grocery comparison, round 2

Here we go with another round of grocery comparisons. In this round, a new contender has entered: Walmart.

Although I imagine they may vary quite significantly from time to time, these prices do not reflect any promotions or sales. Values are expressed in US dollars and measured by ounces. Quality, item size, and brand names were not considered in the comparison.

	Walmart	Costco	Winco
all purpose flour	.024/oz	.018/oz (50-lb)	.026/oz
wheat flour	.028/oz	n/a	.030/oz
sugar	.035/oz	.038/oz	.035/oz
brown sugar	.044/oz	.052/oz	.048/oz
maple syrup	.478/oz	.431/oz	.616/oz
molasses	.173/oz	n/a	.180/oz
honey	.196/oz	.146/oz	.140/oz
oats	.059/oz	.043/oz	.037/oz
toasted oat cereal/Cheerios	.132/oz	.133/oz	.111/oz
chocolate chips (semi-sweet)	.211/oz	.136/oz	.142/oz
dried cranberries	?	.156/oz	.229/oz
cinnamon	.523/oz	.248/oz	.139/oz
applesauce	.035/oz	.047/oz	.042/oz
olive oil	.206/oz	.163/oz	.158/oz
canola oil	.058/oz	.056/oz	.049/oz
brown rice	.043/oz	.068/oz	.038/oz
white rice	.039/oz	.022/oz	.031/oz
wheat spaghetti	.075/oz	.070/oz	.063/oz
quinoa	?	.155/oz	.220/oz
garbanzo beans/chickpeas (dry)	.089/oz	n/a	.066/oz
black beans (dry)	.057/oz	n/a	.056/oz
pinto beans (dry)	.047/oz	.035/oz	.043/oz
lentils (dry)	.058/oz	n/a	.054/oz
coconut milk	.104/oz	n/a	.159/oz
soy milk	.039/oz	.033/oz	.040/oz
pecans	.623/oz	.469/oz	.598/oz
almonds	.565/oz	.204/oz	.211/oz
walnuts	.313/oz	.291/oz	.313/oz
pine nuts	1.51/oz	?	1.134/oz
almond butter	?	.219/oz	.264/oz
peanut butter	.073/oz	.154/oz	.111/oz
tortilla chips	.167/oz	.079/oz	.065/oz
corn tortillas	.036/oz	?	.033/oz
flour tortillas	.125/oz	?	.063/oz
tomato sauce	.035/oz	.039/oz	.032/oz
tomato paste	.067/oz	.083/oz	.065/oz
diced tomatoes	.043/oz	.066/oz	.040/oz
butter	.186/oz	.154/oz	.186/oz
milk	.018/oz	.016/oz	.018/oz
eggs	1.00/dozen (lg)	1.13/dozen (xl)	1.10/dozen (lg)
cheddar cheese	.250/oz	.156/oz	.196/oz
orange juice (fresh squeezed)	.051/oz	.047/oz	.044/oz
apple juice	.026/oz	.035/oz	.030/oz
bananas	.033/oz	.031/oz	.033/oz
carrots	.046/oz	.036/oz (10 lb)	.031/oz (5-lb)
celery	.071/oz	.074/oz	.036/oz
gala apples	.059/oz	.083/oz	?
red potatoes	.055/oz	.034/oz	.049/oz
yellow onions	.029/oz	.031/oz	.049/oz
spinach	?	.100/oz	.330/oz
minced garlic	.149/oz	.104/oz	.124/oz
frozen fruit blend	.122/oz	.090/oz	.273/oz
frozen peas	.061/oz	.059/oz	.053/oz
frozen corn	.061/oz	.049/oz	.053/oz
frozen chicken	.145/oz	.130/oz	.162/oz

Another note: I inserted the question mark when I couldn't find the item or was too lazy to go back and look. N/A indicates the item is not carried.

speaking of maps

The other day Tim and I were in the car when we saw something like this:

Yes. We saw a Google Street View car! Awesome, right? I keep checking the street view for that intersection we were at and don't see us yet. (Joke.)

But seriously, it felt like a celebrity sighting.

map-making/art-making, whatever you call it . . .

. . . probably shouldn't be my future profession.

Proof:

I always find it difficult to explain to people who haven't been to our apartment where they should park because there is designated visitor parking and it's a bit sparse. So here's my solution. Which is no solution at all.

I wrote out some contextual information, though, so perhaps you could consider this "piece" (if I call it a "piece," it's art) deep and meaningful that way.

If you as the viewer understood the context, this would make perfect sense to you. I guess maps and art are different. This image doesn't qualify as either.

two spaces

Lately I've been finding myself peeved by seeing two spaces after periods or other sentence-ending punctuation marks instead of one. I'm not really sure why. It's not technically incorrect or anything, but still . . . (If you're interested in the issue, Wikipedia's article is pretty thorough.)

How about you? Any pet peeves showing their pesky little heads lately?

music revelation

Tim read my most recent blog post (the one where I posted "Can't Get It Right Today" by Joe Purdy) and told me he finds that song annoying. Rude!

I laughed.

Back in the day, our differing tastes in music and methods of listening to music (for example, Tim is an album boy, and I am a song girl. Has anyone else discovered this distinction? Is there a name for it?) used to be a real source of tension between us. I used to complain often that Tim was elitist.

Since then, we have taken pleasure from many of our commonalities in music listening. Music tastes, thank goodness, change somewhat from time to time. (I'm honestly shamed now by some of the stuff I used to listen to, but not all of it was bad.) My tastes have certainly been molded by Tim. And to some degree, we have agreed to disagree (-gree -gree -gree). On Tuesday when we were driving back from Sacramento, he even allowed me to control the iPod. What progress! (Though you can bet it was a new artist for each song. Song girl = mix tape.)

I now leave you with another song (via YouTube). This one I discovered and enjoyed back in the "downloading heyday" (2005-2006), a.k.a. the period of musical awakening when my song library was growing exponentially. I still like this particular song.

Can't Get it Right

I felt like this yesterday. Thanks, Sarah, for introducing me to Purdy and this purdy, relatable song.

sleep is important to me

I don't know how you people wake up in the morning when you haven't had approximately 8 hours of sleep. Can't do it.

phantom phone

I forgot my phone when I left for work today. When I got home 10 hours later, I saw that I hadn't missed anything. I admit, I was a little crestfallen.

It's funny how when I don't have my phone, I care that no one tried to contact me. It's the same story when my phone and I are not separated (i.e., no one tries to contact me), but it's not as disappointing somehow.

scenic world

I really love, love, love Beirut.

shape-up

Have any of you gotten a load of these?

I'm not sure I really get the whole "work out without working out!" concept behind these shoes. Smells like a scam. If I wore these shoes every day, would I get a six-pack (they claim to tighten abdominal muscles!)? As beautiful as my abdomen might be if I did, I don't think I'd ever wear them anyway. I guess I'll have to start doing sit ups now. Actually, who am I fooling? I don't care that much about having a beautiful six-pack set of abs.