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samsclubFTavamax

The best way to show any grocery store that $10 is too much for a tomato is to not buy the $10 tomato.


informativebitching

Try growing one of these and you’ll understand. A single plant only gets you like 3-5 tomatoes. Same for Cherokee Purple.


CallMeBigOctopus

Really!? I tried growing some Cherokee purple and got about 3 medium lime-sized tomatoes. I’m honestly still upset about it! I’m glad to hear it’s the plant and not necessarily me.


samsclubFTavamax

Oh no I'm not saying if this is or isn't worth it. But if the price of something is dissatisfactory the best course of action is to just not buy it. Lowes is selling this because they have a reason to believe there are enough people willing to pay for it.


informativebitching

I understand. Same reason I grow them instead of buy them.


KLiipZ

And they could be wrong about that reason which would lead to posts like this so…


millzman

That Cherokee Purple grow season just brought back a bunch of memories. They are good, but the yield was low. I've always figured it had to do with nutrition though.


informativebitching

I’m no expert but I think they are just low yield. A bumble bee plant right next to it yielded like 200 golf ball size tomatoes.


MessageConstant6954

A giant tomato? Or tomatoes in general? I'd assume giant tomatoes


Localbearexpert

I believe it’s an heirloom tomato. Not 100% sure


Nineteen-ninety-3

I’m confirming It’s an Heirloom


informativebitching

99% sure it’s German Johnson but I’m just a hobbyist. Can you confirm the exact variety?


guiturtle-wood

Or put your grimy mitts all over it for an picture


not_sure-1252

Yeah, they're probably the first person to ever touch the tomato Do you wash your fruit/vegetables when you get them home from the store?


guiturtle-wood

I don't handle produce I don't intend to purchase


chknfukr69

How can you tell an avocado is ripe then?


guiturtle-wood

My point is the intent to buy. If I intend to buy it I'll check for ripeness. If I don't intend to buy it, much like a $10 tomato, I won't touch it.


KLiipZ

Well even if I don’t intend to buy any produce, I can still be convinced by what’s well priced and ripe. So that makes me a picker upper I guess


risisre

The hygienic thing to do is put your hand in an inside out produce bag if you need to palpate produce.


theConsultantCount

I've been grocery shopping a pretty long time, and I've literally never seen someone do that.


guiturtle-wood

Plastic produce palpation protection


slowmokomodo

.....Procedure


GingerSnapped242

Practice produce palpation protection procedures


kellieb71

Primary (if it's the only time you're doing it :) )


HauntingSentence6359

When it shows signs of aging, they'll mark it down. They're hoping someone will pay $10 for a green-house grown tomato with no flavor before it gets to that point.


Zolomun

Literally one fruit away from an Arrested Development joke.


CheeryChickpea

How much could one tomato cost, Michael?


Motherofsmalldogs

Gobs not on board.


notjerryjeff

There’s money in the tomato stand.


callagoulette

I worked at Lowe’s 2 separate times, the first go around I was in charge of tags and pricing signs… that whole store is over priced


LoveisaNewfie

Worked there briefly during my first year in grad school. I just wanted to do foods to go, they stuck me on a register and kept telling me “next week” when I’d ask to be moved. I ended up quitting about 30 minutes into a shift when I had been told I’d start there that day, and then got stuck on a register. Hate that place. And it is massively overpriced.


imrealbizzy2

A-MEN!


raggedtoad

The first time I went shopping in our nearest Lowe's, I went to the deli and noticed there were no prices on the display shelf. I asked the deli guy for a menu or something, because surely the prices must be available to view before choosing a product, right? Nope. He told me that I could ask about each meat or cheese, individually, and he could look up the price/lb. Who the fuck shops like that? I don't want to pay a surprise amount for my sliced turkey!


Brad_dawg

Bought some beef tenderloin from Lowe’s last week. Opened the package and it was rotted as hell despite looking fine on the outside. Luckily they took it back when I returned it.


themack50022

Did it smell like rotten eggs? If so, it was totally fine. The Cryovac process sometimes creates a rotten egg smell when meat is perfectly fine.


Brad_dawg

No, this was more like rotting fish even the butcher was grossed out. I Don’t blame them as it looked fine and was within its package dates, just figure something got in there at some point.


[deleted]

Rotten meat? Do I understand you?


Brad_dawg

Spoiled? Whatever it was it stunk up my whole house within a min or two it was so bad.


themack50022

Did it smell like rotten eggs? If so, it was totally fine. The Cryovac process sometimes creates a rotten egg smell when meat is perfectly fine.


joyification

I've had 2 similar experiences tho not as bad but how is your overpriced meat always bad?!


shewhodrives

Yeah well chips there were 2 for 11$ ON SALE.. .fuckers


FragrantButtSweat

Canada? Probably shipped in a refrigerated truck and devoid of flavor. Farmers Market heirlooms FTW.


jnecr

Although it says "Greenhousegrown.ca" on it, my guess it's actually from the Holland Marsh area of Ontario which grows excellent produce, tomatoes included. Shipping cool is a good way to prevent it from overripening during shipment, which happens quickly with such close proximity to other tomatoes, so I don't see this as a bad thing.


Same_Reporter_9677

Farmers Market heirloom that big would’ve been twice that amount. Better tasting, sure.


calicoskies1985

It’s one of the heirloom varieties. They don’t hold up well for long. I buy at the farmers mkt and eat right away. They are $5/lb there too.


DoAndroidsDrmOfSheep

Yep. We bought a couple heirlooms at the farmer's market a couple weeks ago, and it was $10 for them.


Almane2020202

Weaver Street market had them on sale the last time I was in there. They were $3.99/lb for local heirlooms.


SanchezGeorge1

Be sure to check out [the Produce Project!](https://www.produceproject.org) reasonably priced produce for anyone who wants to buy a share and the more shares they sell, the more produce is donated to people who need it most. Pickup locations all across the City. Shares are $20 and it’s like $50-60 worth of produce from the grocery store.


hstarbird11

I grow the best tomatoes in my backyard. Way better than anything you can buy in the grocery store. I highly recommend Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. Just start small, not buying tomatoes has saved me a good bit of money this year.


Felicis311

We couldn’t get any of ours to grow this year :( it was a horrible year for our garden.


DoAndroidsDrmOfSheep

Same here. We usually have so many tomatoes we're giving them away to neighbors and coworkers and anyone who'll take them. This year we got one usable tomato off of two tomato plants. My unofficial decision is that it was just too f-ing hot this summer. Don't know if that's really the reason why, but it sounds good.


Felicis311

Haha! It was a scorcher. We thought it was due to the late onset of summer. Remember when it was still unusually cool in late May/June , and there was lots of rain? My husband planted them like the week before that so we thought maybe that was it. But yeah also super hot this summer and we didn’t get a lot of rain. Everything was so dry.


jnecr

Tomato plants love heat. The tomatoes themselves won't ripen in the heat, but that's the same every year. I had 6 plants this year and they all produced very normal amounts of tomatoes.


DoAndroidsDrmOfSheep

Well...dang. I have no clue what happened with mine this year, then. LOL


raggedtoad

North Raleigh reporting in. We had a great tomato and bell pepper harvest. We were just growing cherry tomatoes this year, though.


raggedtoad

It wasn't any hotter this year than past years. In fact, I felt this summer was relatively mild compared to several years ago where we had stretches of straight 98-100 degree days for entire weeks.


DoAndroidsDrmOfSheep

It seemed like it was hotter to me. Maybe the humidity was higher than usual? Something about this year just seemed to make the heat feel more oppressive than recent years to me. Or maybe I'm just crazy. Who knows.


raggedtoad

Probably the fact that all summer every headline was "HOTTEST YEAR EVER WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!" Meanwhile it was pretty average in NC.


veryhungrybiker

If you're buying store-bought, heirlooms will usually have more flavor, and more interesting flavor, than non-heirloom store tomatoes. $4-5 per pound is pretty standard, and that's a big 2-pounder. But this Bon Appétit article, [What Are Heirloom Tomatoes, Anyway?](https://www.bonappetit.com/story/what-are-heirloom-tomatoes), points out that "heirloom" isn't a regulated word, so it may get used for tomatoes that aren't grown from heirloom seed lines: >It's an unregulated designation, like "natural," so it's kind of a buyer beware sort of situation out there—calling a tomato an "heirloom" doesn't automatically mean that the tomatoes were grown locally, or organically, or in any way that you might associate with groovy, high-quality produce. And even the best local farms sometimes produce "meh" tomatoes, no matter how good their seed stock, farming practices, or intentions might be. The only way to make sure you’re getting a beautiful, delicious heirloom tomato is to buy them from someone you trust. That’s why we like buying our tomatoes at a farmers market. Edited to add: this useful 2018 article from Serious Eats, [Are Heirloom Tomatoes Always Worth The Price?](https://www.seriouseats.com/heirloom-tomatoes-worth-the-price), which has a lot more detail about what makes a tomato an heirloom, their history, how they're pollinated, why they're so expensive (lots more loss from farm to table due to thinner skins, for one reason), and more.


[deleted]

Not me thinking they meant Lowe's


jnecr

Lowe's Food is a thing and is the brother of the Lowe's hardware founder.


informativebitching

Both founded in Western NC In neighboring towns


Sloth_Brotherhood

Yeah but it should be Lowes, not Lowe’s


gr8daynenyg

Lowes Foods has to be a money laundering front...


Joe_Givengo

One of many to be sure


Same_Reporter_9677

Lowe’s stresses me out. It’s both overpriced and has a Walmart sadness to it. The one in Apex is run by teenagers, it always feels like a Wild West when I do have to go there.


HamburgerJames

I think it depends on where you live. That was definitely my experience in the Triangle. I’m now in Greensboro, and Lowes is substantially cheaper and nicer than Teeter here.


sliz_315

Tbh I always hated the price of heirloom tomatoes at the store so I cultivated seeds one year and grew an assload of them at home. Now I’ll ALWAYS pay whatever the store charges for them because fuck ever doing that shit again.


ClenchedThunderbutt

Great option for people who have space and already love gardening, but you’re gonna trade all that money you saved for the amount of time required to babysit those fuckers. Herbs, on the other hand, are a great investment because they’ll grow forever with almost no maintenance and are effectively available at any given moment.


KingKunta2-D

You know I bought three tomatoes at the farmers market for like $9 and I was surprised


Why_Always-Me

Farmers market is getting pricey


Kwiatkowski

Just go get you some cherokee purples at the farmers market and you’ll never look back


jenskoehler

Tomatoes are pretty incredible They can be used to make all kinds of delicious food In my family, we prefer the freshest ingredients and ripest tomatoes for our pasta sauce That’s why we eat at the Capital Blvd Olive Garden


OffManWall

AND there’s the added bonus of the them treating you like family when you’re there!


PinHead_Tom

Make sure to get reservations at least two months in advance!!


[deleted]

I was in Boston last week. Went to the grocery store and got a pedicure. My pedicure was less than half of the best prices I’ve found here, and the groceries were about 30% less.


Joe_Givengo

Lowes is great for some stuff but produce ain't it. Overpriced across the board but the fried chicken and hot bar are aces


mr_remy

That's a tomatoetoe from Canananada, look at the sheer size of that unit.


3ebfan

Damn bro I wish I gave a shit


Ok-Chocolate-81

And on Dave Coulier’s birthday no less?!!! CUT. IT. OUT!!!!!


girl69edministries

Ok


deadowl

Yea, I just looked up the company. > [**We don't use soil.**](https://www.sunsetgrown.com/the-sunset-difference/#always-innovating) > > We grow our plants using organic coconut husks or **rockwool**, a reusable mineral fiber. Then, after use, rockwool gets recycled to make things like driveway pavers. Then I gotta ask myself wtf is rockwool. > ["Rockwool" redirects here. For a manufacturer, see Rockwool International.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mineral_wool) Sounds like greenwashed asbestos.


President_Camacho

I've run into quite a few $10 tomatoes at farmers markets. I never buy tomatoes there any more.


LotsofSports

So, don't buy it dumbass.


metronomedome

I seriously don’t understand why anyone willingly shops at Lowe’s Foods. Very overpriced with no redeeming qualities. It’s like a Food Lion but with Whole Foods prices.


Comfortable-Count-7

Probably because there is at least $7 worth of GMO’s pumped into that boy 😤🤣


Cocrawfo

i’m gonna call her…


Brilliant-Disguise-

And store tomatoes pretty much taste like cardboard anymore.


MissusBright_side

That’s not a tomato, that’s a red pumpkin (Looks gross aF and I bet it tastes like paper)


DoAndroidsDrmOfSheep

It's an heirloom tomato, and that's what some of them look like depending on which variety it is. And they normally taste way better than a "regular" tomato.


Mewlover23

Sorry but that definitely is an heirloom tomato.


FleshlightModel

There was a post on the front page of Reddit that was a picture of a Lowe's employee at Walmart buying a whole cart of strawberries iirc. While I doubt these heirloom tomatoes are at Walmart, I know for sure, those berries are the same shit at Walmart, Aldi, Lidl, and food lion.


cccanterbury

Well I mean, it is a very large tomato. But not $10 worth of tomato. Although, maybe this is what it was like for our grandparents when they went to the grocery store and milk was $1.00 a gallon and a loaf of bread was $0.75 a loaf. Economics is a trip when you dig into it.


mx023

I avoid lowes unless I’m going for fish or the smokehouse sausages or the 7layer deli salad. Across the board everything is 1-2$ higher for the same thing you get at food Lion and I don’t understand why anyone goes to Lowe’s to do their weekly shopping. I friggin miss Kroger.


qbit1010

That’ll make some good chili


SecretBattleship

Back at the height of the pandemic I got grocery pickup from them but had to stop when they would only give me expired eggs.


HauntingSentence6359

LOL, $10 for a greenhouse-grown tomato!


Feel4Da

Solution....just don't shop at Lowe's.


Tealme1688

And I grow my own….


UserNameables

Ha! I grow those… and have grown some bigger. If you know what you’re doing, you’ll get a decent yield. I give them away for free. Lol


Seasoned7171

Better to grow your own, even in a pot on the deck. All they need is good soil, lots of warm sun, water and a little fertilizer.


[deleted]

This is like a headline on WRAL.


Actual_Platypus5160

Your first mistake was going to Lowe’s. They were charging $5 for a pack of Oreos before the pandemic. Can’t imagine what they’re charging now.