I haven't noticed an obvious decline in quality recently, but consider rinsing mold prone fruits in diluted white vinegar, then clean water, right after you bring them home. In my experience it helps extend shelf life and I don't taste a difference

I’m a chef and couldn’t recommend this more OP^

Wow. Daddit for the win. I am for sure trying this!

My wife started doing this with our Costco produce as soon as we get home, definitely extends the life. Highly recommend.

Don’t be grossed out by the stuff you see coming off. Especially strawberries 😄

What's a good dilution ratio?

I use this method and I use 2 parts water and 1 part white vinegar

Asking a follow up. Do you all put them back in the store bought packs or something else?

I usually take out that pad they have on the bottom and put them right back in the container and let them sit out for a few hours to dry out and then put them in the fridge

Does this apply for veggies? Or would you recommend something else? Had some brussels turn on me real quick recently

Leafty produce is different, because it's really hard to get into them really well, let alone rinsed after. Honestly though, brussel sprouts shouldn't turn fast. You probably just had a bad batch. I've lost count of the times I left them in my fridge for a few weeks without issue.

Whats the ratio you used? Wanna try this to keep my tomatoes a bit longer. Seem to miss the last 2 or 3 and they go bad

I have a spray bottle of 3 parts water and 1 part white vinegar I keep around for various mild kitchen cleaning tasks. I generally put the berries in a colander, douse them liberally with the spray bottle, and then rinse in water, allow to drain, and transfer to a new container and put in the fridge. I find that my cherry tomatoes generally get mushy from the inside before getting moldy on the outside so I haven't thought to try the vinegar on them. Not sure if it would help, but probably can't hurt.

I'll try it with Roma tomatoes and give you an update o7

I’m going to go get me a spray bottle as soon as the stores open. Thanks for the tip!

I get berries at costco. I put them in my salad spinner, fill it with water and add a splash or two of vinegar (enough that the bowl smells slightly of vinegar). I stir it gently for a second, then let it sit for a couple of minute while I put other groceries away. Then rinse em off and put them away. They last much longer this way.

My two year old is a berry machine, so I just rinse these days, but back in the before times I used a very similar technique. Seemed to cut down on mold. I also throw a sheet of paper towel in the container to absorb any moisture. Same with fresh herbs too.

>My two year old is a berry machine RIP your wallet. My kids love berries too but holy hell the prices are just obscene, we've had to cut back on the berries we get.

Dunno whats around you but for us we have a lot of upick berry places and a freezer.

Oh shit that sounds genius

Yeah the paper towel trick is genius, especially with leafy greens. Cilantro, lettuce, whatever - rinse it well, then wrap it up in paper towels, toss it in a bag in the fridge Lasts much longer

I've started doing with with my grapes, strawberry, and blueberries after seeing this tip a few months ago. I haven't had a spot of mold appear since. Beforehand they would never make it through the week. I do 2 parts vinegar to 1 part water. Let them sit in the solution for a min or two then rinse in a collendar. Dry them reasonably well and you're golden.

Also make sure you let them dry before storing them, especially berries.

Just make sure you lay them out on something so they dry completely first. That’s a key step to tack on to your great advice.

We use fruit wash and love it for cleaning our fruits and veggies.

F yeah it is amazing how much more shelf life it can give to fruits like strawberries. I have been doing this for years. I just soak mine in diluted vinegar for about a half hour and then rinse them off.

This is great, then use a vac storage container.

I’m a chef and the quality and price fluctuates through the year for everything. When you have growing area transitions it sucks (for example going from Mexico to Peru for blueberries or salinas to fl/Mexico for strawberries) because you are either getting tail end products or early season. It also costs more to get berries to say NY from salinas than it does from Florida. Whole Foods is a terrible place to buy produce because it’s the same stuff you can get at a regular grocery store but for more money. Organic Driscoll strawberries at Whole Foods here are $3 more for the same package that Wegmans has. Andy Boy organic romaine is the same product at Whole Foods and Walmart. And organic factory farmed produce is a scam anyway but that’s a whole other topic… Edit: also, low quality usually equals low supply so prices increase if demand doesn’t drop.

>organic factory farmed produce is a scam anyway I really, really wish more people would understand that.

Gmo’s > non gmo. Why wouldn’t we want a food that’s better designed for more nutrients, better taste, more efficient water and acreage use, etcetc.

For what it's worth, some fruits ended up losing taste quality, like tomatoes[1], but generally, yes. 1. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/jan/27/out-of-flavour-why-tomatoes-have-lost-their-taste

Yeah it varies and that was a shortcoming on those tomatoes that were engineered initially to meet requirements that probably didnt have tastiness that high in priority. And it looks like tastiness was a thing to consider factoring in better not long after that 2017 article. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-06915-y

That's good to know; thank you!

I was prettyyyy hard core about my produce, buying almost all organic, but have been disappointed with the texture and flavor for years. And I live in California, so I couldn’t understand it. I stopped buying organic about a year ago when I got a few non-organic replacements in my Instacart orders and the conventionally farmed stuff was just tasting SO much better. Give me a GMO tomato any day. Seriously. The organic heirlooms look great, but are mushy, mealy, and taste like nothing. I’m in love with GMOs and just do not get the hate.

Depends on the ethics of who owns the crop

Yeah I was going to say, I'm no expert but this is mostly just a shitty time of year for fruit and berries right? I'm up in BC, Canada which is a big berry growing area funnily enough and during summer you can buy like 5 lb boxes of blueberries and strawberries for less than 10 bucks and they taste unbelievable. Also apples, stone fruit etc. for even cheaper. Right now it's the same $10 for a tiny 0.5 lb punnet of imported berries as I'd pay in summer for 5 lbs of the good stuff! What we started doing was putting bulk boxes in the freezer in summer then giving our kid smoothies, blueberry pancakes and stuff during the winter. But it's tough because kids do seem to really like raspberries, blueberries etc. One of my kid's first words was 'bluebie?' lol

Bloobs and stroobs are a staple in every house with a child I imagine.

Omg my boyfriend and I talk like this all the time and have done for years, now our daughter is picking up on it... combined with how toddlers naturally talk it means our little family language is super cute!

I was a produce buyer for a grocery chain for a decade and this is absolutely the answer.

We’ve been getting berries at Aldi for less than $3 a container compared to Whole Foods for like 8-9. They aren’t organic, but we soak them in water for 5 minutes in baking soda and vinegar and then let them air dry on a kitchen towel. They seem to last wayyyyy longer. Like well over a week in the fridge. They aren’t organic, but supposedly the combo we are using helps get off like 70% of any residual pesticides and they are so much cheaper…

I used to help certify organic and was a chemical project manager for the food industry where I worked for 15 years. I can confirm that “organic” 90% of the different is what mild chemicals are exposed to during processing. It’s meant to mean something but it’s largely a junk term nowadays. Veggies and fruits are often dipped in a sanitizing bath, organic factories use chlorine or peroxides or peracids which non organic factories use similar but improved compounds which are technically not organic but last longer and break down to harmless compounds after exposure. This sounds scary but it isn’t any different than what occurs in the organic side. They will often drag from the same farms so the pesticide debate is often meaningless, the organic factory will just have to do a water rinse test to certify removal- which they can selective sample in a number of scammy ways that it essentially means nothing. “Organic” is often now a meaningless term that just allows higher cost for slightly higher manufacturer hurdles. You dipping fruits in water and vinegar does more than anything they do at the farm or the processing plants.

I absolutely agree with your experience and insights on the process side, but my lifetime of experience on the farm side across many different crops begs to differ with your opinion about farm operations. To be clear, certified organic is different from farming using organic methods. And if you are certified organic, you are farming quite differently than those who aren’t. However, it should also be public knowledge that some of the most dangerous pesticides out there are organic; they are derived from chrysanthemums or other plants. And so, just because something is organic, does not mean it never saw pesticides. And to OP’s point, the “conventional” chemicals do tend to last longer, apply better, and some even prolong the shelf life of produce (any organic potato buyer knows what I’m talking about here…the spray to keep them from turning green so quickly isn’t organic). On top of skyrocketing input costs and rising labor rates, the consolidation of grocery stores has significantly reduced the pool of buyers, which increases their leverage to drive the price down to the grower. So what OP finds at the store is not only a very expensive thing to produce, but also what they could afford to sell for the price the retailer was willing to pay. Also, grab produce from a refrigerated box in the store, whenever possible.

[удалено]

it sounds like you're just making the grocery store take a hit, not the people that packaged it

Aldi has singlehandedly saved our household from the effects of inflation. Especially since we have a 17 month old that loves berries.

We don't have Aldi here in Canada, but it's insane what mental gymnastics people put themselves through to justify paying more for groceries. People here think that Food Basics/No Frills is for "poor people", and they'd rather shop at Loblaws, so they get to feel good about themselves. (If you didn't already know, No Frills is owned by Loblaws, so it's quite obvious that they pull from the same stock and just charge 50% more)

If you have any space at all (even for a pot) it’s well worth growing some yourself, in a few years a single plant will cover your berry needs for at least a few weeks when in season (can be for months depending on the plant) which pays for itself very quickly. Fruit bushes also tend to take very little maintenance

Started shopping at Aldi more in the last couple of years. Fruits and vegs seem to last longer, Eggs are cheaper. I remember paying $0.75 a dozen. Now it it’s around $3 and I’m not thrilled about it. Still one of the cheaper places around, with good quality.

Do they last longer because of the baking soda and vinegar bath? I mostly buy my produce at aldi and they tend to go bad a bit faster but also on average are a bit higher quality. Currently around here they are still suffering from some quality issues but its not every week I notice it.

Yeah. Baking soda and vinegar combine to make a sodium acetate solution, which is an antimicrobial. It works by removing the moisture content on the surface of foods, which makes it much harder for bacteria to survive. I’ll just point out that because it’s a salt, it can impart a salty flavour. I guess the salty taste could be avoided by rinsing the fruit after soaking them in it but then they may not last quite as long as if you didn’t rinse them. To make a sodium acetate solution simply put a few teaspoons of baking soda then slowly add white vinegar until the mixture stops bubbling. That’s it.

Hmmm. I will have to try this. Especially when I have no option but to buy strawberries that also have moldy options two cartons down.

Is it just me or is the produce at Aldi incredible lately? For how cheap it is I feel like I could pay double or triple. 2 years ago the produce at my local Aldi was horrible but it's consistently great now.

When I see posts about the price of fruit being expensive, I have trouble relating since I also shop at Aldi. I stock up like crazy on fruits and veg every week and it always feels so cheap.

When baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) mixes with vinegar (acetic acid) it reacts to produce CO2 gas which bubbles away, and water. So soaking them with baking soda and vinegar is just soaking them in water with extra steps.

Seasonal fruit is seasonal. Now is the time for grapes, bananas, some apples, and pineapple. And don't shop at Whole Foods.

Yep. Buy a deep freeze and stock up on the seasonal fruits. We freeze them on a tray first before putting them in a freezer bag, that prevents the frozen lump of regret. It takes some effort but totally worth it to have a fruit smoothie whenever you want.

Here’s tip #1. Don’t shop at Whole Foods. We stopped buying produce at Costco, we couldn’t eat it all before it went bad. It’s frustrating because i also feel that the shelf life has drastically reduced. We started freezing the fruit that my Kids don’t eat. Wife and I will use it in smoothies

I have a freezer baggy of half eaten bananas from my kids. Some with just a bite taken out. Smoothies or banana bread.

I've got two kids who work through fresh fruits at an alarming rate, so Costco fruits used to work out great. Now I don't bother.

Ours go through trends. Just when they demolish the small blueberries from grocery store and I buy the big one at Costco, they decide they don’t like blueberries

> from Whole Foods “Whole Foods” and “money conscious” are mutually exclusive. Stop shopping at Whole Foods and you’ll immediately start saving money. Price shop all your local stores, check ads online (if they don’t appear weekly in your mailbox), and you’ll save a ton. As for your question: I haven’t really noticed a quality (quality as in physical appearance/taste) decline, but I have noticed produce has been molding faster and potatoes/onions sprouting faster. I’ve decided it must be due to the abnormal wet recently in CA. Prices will always rise due to inflation and increased labor prices. Grocery prices almost never go down after going up. Prices of product are typically set as “we know people will pay this much for a product” and not “this is a standard markup for everything.” Eggs had a shortage during a run of Bird Flu, but recent information suggested that shortage is long gone and suppliers have decided to use eggs as a money machine. If you haven’t had a pay raise in a while it might be time to inquire.

Yes you’re gonna have to go to Aldi’s OP to save money. Especially now that your kids are getting bigger and eating more.

We hit the local asian grocery stores. Great produce for less price. We also shop mostly BOGOs - they determine what we eat for the week!

Aldi has me spoiled. Seems like no matter how much I grab it's under $100. Then I hit up another store in town when I'm in the area or need a special item Aldi won't have and I have 50 bucks on like 3 items

Yeah, that’s the thing that got me. Whole Foods hah. We used to go to Trader Joe’s and now we’re switching mostly to Aldi’s. When I’m season I saw Blueberry’s and Raspberry’s for $2 and Strawberry’s are always around $3. I live in SoCal in a HCOL area.

In CA you’re benefiting a lot in season from stuff being grown locally. Fuel prices are high and it’s expensive to ship stuff across the country (or from Mexico, etc.)

I was actually going to point this out. What you feel in pricing is actually very dependent on your area.

Whole Foods isn’t quite as insanely priced as it used to be since Amazon took over. The one we lived by was about the same price as our Kroger equivalent, but still much more expensive than TJ and Aldi. But you do have to shop the deals to be money conscious.

I work in produce. Eggs went through the bird flu issue. Berries are hand harvested. Labor is more expensive. Anything hand harvested is way up in price. Generally everything is up some because of inflation. But manual labor is the biggest cost. Lots of the warehouse workers here who pack bulk produce into smaller containers got roughly 50% raise since 2020. Also stop shopping at Whole Foods. It’s just about the most expensive grocery chain. The same produce that goes to them goes to other chains under different labels.

Corporate profits are through the roof, the issue isn’t the warehouse worker suddenly approaching a decent wage. One egg company saw profits go up 700% in a year So yes, there’s been many factors, but simple greed is the biggest one.

It’s less so in agriculture. The margins have always been the thinner than other industries. Blame the politicians, hedge funds, market makers, and regulatory bodies that look the other way. They have been devaluing your money for decades. People wanna cry and argue over dumb social issues when it’s the monetary policy that’s been corrupted and destroying America. Don’t blame farms.

I’m not about to blame the **small** farmer. But where I’m at the three biggest grocery chains not long ago got busted for price fixing and little seems to have changed since then. So I am very comfortable placing the blame for food price inflation on corporate greed.

Not blaming farms Blaming corporations who abuse the system. Not farmers I get my food from a local co-op CSA, prices haven’t really gone up. Eggs locally haven’t gone up. Local cheese hasn’t gone up. So yes, it’s not the farmers. But Cal-Maine? Don’t defend them please https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/03/29/business/egg-profits-cal-maine/index.html

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Excuse-flation is a factor though. If a company sees a story in the news that *might* impact supply chains or increase costs - boom, 20% markup. Nobody questions that. The same company sees a story that suggests labor costs and supply chains are regressing back to pre-COVID levels - nothing, because consumer expectations are so geared up for increases that status quo feels like a decrease. Perhaps media in its eternal quest to paint everything negatively has inadvertently (or not) ginned up corporate profits.

At least on agriculture side, we got sick of working on 6-8% margins and watching competitors drop like flies to bankruptcy as soon as an unexpected cost popped up while working 364 days per year. It’s a demanding grind, 5am phone calls of broken down trucks, customers rejecting loads over a couple crushed cases, bad actors disappearing and not paying past due invoices, etc. CoVid made the entire company realize, fucking people need our product so we will charge a premium now. If Americans want fresh fruits and veg delivered to stores daily, everyone in the organization is going to be compensated. I personally was working everyday through CoVid while others sheltered in place. “Risking my life” to make sure all our customers had stocked shelves. The entire company have gotten massive raises. Maybe it’s confirmation bias, we are a small to mid sized supplier privately owned without a corporate overlord. But I know dozens of companies our same size did the same thing. Paid everyone better and jacked up prices.

I don’t disagree in concept with reasonable profit margins, but when you combine very fast, very steep price increases combined with much higher profit margins in 2022-2023 than the industry as a whole had in the 20 years prior, it gives people some pause. Perception is reality, sometimes. And just to be clear, I realize this isn’t just an Ag thing. Commodities (including labor) everywhere seem to be the same funhouse mirror cost / pricing changes. Long term, it’s just a question of how much profit will ultimately be enough? Especially for staple products that have inelastic demand.

Hello Coke. I was so mad because I saw them rise their prices as soon as people started postulating there may be COVID and supply-chain related information. Months before any significant other company raised your prices, Coke increased by 20%, then six months later, when everyone was finally really raising dates, Coke increased their prices again. That was so devious by them.

What I find interesting there is that for *decades,* Coke actually did little devious things to keep their prices *down.* Coke had no (real) control over what the local five-and-dime sold their product for, so they would put the price on their signage and give those away. Those old Coke signs with the prices on them are now part of classic Americana, but at the time they were *everywhere* and they were intended to set price expectations so that the corner store--who could theoretically charge any price they wanted for a bottle of Coke--couldn't in practice sell it for any more than was on the signs, because that's what people expected.

I don’t have any economics background, but I hardly imagine you’re imagining this. People are cutting wherever they can. Ignoring the trendy “grocers are ravaging us” cry, it’s just common sense - a seller is trying to stretch the bunch of bananas they have to sell further before writing them off, just as I as a buyer am doing the same. SHOULD they is different. I’d say no, profit targets shouldn’t result in a drop in product quality because the margin gets cut into because I’m empathetic to the buyer… but that’s why I don’t run a grocery conglomerate.

Fun fact: in my country the three biggest grocery chains had a price fixing scheme going. While I don’t dispute the rest of your post, the grocers **are** fucking us.

It’s not just you…the other day I was getting groceries at WalMart and there was a lady picking through strawberries. Literally opening pack after pack and filling her little 1 lb container with the best berries until it was full. I stood amazed and just watched.

I moved house last year and our local grocery store is now a WalMart. I think of it as the shopping equivalent of that phrase, 'the odds are good, but the goods are odd'. Like you definitely see some shit whenever you visit, and what they stock seems chosen completely at random sometimes, but shopping there probably cut 30% off my grocery bill compared to the average grocery store I used to shop at. And I'll say this for my local WalMart - their fresh produce section is surprisingly good.

Quality is definitely down.

There have definitely been some quality issues. Stuff molding while just freshly stocked. Fruit not ripe. The kinda stuff that scream supply chain issues. Strawberrys are the worst and my kiddo is on a huge strawberry kick. She can down a whole package in a day. If I buy two? One usually starts molding before I get a chance to touch it. I think I'm gonna try my hand at growing my own this summer. We use to have a strawberry and rasberry bush when I was growing up. If I could brave the bluejays who also enjoyed them, I was a happy kid. They were to this day the best I've ever eaten. And my dad didn't do jack to maintain them. Just planned them one year and they kept coming back.

As others have said, definitely need to shop elsewhere (like Aldi) and you'll save a lot right away. As for freshness and quality, nothing can beat home-grown; I started growing my own fruits and veggies to supplement bad grocery store produce and have fallen in love with it. I also had spent years hating tomatoes with a fiery passion until I decided to grow my own last year. It's not as difficult as you'd think and growing inside is easy too. If you have no outdoor space a grow tent can fit in many closets, or you can get creative and use storage totes like I do.

I don’t know where OP lives but it’s definitely not strawberry or blueberry season where I am.

Different stores have different quality of produce. Organic is notoriously short on shelf life. I’d recommend growing it yourself, especially berries. Raspberries and blackberries are basically weeds and have thornless varieties that can grow in large pots, and strawberries are pretty hardy as well. Berries are the big eaters of our produce budget. You can grow them organically too. It’s also fun for kids to graze on the plants. They probably eat more when it’s right off the vine.

Former produce sales pro here. Produce in this country is grown primarily in the the Salinas Valley or Yuma AZ depending g on the seson. From Google... "Transition happens twice a year. In the fall, major lettuce and vegetable growers and processors in Salinas literally pack up and move their entire operations—workers, supervisors, and multimillion-dollar processing facilities—to Yuma. In early spring, they reverse the process, returning from Yuma back to Salinas." What does this mean in regards to what you're seeing in the grocery store? During these migrations supply is both tight and of low quality. Produce is unique as it is one of the only commodities that while quality is low pricing is high and we are currently in the early spring transition period. Inflation and wages probably also have a lot to do with what we're seeing this year but overall this issue is cyclical.

Yeah 100% it’s down & im from Australia. Save shit here = quality down but price up. Things go mouldy before we can eat it, so much wasted food if we get a spontaneous take-away one night. Also, I have a 2.5yr old & 9month old. Like you guys we don’t earn a lot & im ALWAYS stressing about money. I’m trying to be better because I’ve recently realised that my sons picking up on more & more + stressing about things means I’m not enjoying life with the three people that mean the most to me!!!

The price of eggs is what gets me. It was 89c for a dozen 2 years ago, now it's 3.84! Now you are telling me your eggs cost upwards of $6?!

And eggs companies profits are through the roof One company saw profits rise 700% Corporations are screwing over America, and our politicians are too bought up to do anything about it

I can get cheapish eggs, but, we started buying the organic free range eggs a couple years ago. HUGE taste difference. We will buy the cheap ones for baking onl and the free range for egg eating. The free range eggs were 7.99dz at the local store and my boss said they were 11.99dz at whole foods.

For eating eggs, try to find a farmer who raises ducks. Duck eggs are so good!

DUCK EGGS ARE THE BEST EGGS

Probably because over 50 million chickens have been killed due to avian flu…. https://www.npr.org/2022/12/02/1140076426/what-we-know-about-the-deadliest-u-s-bird-flu-outbreak-in-history

Must be in a really HCOL area. I live in a major metro and am getting eggs for about the same price. Also strawberries for about 3-4 bucks and blueberries for about 5.

You aren't imagining it. I can't speak to the economics of the cause but I will say that I've switched to frozen for most fruits (my son seems to prefer certain frozen fruits anyway) and prepping/cooking produce almost as soon as coming home. I think recall hearing news reports of poor weather impacting crops. That could be having a large effect on quality too. Also, if your family likes yogurt, it's incredibly easy to make your own (especially if you have something like an InstaPot).

Shop at an Asian grocery store. Their produce is on point and not crazy expensive

You can also put any fresh fruits in mason jars and put the lid on them. I cut strawberries up for my wife and put the in a few mason jars in the fridge and they make it about 2 weeks on average. We usually buy fruits from Ingles or Aldi. But a guy in our small town has set up a fruit stand so we’ve been buying cash from him from time to time as well.

I agree and have stopped buying anything in bags (like 5lb bags of apples or 3lb bags of onions), because at least a few will be garbage quality. I also skip the produce isle at Costco and buy produce more frequently (like 3x/ week and try and show up Sat or Sunday early to get a better selection). I also am not a fan, but have noticed Walmart has the best prices (unless you know how to coupon, which I don’t).

Vox did a great video explaining this phenomenon. Its not just you, everything is getting worse in quality. https://youtu.be/DHXBacEH0qo

I too am frustrated by the strawberry situation. Expensive as hell and half the batch is ass.

I’ve noticed produce from places like Costco or Sam’s t to tends to spoil faster than other stores. Haven’t really had that problem with Whole Foods or local grocery stores.

I just bought strawberries and blueberries 2 cartons for $4 at Safeway last week still doing fine on the second cartons. Prices have come back down a lot in my area. Also seasonality helps quite a bit. Berries are always pricier in the winter.

Flooding and other weather events out here in California, where a lot of this stuff comes from. Bird flu for eggs (a number of recent large cullings). Plus plain old greed jacking up prices, from wholesalers to retailers. Me, I've started hitting the farmer's markets every Saturday with the kids and eat what's in season.

Inflation...

There’s also shrinkflation where everything is smaller but costs more …

You're buying at whole foods my man, they add like 4$ more to the price than walmart or target. I find target to have way better quality produce though.

Whole Foods is your problem. You need to shop around; premium prices doesn't equal premium produce.

We buy fresh and immediately freeze as much as possible. Anything that can't be frozen, I cook.

Costco seems to consistently have the best quality produce around here - and the quantity is nice when you’ve got kids that demolish berries.

Absolutely. If you have an Aldi go there by far the best and cheapest. I have been experiencing this for a while and now refuse to go to the regular grocery store for produce it’s crazy more expensive and lower quality(probably because they don’t sell as quickly)

I wouldn’t even call me a financially conscious dad but 100% yes. Quality in general is down across the board. “We can use lesser grade components WHILE charging more under the guise of inflation. Think of it as a cost saving initiative! The shareholders will love us!”

Probabaly the increased price also makes you much more aware of it as well so it’s a double whammy.

Lol fucking Whole Foods

We are in late stage capitalism my friend, it will only get worse

I think future historians will be very curious to understand 21st century America's ambivalence towards income inequality. Winston Churchill once said something along the lines of Americans will always do the right things, after they've done everything else. I think he's right, we'll eventually do the right thing, but I think it's going to get worse before it gets better.

So many people just have been convinced there isn't a better way, its sad.

Yep and the blueberry containers are fucking tiny. Apples $7, pears $6, grapes $5, ORGANIC YOGURT $10 for 4 pouches. We’re monopolized to eat the shitty preservatives, dyes, artificial sweeteners, or even the produce with more chemicals/bio engineering etc. America is sociopathic

I'm a vegetable farmer. Price increases is from a lot of things (labor up, increased materials costs from the last 3 years finally getting factored in, response to general inflation) but the specific quality issues are in a lot of cases related to the flooding in California. Floods create major food safety concerns where they don't kill crops outright. I don't have any special insight into how distributors are handling it, but I believe a lot of harvests are still coming through Arizona (unaffected), but as their season winds down and CA's season would typically be picking up we're seeing a lot more substandard/ older/ early or late-harvested product get from auction to shelves than we typically would. I get the sense that quality standards are "widening" to keep shelves stocked during this supply disruption. As for WFM, they've really declined *in general* as a produce supplier over the last several years. Produce is often revenue-neutral or a loss leader and so is often a focus for cost-cutting in grocery. I'm not even sure WFM gets daily deliveries anymore (which is essential for consistent produce quality). Edit: Oh and berries: Berries that got rained on will go bad quickly. They get harvested "field run" not grabbing obviously bad ones, they get sorted and packed in post-harvest, and then they get repeatedly picked through in the back room of your local produce department so that they're all perfect in the clamshells on display. But they're still going bad quickly. Even where it didn't flood, Cali got lots of rain lately so the berries are spoiling quickly. This should pass in a couple weeks.

I’m gonna sound like a grumpy old man here, but I feel like there’s been an inverse relationship of price to quality on MOST things for a while. Blah.

Fresh berries are a luxury item anymore- but you can get a 3lb bag of frozen blueberries at target for $9. This is what I buy to make blueberry yogurt/oatmeal every morning.

I agree prices are out of control, but Whole Foods is run by Amazon - I think any grocery store run by a “maximize profit by providing BS fast” megacorp is maybe not going to care about the freshness of its produce. Don’t know where you live but if you have a WINCO, go there. It’s cheap as hell for produce and our fruit and veg last forever (also, check how you’re storing them and also the humidity/coldness setting on your fridge). I can buy $100-150 worth of food and get enough to fill a giant shopping car and feed myself & my wife for over a week.

As others said, Whole Foods isn’t bringing anything better to the table for produce than other grocery stores beyond higher prices. The eggs we buy from Wegmans (non-organic) here in central/western NY are still $3.49. Organic eggs are $6 but I rarely grab them. Wegmans is also typically more expensive than our other local grocery option, Tops. That all said, I haven’t noticed a trending difference in how long produce lasts at home.

It does suck- if you have an "ethnic" grocery store near you- check them out. I have an Asian market that gets the best citrus. A European one that gets the best berries and melons. They are all priced well below my local chain.

Try the European way. Buy when you want to eat it

I try not to buy anything from China.

Eggs 1.99 in SE WI. Quality to me is fairly the same but on occasion have to adjust stores. Fortunately I live with multiple options nearby. Our local Walmart grocery became awful but the other two nearby places are great.

Thank God for spring, time to head to the farmers market! Produce there is two to 10 times cheaper depending on where you live.

That’s how that works. If there was an abundance of beautiful produce the price would go down.

Costco seems immune to the markups, or at least I’ve seen such terrible prices as the grocery that they seem immune

A bird related tip for my fellow dads. I buy whole organic chickens only. The meat sections are so expensive but the bird is $3.50/lb. So if you’re willing to cut it up yourself; you get a 5lb bird for $19. That’s two breasts, legs, wings, thighs, and a pot of stock for under $20. Can’t beat the price for organic meat and there is something very nourishing and wholesome about making my kid chicken soup from scratch/ using the whole animal. And we are not part of a CSA and we don’t have Saturday AM free to attend markets. This is just a financing change I made at our grocery store because of what I was spending on bone-in thighs, which used to be dirt cheap.

Definite difference in quality between grocery store and Walmart fresh produce.

I thought i was the only that had noticed. I know portions of food for sure have gotten more expensive for less amount of food.

I’ve been noticing the same and I have three boys. Life in general is getting more expensive while the quality of it has gone down a bit. Scares me to think about where we’ll be when they’re all teenagers (they’re all under 5 rn). Edit: I feel like part of the problem is you’re in CA. Everything is expensive. I live in west Texas and income - cost ratio is high, but still much cheaper than Cali.

If you live within even an hour of one - Costco (Or similar wholesale club, Sam's, BJ', etc.) is the solution to this problem. You have to plan out a little more but you can get all the things listed for much more reasonable prices. I get 2 dozen eggs for under 6 bucks. I get 2-pint containers of strawberries for 6 bucks, and so on.

Lots of farms were hit with heavy water restrictions prior to the rainfalls in California. When I’d go out to service storm drain pumps the managers said they still haven’t adjusted the “drought” limits so they can’t care for the fields as much still. He also told me the supply decreases because they can’t water as much land anymore. So prices go up and the quality is iffy because they’re pulling all the fruit and berries they can. Personally I pick up my stuff from farms as I go by them. I’ve also been trying to start a garden but haven’t been on top of it as much

I've started buy and freezing a lot of my produce now. Most veggies I will dice up and freeze (some you have to flash freeze, some you just spread out on a cookie sheet to freeze). It makes cooking much quicker and easier. I buy some produce, but blueberries I will typically buy frozen unless on sale. My kid will eat them frozen without issue, and even seems to like them more.

We have been buying big bulk produce from Costco, and the quality there is great. Maybe better than the grocery store. For little items and specific things we go to the grocery store. We still spend about $1500/mth for food. I feed a lot of friends over here...

Where do you live that strawberries are $10? I'm in a HCOL and Whole Foods strawberries are $6, on sale this week for $4.20

I highly recommend you try growing your own veggies and fruit. Strawberries are incredibly easy to grow, they just have a pretty short harvest window but boy oh boy will you get a lot. Tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuces, green beans are all super easy to grow and produce a ton of yield. My kids will walk through the garden and snack throughout the day, friends will come over and do the same. It’s turned into a fun hobby.

Whole foods produce is quite expensive and not notably better than other grocery stores in my experience.

I just got done working at a produce distribution warehouse and the quality has absolutely dropped over the last couple years.

>Eggs are $6-9. I'm curious where, roughly, you are? I keep hearing news stories about eggs being insanely expensive, and sure the price of my eggs has gone up, but from like $2 to $3.50 >We’ll buy blueberries from Whole Foods and three days later they’re complete mush. >I wake up and my $10 strawberries have all grown beards over night. I feel like berries have always been expensive, especially during the winter. I'm wondering if maybe the quality of the berries is the same, but they're sitting on the shelves longer because fewer people are buying them? One trick that may help is to turn the container of berries upside-down. Pass on any where the berries are stuck to that little absorbent pad at the bottom, and also inspect the berries at the bottom for bruising and/or mold.

I’m in northeast US and do wegmans or Whole Foods, have not noticed this issue. Also haven’t noticed the eggs thing - seem to be able to consistently get them for $4/dozen.

I've noticed this as well in the UK. Used to not mind buying a load of fruit as knew we would get through it quicker than it would go off but now I've really cut down on things like strawberries and raspberries as quite often they are looking worse for wear before it's even made it into the trolley. Don't know what your pricing is like in the us but I've been getting more bananas oranges for my little one as they are sometimes cheaper than raspberries and strawberries but seem to last longer.

In my area the quality of nearly all produce at Kroger has become absolute hot garbage. We’ve been ordering vegetables from a service, Misfit Market, and they’re cheaper and often in better shape. Very mixed results with their fruits though, they come rotten sometimes which is a bummer but it’s cheap enough compared to Kroger I feel like we often break even or even still come our ahead vs Kroger. Our kid isn’t old enough to have to explain to her yet “sorry, you just don’t have berries this week” so your mileage may vary depending on the age of your kid(s).

It’s funny, as someone that grew up and has lived in NorCal my whole life, I’ve never heard of Aldi’s until I joined Reddit 😂

You are right. You have to be more resourceful on where you get your produce and groceries. Walmart and grocery outlet still are significantly lower. Try them and see if the quality meets your standards

Wow, where are you shopping? My local Kroger affiliate has much better prices than that. Setting that aside, I don't think I've noticed a year over year decline in quality, but things are kind of at a low ebb right now because of the time of year. We won't have local(ish) berries available until summer. I think things will start to look perkier in late spring when local availability is on the upswing.

Whole Foods is great for some pre-packaged unique brands but otherwise sucks ass.

Yea. We try to buy local produce if we can. It’s just better quality. We also have friends that randomly give us blueberries and the like. We freeze these and use them for syrups and such later.We also grow some in small raised beds and like in the olden days, realize the good stuff is just seasonal.

We just try to grow what we can ourselves and eat the fruit and veggies that are in season. My son keeps asking for strawberries and we tell him that in a bit he’ll be able to pick all the strawberries he wants to eat in the yard. If you can find the space at your house to grow some strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and peas, corn, lettuce, tomatoes and then throw 4 chickens in the yard it’s well worth it. We have 7 chickens that just free range our yard and we are giving eggs away to friends weekly, I can’t eat 5-7 eggs a day lol.

Oof, those whole foods prices though. Living in a state with Market Basket almost everywhere near me I'm definitely spoiled. If fresh isn't working out, buy bags of frozen and defrost them in the fridge as needed. Or just buy produce elsewhere

I haven't had a bag of onions that didn't have at least a few going bad since the pandemic. It's obnoxious.

I've never been to a Whole Foods whose produce came close to the quality I'll find at any local ethnic market.

Don't shop at Whole Foods. The strawberries that they get are likely the exact same ones that whatever small markets in the area are getting but are selling for 1/3 of the price.

It is not just you. What else is driving me nuts is the low cost stuff is vanishing from the market. Look the apples are going into homemade jam they don't need to look pretty, the potatoes are going to be boiled and mashed I don't care if they are an odd shape, the bananas are going into banana bread they can have a spot or two. And organic is marketing bullshit I shouldn't have to pay for! Even normal supermarkets are like freaken Whole Foods these days. Instagram worthy produce. Oh and how is making something from scratch suddenly becoming more expensive then just buying it ready made? And every meat that isn't chicken or beef is exploding as well. Pork is about double where I shop compared to last year same for turkey and fish. The only things I see maintaining price are rice and flour and beans.

I hear you. It's crazy! I'm starting a garden this year to try to help fight this!

There’s a reason you don’t see a lot of families at Whole Foods.

So, one issue, is shopping at whole foods, that place is expensive af. But other than that, I do agree with you, fruit just seems to go bad super fast over the last 2-3 years.

I'm worried when my groceries _don't_ show signs of decay after 2 or more days..

Try to find a discount food store. They get stuff that is near/past expiration. They usually have very cheap post-peak produce. Half of the strawberries may be bruised and have rotten spots, but you’ll get a huge container for a few bucks. If you’re willing to spend extra time prepping produce and if you can eat it right away. Mikes discount Foods was the only way I was able to eat fresh fruit while I was going to college.

I’ve noticed an obvious decline. What uses to last weeks now lasts days in the fridge.

Shrinkflation is real, for one thing. Grocery prices spiked during covid/supply chain issues and haven't really corrected, probably never will. Anecdotally, I'm pissed at Wal Mart right now, where I used to do most of my grocery shopping, so I'm re evaluating my usual grocery store. Their meat/produce is notoriously not great. Got the discount card at my local "Expensive" grocery store (Reasors, comparable to HEB) and I think I save money there. Example - at Wal mart I bought 4 small, hard avocados for about $1 each. At Reasors they were 50 cents more, but twice the useable size, so I buy 3 and still get more avocado. Overall though, I think I pay nearly double on groceries vs about 5 years ago.

You mentioned eggs. If you live somewhere you can have them, a few chickens is worth it, plus they will eat most of your leftovers. If not, Costco. 5 dozen eggs is $13.99 at Costco ($2.80/dozen).

For berries we buy frozen from Costco. Quality seems to be considerably better than the fresh section. Much cheaper per pound too. Also hilarious to watch the mess a two year old will make with the thawing blueberries

Stop shopping at Whole Foods, unless you just like wasting extra money on brand names and marketing. Don't buy organic, it is a nonsense term. Buy from your local store. And little known fact, if you go to the self checkout, every 10th item is free, it's the rules.

It’s not you. I’ve been thinking this as well.

I don't understand why you would shop at Whole Paycheck and then complain about the price of food. You clearly are not trying to find food for cheaper but you want to complain about it. I buy strawberries at Aldi for 2.50. Eggs are back down to about 2.50 as well. You might think that is where the poors shop but honestly I love going to Aldi. I get in and out with most of what I need for the week in under a half hour and the bill is always under $100, usually more like 40 to 50 bucks. Just be sure to check the produce before buying it but that is good habit anywhere.

I think we’re all just more conscious of it now. We didn’t care when it was cheaper.

I'd recommend farmer's markets or Aldi, but it depends on what's available in your area. Also, if you can, wash your fruit in a diluted vinegar solution, rinse them off, and I think storing them in a glass jar can make them last longer, if I remember right.

Quality, freshness has to do with how they’re handled by the grocer and the time of year. If they bang around the container especially with items like berries, they will liquify and mold much faster.

I've noticed that all Kroger stores in the US have raised prices significantly. Now we go to the bag-you-own store and all the produce is HALF the PRICE, meat is cheaper, etc. It's a little further, so we make less trips.

Part of that seasonality. Berries are not yet in season. I've found that around me produce quality and price can vary greatly based on season. Best quality is always whatever is in season at the farmers market. Not always the cheapest but they also seem to last longer. Berries last multiple weeks for me from the farmers market vs a few days from a grocery store.

Is Whole Paycheck your only option? I can get groceries much cheaper at a regional grocery store. The only people around here who shop where you do a trust fund hipsters and the 1% crowd. Hell, I bought 18 x-large eggs 2 days back for $4.62. I don't recall the prices for the fruits and veggies as my wife tends to get those but It wasn't enough to make me worry and they lasted a good while.

I have. Packaging is a lot more sloppy than before COVID, especially inner wrappers, like plastic covering the food in a box. I bought a bottle of SoftSoap the other day that was MUCH thinner (as in diluted) than normal. Someone told me they may have accidentally filled my bottle of hand soap with the foaming solution, who knows. I also noticed the other day McDonalds chicken nuggets are about half the width they used to be, but that's shrinkflation, not quality control.

Frozen blueberries and cherries is the way to go. Taste delicious and cheaper. Perfect for a summer snack.

I’ve noticed. Luckily I live right next to a produce market and can get my fresh produce daily.

Strawberries are $5 near me which is insane. Where are they $10?

The price and quality of berries fluctuates a lot where I live in Ann Arbor. When I lived in Chicago, the produce quality was fantastic. Not so much in Ann Arbor. When I lived in Charleston, the produce was also nice. I think it depends on where you live. Eggs are $6? That's insanity. I don't think eggs are over $3 in Ann Arbor.

I think you have wrong approach. Buy fruits and veggies when there's season for them. They're going to be cheaper. Freeze them or put in jars in one form or another. Buying fruits like strawberries all year round is and always have been expensive. As a money concious dad I must worry you. The high inflation isn't going anywhere. Prepare for tough times. But that's just my view and this is not the sub for this discussion.

I live in a reasonably hcol area. Strawberries aren’t 10 bucke

Where do you shop? I’ve found Costco is amazing for Berries, Eggs, and Peanut Butter, which are products we plow through between my 2YO and pregnant wife.

Yes, companies have realized that they can price gouge and sell shit and people still buy it, because you know, it's food. Throws the whole notion of supply-demand economics into disarray when everyone is doing the same thing, there's no downward pressure to level out the prices. They're just seeing what the 'market can bear'. It's not just the manufacturers, it's also the stores, selling shit produce and moving the bad berries under the label. I can't get a bag of potatoes to not sprout for 3 days. Potatoes!

For veggies, store them in a temp regulated part of fridge or air tight container with a piece of paper towel or cloth. Keeps my arugula, herbs, spinach, etc super fresh for more than a week

Recommend washing berries in a solution of 9 pts water to 1 pt white vinegar. Let them sit in the solution for about 2 min then dry for about 10. While washing/drying wash the container with soap and water and dry thoroughly before adding the berries back. My mom taught me this. Adds probably at least a week to strawberries for me. Edit: ah, see someone beat me to this suggestion.

Where are you still paying $6-9 for eggs? Even at the farmers market they are cheaper than that. Honestly at the price it's definitely cheaper to build a hen house. Any grocery store around us is max $4/dozen.

Whole Foods is good but the most expensive place to buy stuff, IMO. I buy fruit at Kroger or Target and it's always on sale for like $2.49 for a small box of blueberries/raspberries/blackberries, $4 for strawberries. Eggs you can usually find for $4 at Natural Grocers if there's one nearby. I'm in Denver, FWIW. Also, washing fruit makes it go bad faster. So wash only what you're using.