Store Review: Grocery Outlet

Yesterday we made our monthly trek to the new & improved Grocery Outlet on Tully and Monterey Road. If you are wary of the "dented can store," you will be surprised what a clean, friendly and organized place it is. Here's the run-down: Grocery Outlet (kind of the Big Lots of the food world) sells close-out groceries, wine, household products and a nice selection of health and beauty supplies at a deep discount. A few caveats: watch out for the temptations of Lard Land (hydrogenated cookies packed to the gills) and you will be disappointed by the produce and bread selections, however there are a few cardinal rules to scoring excellent deals when shopping here:

• Be picky on your brand names but keep an open mind too.

• Always check expiration dates -that case of energy bars expiring at the end of the month might be quite fossilized (give-em a little squeeze nobody's looking).
  

• Get it RIGHT NOW because if it's good, it'll be gone tomorrow
  

I do bulk up on organic snacks for road trips, lunch boxes and the occasional keg of hand sanitizer. Yesterday we found Fig Newman's organic fig bars for $2.62 (I think they are close to $5.00 at most markets). You will find great deals on cereals, yogurts, frozen finds, soups and pastas and other yummy staples. Yes, you will get burned from time to time -- like the can of "mild" green chiles I innocently tossed into my bean soup & fed the kids. Ooops. Or that bag of mini frozen blueberries with so many stems still attached (extra fiber, people). But for the most part, it's cheap and it's great!