Adventures in Unemployment: Grocery Outlet Bargain Market

Grocery Outlet Bargain Market…..did you read that or sing song it?  It’s a catchy little jingle for the individually owned and operated thrift grocery store that houses the cast offs from the major food chains at clearance prices.  They are scattered about the greater Seattle area. Often tucked into lower end strip malls, they can be found in tandem with other high class establishments such as The Dollar Store, a rundown bowling alley, and cheap fast foods.

I have always driven past them with only the lowest level of recognition at what it was, it’s cheery sign always in contrast with the downtrodden and haggard people walking into them.  But with my new status of unemployed, a meager budget, and an empty cupboard I decided to go on an adventure and see what this was all about.

List in hand and drove my trusty car past the Whole Foods and PCC, past the shiny red Safeways with their glossy everything and shiny yellow sale tags and pulled into the Bargain Market parking lot.  Sure enough, there was the Dollar Store right next door, next to that a questionable Vietnamese restaurant with faded photos of food that never quite look the same when they come to your table.  Expectations were being met, welcome to the lower class! The cars in the lot were few and made my run of the mill RAV look quite illustrious.

Offering to take the cart of a woman in the parking lot who had just finished packing her wares into her car I receive a smile of thanks.  She, for all appearances, is completely normal. Just another suburbanite mom doing the best she can on this random Tuesday afternoon.  Pushing into the store I am greeted with two simultaneous sensations – Bargains!  Thrift shop smell!

Every person in their life should have a period of time in their life when their clothes were purchased from thrift stores, by necessity not novelty.  It’s a good thing because it teaches you the value of money and budgeting.  It may have happened when you were a young kid with struggling parents, or fresh out of school with a head full of dreams and an empty bank account.  But if you were one of the lucky ones to know that period of life you know that there is a smell that comes with a thrift shop. As though along with the worn threads and soles the prior occupant’s scent lingers on each piece, combining into one massive generic scent that is somewhat indescribable yet instantly recognizable.  Things here have been used and reused.  Tags highlighting your savings aren’t torn off and tossed to be replaced with the next batch sent over by corporate and posted by next Wednesday sale.  They are handwritten, in sharpie...somewhere in the back you know there is a glee club, cheerleader personality from the 90s who is using her previous spirit day skills to create the signage for this store.  In truth I find it somewhat endearing, comforting.  There is no pretense and the honesty of the place is right up front.  We give you the best deals we can and forget the fluff.

In the front of the store are odd “not grocery” items…think Target.  Random kitsch and odds and ends that do not fit into any category of the main aisles of the store. There is an old man shuffling through some winter plaid shirts. He definitely fits my preconceived notion of what I would see in this store.  I start reading the prices of the bulk items up front seeing if this really is a bargain.  I’m pulled from my inquisition by an inquiry from a lovely middle aged woman, “Anything I can help you with?”

“No, just here to fill up the cart,”

“Okay if you need anything or have any questions let me know, my name is May,” and she continues on her way. I do believe I just had better, or at least on par, customer service at Bargain Market than most shiny chains.  Things are looking up. 

I go slowly through each aisle, reading tags, seeing if it really is a “bargain” or if they are just blowing smoke.  Each tag has their “Bargain price” followed by (their assertion of) the normal price you would pay for an item.  Some items are a real steal, but they are not all as great as you would think.  The store clearly has a mix of surplus items at great discounts blended with less great offerings that are similar or the same as going to a major chain.  As a cast off grocery store you do not have a full inventory so your list is most liking not going to be completed in this one stop, for example I needed baking soda.  They do not have baking soda, they do not have a baking aisle at all.  I stumble across a section of spices in between cereal and cracker.  But there are no bright orange boxes bearing the flexed arm and promise of being universally good for you. This trip is clearly becoming a hunting expedition rather than an exercise in productivity or efficiency…but hey, when you are unemployed time is no longer your most valuable asset. It’s a definite shift in my mind set. 

“Excuse me sir, can you tell me where those Ritz crackers got moved to?”

“Sorry ma’am, we sold out of those yesterday,”

“Okay, should have grabbed them when I saw them. Thank you,”

MORE customer service!  Knowledgeable staff…what is this little world I’ve tripped into?  It’s relaxed and easy breezy and every person in here is polite.  Looking at the people I realize that I all of us are bargain hunting and shopping more slowly to do it. There are a few woman like me in the store, clearly bargain hunting in their heels and , and there are some more people who look as though this is their main store…but even the kids are well behaved. There is none of that frenzied “get outta my way” that I encounter at the normal stores. Humph. Interesting.

Straight ahead produce and dairy!!  Ohhh this is what I’ve been really curious about.  Produce does not lend itself to deals. Produce is a non-negotiable entity…its window of ripeness firmly dictates that you have 24-72 hours in which to purchase it.  In my head I had Les Mis visions of peasants weeding through moldy cabbage heads, “ohh look Francesca…barely any weevils in this one! We shall serve it for Sunday dinner.” 

It wasn’t that bad. It wasn’t great. I passed over most of the fruit as it looked older and was a hodge podge of small quantities.  My bag of potatoes (10lbs for $1.99) definitely has some age on it.  In the days since this I have found that they are perhaps a little softer than they should be, a little more care required to cut out any dark spots.  The bag of apples I picked up with the express purpose of making applesauce, which was a good call because they were also soft.  To eat them raw would have caused definite flashbacks to my after school days at the YMCA when they threw a mushy apple, two graham crackers and 3 oz. of Tang at you for your snack.

Now the cheese section was a real treat.  Clearly cheeses lend themselves to bargains…and whoa Nelly jackpot!!!  Sure the standards were there generic Kraft American, ubiquitous medium cheddar, but the real delight was on the upper shelf.  Havarti, Parmesan, Gouda, Mozzarella….all super cheap.  I suppressed a squeal lest my enthusiasm key in other shoppers that this was a freaking amazing deal. I did not want to be trampled by more experienced bargain shoppers who would steal my cheese before I could squirrel it safely into my cart.  My eyes flitted right then left to ensure that I didn’t need to engage in bulk grab and go method to avoid being trampled in a stampede of cheese aficionados.  I was safe.  More importantly, my cheese was safe.  Apparently there were no other rabid cheese lovers there this day…the only hands that reached down into the case were there for Kraft and…shudder…Monterey Jack (the most useless of cheeses).  Visions of homemade lasagna floated in front of my head…ricotta, parm, and mozz all tumbled into my cart.  Sandwiches and snacks – well helllllo Havarti, smoked gouda, and brie.  Salads – join the party of curds you beautiful Blue and Feta.  I was officially on a foodie high, pushed even higher by the fact that I had about $60 of cheese in my cart for about $25.  This one section alone made the whole trip worth it.  I stumbled away from the cheese case in a glow that only happens for two reasons…sex and cheese.  Though never together, that would be gross.

After the cheese it was a quick stop in the freezer section, very good deals to be had there. Though I will say this was the most varied in terms of deals. Some things were a steal, and others were not discounted at all. I think this is where they assume that people who want their pizza pockets and bagel bites are going to buy them no matter what.  But for me, if it didn’t have a sale tag it didn’t go in my cart. That said, I had bags of frozen veg and dinner meals that went into my cart.

With a very full cart, more than I can remember buying in recent time…I went to check out. Again, great customer service…quick efficient and courteous…couldn’t have been more pleased.  The whole cart pictured below was just over $100.  The receipt indicated that I had saved $120 “off retail”.  To put that into perspective I could blow $100 in TWO bags of groceries at Whole Foods.

Feeling a little more like an urban huntress than I had any right to, I strutted to my car and loaded my embarrassment of riches into the back.  So much food, relatively little cost, I might have just been bitten by the Bargain Market bug.  The recipes were already swirling around in my head.   

I looked over at the Dollar Store.  I have never been to a Dollar store, perhaps I should take a look.  Nahhhh…I will save that for another day. For another adventure in unemployment.

Unemployment Overview:  This is great to restock your cabinet with basics and cheeses and freezer foods.  It’s not great for a complete shopping trip.  Chips and sodas were either not present or not any great deals with only very few exceptions.  I personally would not get meats there because they didn’t not have organic or better in the meats section…though there was plenty of meat available and it looked fine if you eat Foster Farms, Jimmy Dean kind of things.   Will I shop there again? Most definitely…maybe even after I get a new job.

Cheers!