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December 5, 2008

Rainbow Grocery! ()

by fluffy at 7:37 PM
Why did it take me so long to try them out? They are a lot like Ballard Market back in Seattle!

I'll still go to Safeway for a lot of things though. Rainbow's flour selection was surprisingly lacking (they carry King Arthur, but they didn't seem to have their bread flour, and the bread flour they did have was extraordinarily expensive), and their chocolate selection was abysmal. (Not that Safeway's any better in that regard.) But for bulk foods (dried beans and fruit, olive oil, and so on) Rainbow seriously kicks ass.

It's a bit annoying that in order to get my SFBC discount I had to show both my SFBC card and my driver's license, though, but I guess that cuts down on possible fraud. Also, the cashier had a level of smugness which far exceeded even Trader Joe levels of smug.

Meanwhile I must stop myself from eating any more dried mango and apricots before I turn into an all-night poop machine.

Comments

#11534 12/06/2008 01:11 am
I had a similar experience with the Milk Pail Market in Mountain View, wihch I stumbed across while looking for a bus after failing to rendezvous with my taxi somewhere east of San Antonio shopping centre. The initial conditions were a little inconvenient to replicate, so it was a while until I found it again.

Anyway, it's sort of a minimal union of Whole Foods and Trader Joes, with some of the staples that the latter doesn't carry, without being a Wall of Everything like the former.
#11535 12/06/2008 01:16 am
Most likely I will be using Rainbow for bulk dried foods (and olive oil) and fresh produce. I think for everything else I'm better served at Safeway, frankly.

Mostly it's nice that I can still get most of the things I relied on Whole Foods for without going out of my way and without supporting their ridiculous anticompetitive behavior.

Oh, and as far as chocolate goes, a month ago I did discover that the Walgreen's by work has a surprisingly good selection. I just feel kind of weird about going to Walgreen's just to buy candy when it's not along with a prescription or whatever. At Whole Foods I could justify buying a bunch of chocolate on every visit since it was while I was already shopping for other things. When I go on a specific candy-buying trip I feel like the fatass that I am.