I can't make this stuff up...

Tonight while grocery shopping at our wonderful local Co op store, I stumbled across a completely flabbergasted woman at the cheese section of the deli department. She looked at me in utter bewilderment while holding a hunk of cheese in her hand. As I was passing by, she waved for me to come over.

Wheeling my cart over, she stuck out the hand holding said hunk of cheese and asked me if she was really seeing what she thought she was. Taking the piece of cheese from her I was not surprised to see dime sized turquoise and white furry mold spots dotting the surface. Smiling knowingly, I turned the hunk over to reveal what I had suspected, this was a store packaged, heat sealed product. Please see this post for more information on this occurrence.

Before I could say anything she pointed to the cooler where more moldy packages of cheese were laying.

Showing her an example of prepackaged cheese versus store packaged cheese I explained to her what the Deli Manager had previously explained to Hubby regarding why their cheese is prone to mold. This woman looked at me absolutely incredulously and I affirmed that yes, I am being serious. She thanked me and we continued on our way.

Now, to me this is absolutely unacceptable. I LOVE the Co op here in town. It is a beautiful, well maintained and clean store. Their employees are well trained in the art of all things grocery related, and for that I am appreciative. Lately I have noticed an influx of specialty, organic items on the shelves and for that I am doubly appreciative.

However, this bizarre cheese situation still mystifies me. To me it seems a simple solution would be to vacuum seal these products as opposed to heat sealing them in plastic wrap which inevitably is causing mold growth on their hunks of cheese.

What are your thoughts on this situation?

Christmas in July!

So... I just bought this box of cereal last week at the Co op as my EF store boycot is on once again.

Imagine my surprise to see the festive Christmas/Holiday decor on the packaging when I unpacked my groceries.

The good news is that it is not yet expired, so really there is no harm done at all. However, there is something about eating Christmas Crispex in July is slightly jarring to me.

And no, this cereal was not discounted in any way.

Grocery Rant

The first ever time I grocery shopped in YK, it was absolutely scary. The cashier wildly scanned each item and then flung it down the conveyor belt. Hubby and I stood there waiting for her to bag our groceries (as that is what happens at every other grocery store I have ever shopped at in my life...) while she continued the wild scanning and flinging. When she was done she stared blandly at us and announced the HUGE price. (First grocery trips are always so expensive, I hate having to re buy everything that was once in your cupboard.) While she smacked away on her gum she completed the transaction and then, as she handed us our bill told us to bag our own groceries.

I hate grocery shopping in YK. However, nine months down the road I feel I have become a marathon grocery shopper, I have learned to ALWAYS bring Hubby to the grocery store, he loads up the front end of the conveyor belt while I run to the end part of the conveyor belt and start bagging. It works well, and I am contemplating applying to the Northern Olympics to see if we can start it up Northern Grocery shopping as a new Northern Olympic event.

Having boycotted EF and I have now returned as the high prices as Co op became far too expensive to continue to exclusively shop there. The last trip to EF grocery store illuminated exactly why I cannot handle shopping there.

Hubby and I set up for the unloading and packing of the groceries. His mother was even there to help me pack. As I filled a bag with groceries I sat it at the end of the conveyor belt as Hubby was still unloading the cart. That same cashier was practicing her expert scan and fling technique. Soon the end portion of the conveyor belt was jam packed with bagged groceries and groceries still requiring bagging. MIL and I worked at top notch speeds. As the cashier was in her happy place, scanning and flinging away (while smacking loudly on her gum) she did not notice that the groceries were piled high and there was no more room for more bagged groceries. (No, putting bagged groceries on their filthy floor was not an option!) I loudly yet politely called out for her to stop for a second until Hubby could push the cart down so we could start loading up the cart and finish bagging the groceries. She ignored me and within these few seconds the influx on new groceries caused all the bagged groceries to squash together at once. I heard a huge crunch as the bags of chips crushed together and the bread bag was flattened to a pancake like state.

So here’s my problem. I am sick and tired of the dingy half empty store filled with half spoiled produce and often empty shelves. I KNOW there are people on this earth who don’t even have the luxury of a grocer or even food while others are stuck paying $20 for a litre of milk. I SHOULD probably not complain.

But here in YK, it’s almost like a tease. We have produce, but it half rotted. There is a grocery store (Three to be exact) but the shelves are half filled. The bread is set to expire in four days. The milk goes bad after two... and then there is the often times poor service at that certain grocery store. My grocery order is ALWAYS between $300ish to $400ish every 3ish weeks. I hate paying all that money to a national grocery chain to consistently have these bizarre and stressful shopping experiences.

And NO, I really don’t buy into the whole, “We have a hard time finding good workers here in YK” thing. The difference in customer service and overall store quality between Co op and EF proves that is not the case.

Much ado about nothing... or mouldy cheese. Whatever.

One thing I miss constantly about the Southern land of Canada is the never ending supply of fresh produce. This was a long, hard winter filled with withered peppers, rubbery, half rotted potatoes, tomatoes, you name it, it wasn’t so fresh. I know a few people who have worked in grocery stores and I am pretty sure that most of the fresh produce on the shelves at YK groceries stores would have been pitched in the bin in other groceries in Canada. Like the trooper that I am, I dealt with this, cutting off the mouldy bits, throwing out much more produce than I ever had before in my life as everything seemed to go from “OK looking” to “inedible” in 2 days of being in the fridge. I get it, I live in the North and I obviously cannot expect to purchase the same level of quality produce that I would expect to readily purchase a 12 hour drive south of here. Ok. Fine.

Recently, with the closure of the MacKenzie River crossing, the selection and quality at the grocery stores here in town has really gone from bad to worse. In the past few weeks, I have purchased bad chicken, bad milk and cheese in addition to the usual half rotted and withered fruits and veg. While I couldn’t do anything about the chicken or milk, when my nice $12 chunk of Gouda turned to white fuzz after one week in my fridge, my hubby very nicely returned it to Co op for me. This was the third package of expensive-ish cheese that I was going to have to trash that had been purchased in the past few months.

Interestingly, the deli produce manager was present at the customer service counter when it was being returned. When she noticed what Hubby was returning, she was apparently horrified but aware of “this problem”. Oh. OK. She further elaborated that some of their fromage comes pre-packaged but others come in wheels which they have to slice themselves. This is where the problem begins. Their packaging system involves wrapping the hunk on cheese in plastic wrap and heat sealing it shut with a heat gun. The heat of the gun triggers mould production in the cheese and they end up losing about 1/3rd of the cheese from every wheel they package.

Now, I am not a scientist, nor do I pretend to be one on the weekends, however, that just doesn’t seem normal to me. The first mystery which I cannot crack regarding this is, has the technology of vacuum sealing not come to Yellowknife yet? Why do they continue to heat seal this product when they clearly are losing revenue by subjecting the cheese to a detrimental heat sealing process? The second issue I have with this is, do they not understand the nature of mould on food? Yes, you see the mould on the surface of the item, however it also has little mould roots that reach down through the food item. To safely eliminate bad mould from cheese, it is recommended that 2 centimeters be cut off from around the fuzz. Obviously this packaging process is triggering mould production and I think they need to stop doing this!

So, the deli manager nicely suggested that we “go see her” when we go to the deli section at Co op from now on and she will “get us some good stuff”.
What are your thoughts on this? Do you think this is an acceptable practice? Cause, I am not feeling that it is so great. I would like to see the grocers in this town step up and start improving practices to better their service and products for this community!

Snow

Ahhh!! It is working!! For the past few weeks, I have been unable to write anything on blogspot! Tonight it works.

It's snowing in the Arctic. Let me clarify: I am not talking about "scattered flurries". Not "light snow". It is full on heavy snowfall. The last time that I have saw snow at this magnitude was back in the day of good old White Juan, when the snow in Mom and Dad's driveway higher than my waist. Sigh.

It just keeps falling. In the Okanagan we would have flurries. Scattered flurries. I grew up with snow in NS. I grew up with cold in NS. However, after two glorious years sans neige et sans froideur, I feel incredulous at the amount of white stuff coating everything and the dry, bitter cold seeping into my bones. Last night Elliott went out shovelling and was up to his knees in snow on our back patio. He was wearing snow pants and his Canada Goose and was so hot from his gear, steam was coming off his head when he stopped for a break. (Will post photos soon! Waiting for the new laptop to arrive before I upload new photos.)

Life in Yellowknife continues. The roads are ridiculously snow and ice covered. There are already mammoth snowbanks growing on the sides of the road and in parking lots. People are zipping around towns on their skidoos, or sleds as they are called in YK. (Wanna go sledding?! Has a totally different meaning north of 60 than at home!)

Tonight was grocery night, a night I a beginning to dread. A LOT. Walmart in town is tiny and very gloomy feeling inside the store. It is like a mini warehouse with Walmart crap plunked down inside. It is a common sight to walk down an aisle and see the majority of the shelves empty. However success was had tonight when I found a new shower curtain!!! Yippeee!! For all of you "Southerners" (This is what you are called by the population of us crazy north of 60ers) finding a shower curtain at Walmart may not be a "BIG DEAL". In the Knife, we have maybe 3 stores that would even sell them, selection is paltry to pathetic on a good day, so I almost leapt out of my skin with JOY! when I found my treasure.

Then we slipped and slided over to Extra Foods. A lovely store for this town with the same phenomena occurring, where half the shelves are empty at times... For the most part, I love this store. It carries an amazing selection of items for this tiny, isolated town in the middle of nowhere. For that I am thankful, believe that. HOWEVER. The checkout system at this store is enough to make my worn, fragile nerves dissolve into thin air.

Picture this: Elliott and Natalie, cart full, overflowing even, heading to the checkout. Normally there is a line up of fellow townsfolk about ten people deep. Of the 12 or so checkouts, two, MAYBE three will be open. Everyone stares at the closed checkouts praying and plotting on how to overtake the crowd, incase a new one opens up. (Ok, maybe that is just me. ) The cashiers are all young, teenyboppers possessing zero experience in the cashiering world. Ok. Just breathe. So, Natalie starts to unload the groceries from the cart onto the conveyor belt. Teenybopper is deeply engrossed in a conversation with "SHUT UP!!!" "No WAY!!!" "OH MY GAWWWD!!" being exclaimed numerous times throughout her important, work related conversation with her colleague and customer. Natalie then discovers the cap to her Organic Milk (Which she was so DARN happy to find... seriously, organic milk tastes soooooo much better than the regular) So the cap is half off, and the contents of the container are half leaked all over her massive cartload of groceries and there is now a big blob of organic milk spreading along the conveyor belt. Danggggggg y'all, that sucks. So, very politely, professionally even, Natalie interrupted this worldly and highly important conversation. Teenybopper glances at Nat and continues chattering away. Natalie stays calm as that is one of her finer qualities in life and repeats, "Excuse me, do you have a cloth or something, so I can wipe up all this spilled milk that is everywhere." Teenybopper is then able to acknowledge this ridiculous request from this clearly crazed and unreasonable customer. "No." Natalie maintains her cool and requests if maybe she could find something as there is milk covering her groceries and now the conveyor belt. Crying over spilled milk would of course, be silly. Teenyboppers starts shouting out..." Umm, Nicoleeeee, do you like have any paper towel or something. Yeah. I need some. No. Ok. Marrrrrrrrrrrrrrrk. Um, do yooooou have any paper towel or something? Yeah, there's milk spilled. Oh you do? I don't have any. Can I like, borrow your roll? Yeah, Thanks!!"

Natalie cleans milk like a trooper. Elliott has gone off in search of a non faulty topped milk. Groceries are being scanned. We had many, many groceries. (I only grocery shop once every two weeks as I cannot handle the continuous bizzare behaviour of the staff of the Extra Foods... I digress. ) Sigh, back to the Great Grocery Escapade... Once I get all the groceries loaded onto the conveyor belt, I realize that the scanned groceries have ended on the other conveyor belt, *surprise* there is no one bagging them. Elliott has at this point just returned with the wondrous Organic Milk. (SERIOUSLY... it will be worth the hassle.)

Now the process of bagging one zillion groceries with no help begins... fine, I am not physically handicapped in any way that would prevent me from doing this, but after spending $350 at Extra Foods, wouldn't it be nice to have a littllllllle help? Am I out of line on this one... clearly I am. I'm such a dang southerner. So, the grocery order has been paid for and Elliott and I are madly trying to bag and load up the cart. Teenybopper, starts ringing in the next customer. Before we realize, their groceries are piling up next to our groceries... it was a madhouse. (Where did Third Person Go? I was enjoying it... )

Then I realize that my orange juice carton has also been half ripped open and is leaking everywhere.

BIG SIGH.

I alert Teen. to this fact and request she call someone to get me a new one. Teeny2 comes along, repeats "Tropicana" and is on his merry way to find me a replacement. By the time we finished, Teeny2 was not to be found. I had to set off to find him. He was just stopping to chat to his coworker, then couldn't remember what oj he was searching. Not kidding.

Should this be highly complicated procedure of buying groceries? Nope. Is it every time I go? Yep. (Coop, the "other" grocery store in town has much higher prices than EF. So I shop at EF.) Intentions people, it is all about intentions...

Snow... crazy grocery shopping... waiting for new laptop so I can upload photos... that basically sums up my life to date.

Till the next time,
xoxo