole Foods on the Mystic Valley Parkway in Medford has a tiny, wooden bird house attached to the rafters over the bulk display?

What's with that?

I probably would never have noticed except that I went in there today and there was a little sparrow flying around while I was buying my groceries.

Comments

[somertricky.livejournal.com]

Have you looked at other supermarkets in the area? Shaw's seems to have ridiculously high prices (at least on what I'm looking for) compared even to Stop & Shop, nevermind Foodmaster or Market Basket. The cereal I eat every morning is two bucks a box more at Shaw's than it is at Trader Joe's.

Also, there's a food co-op in Central Square with bulk bins.

[sparkgrrl658.livejournal.com]

cereal is outrageous these days anyway, have you noticed? [just a general comment]

anyway, i really loathe stop and shop. they are frequently out of whatever is on sale, and their produce is the worst i've seen of any of the chains. i like shaw's because they often have the brands and things i buy on sale, and i always save a lot with my shaws card. if it wasn't for that, i probably would go elsewhere, but i do pretty well there.
[should also clarify i live in brighton, and spend a lot of time in cambridge, so shaws is also most convenient.]

[tfarrell.livejournal.com]

In my opinion, the best prices on fresh foods in the area are either from Market Basket on Somerville Ave (excellent selection, excellent prices, a bit out of the way - but with the money you save you can easily take a cab home) or right in Davis Square, from McKinnon's and that place across the street from it that I can never remember the name of that has a produce section in front.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

Farmer's Bounty?

[tfarrell.livejournal.com]

Yes, that sounds right.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

If that place replaced their entire convenience store section with more fresh produce they'd have something going for them, and if they made it all organic and as local as possible, they'd have something one-of-a-kind in the area.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

I'd agree about Market Basket's produce, and especially the one in Union Square has quite a diverse selection of unusual fruits and vegetables.

That said, I have to ask: why is it that Whole Foods, the national chain store, carries so many more local brands than any of our locally owned supermarkets combined? It really drives me nuts how almost all of the shelf space at Market Basket/Shaws/Stop & Shop/Foodmaster are completely occupied by products from ADM, ConAgra, or Tyson with few exceptions anywhere in the store. I feel like most of these stores do not sell a single thing that isn't available at supermarkets everywhere in the country.

Also, food + fluorescent lighting + antiseptic smell = yuck.

[syntheticnature.livejournal.com]

I don't know about the rest, but Shaw's is the Boston-area name for the nationwide Albertson's chain - hasn't been particularly local for years and years.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

Touché.

[aki.livejournal.com]

Simple: Carrying local foods are more expensive. Goes hand in hand with the complaints about Whole Foods, really.

(I don't know this as a fact, feel free to point out that I am wrong, but it certainly *seems* to be true, even within WF)

[m00n.livejournal.com]

So what that basically says is that cost is the *only* determining factor in deciding whether or not the regular grocery stores will carry something.

How depressing. Kind of makes you wonder why they bother carrying anything that's not store brand at all.

[somertricky.livejournal.com]

Don't get me started on store brands - Shaw's has been squeezing out products for years. I thought they were the worst offender by far, but yesterday I couldn't find a bottle of RealLemon at Stop & Shop.

Which may have had something to do with the game (there were three bottles of caffeine-free Diet Coke mid-afternoon - the only Coke products left in the entire store), but I didn't see a label on the shelf for RealLemon. Major suck.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

I should point out that in my own experience, the Shaws in Porter Square definitely caters more to the tastes of Cambridge/Somerville than your average Shaws, i.e. more organic products and ethnic foods.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

Also, there's a food co-op in Central Square with bulk bins.

You mean Harvest Co-op (http://www.harvestcoop.com)? I like their store in JP a lot more, and in that neighborhood they are the main organic grocer. The problem with Harvest is that, at least compared to Whole Foods, their stores are dirty and their produce isn't as good (i.e. rotten) and costs more. Their bulk section is nice, and quite extensive, but the store is just so much less pleasant to be in than a Whole Foods, and when I'm buying my food I don't want to be thinking about antiseptic.

[aki.livejournal.com]

Harvest is great for bulk goods, especially grains, but lousy for most other stuff. I have to admit, they have the most extensive selectino of canned tomatoes I've ever seen - I love it. But it's really a terrible place to shop for produce. You're much better off at Shaw's (at the least!)

[aki.livejournal.com]

I haven't found Foodmaster to be much of a bargain for most things. Meat might be cheaper? I dunno, they all feel so seedy that I've stopped going to the, even though the have the best store name EVER.