I don’t know what kind of 99 cent stores you have in your area, but the ones in Los Angeles do have fresh produce. Including bags of apples that are probably appropriate for baking.

I bought two pounds of key limes last week and saw some nice looking 4 packs of orange & yellow tomatoes.

I still think grocery stores are a good destination as they usually have the best selection and prices (you never know whether the 99 cent store will have what you need).

cybele,

It is just fascinating that 99 cent stores would carry produce. Have to wonder how far it actually travelled though—were these rejects/out-of-date products from a Trader Joes?

Reality is that somewhere in the long “trail” this produce travelled, it must have cost more than 99 cents, some lost money here and probably charges more for their other items that do sell to make up the loss.

As my physics teacher always said, you don’t get something for nothing.

I would love to know where they get their produce? Anyone?

Not everything at 99 Cent stores is rejects, leftovers & closeouts. Much of the merchandise is simply scaled down versions of full price ones at regular stores. My guess is that it’s perfectly reasonable to find a supplier that will sell adequate quality bananas or celery prepackaged for 99 cents. The orange tomatoes were more of a surprise than the normal stuff like four carrots or a bag of very small avocados (the avocados were small, not the bag).

The 99 cent store I stop at also has plants. (It’s also the same place where I bought a 10 year old roll of Lifesavers.)

Once upon a time, my neighborhood grocery was a hippie joint that had a well-stocked “half-off” bin. It would be great if grocery stores routinely offered their slightly blemished produce at half-off, instead of tossing it.

I’ve shopped for food at the dollar store and found a great selection of boxed and canned foods. The produce looks fresh enough, but I would use it that night or the next day. If you planned far enough ahead all those canned goods will come in handy! Eating on the cheap is hard especially in LA, don’t be to good for the dollar store!

Christa — Our local dollar-store grocery chain is Grocery Outlet, which also has outlets in California. I’ve found “Gross Out” to be useful for things like cheap dried pasta and toothbrushes, but the produce? Not so much. Not only are the fruits, veggies, and dairy products old, but they’re generally always conventionally raised and shipped from very far away. “Cheap,” yes. But compared to the potential long-term cost of eating all those pesticides, hormones, and the like? Pretty darn expensive.

This place really helps with the grocery bills! I now buy practically all of my produce there, and also juices and canned goods. I just spent $38, and you should see the food I hauled out of that store! And all good quality stuff well within the expiration dates. I won’t buy any food items that came from China, so READ LABELS. Happy Shopping!

Shop both grocery stores and $Dollar stores but use common sense. It takes a small amount of capital to start - but if you periodically stock up on dollar store items like spices, salad dressings, pasta and jars of marinated vegetables, you will have a lot of inexpensive ingredients on hand which make great anitpasto salads, etc... You can still shop the grocery store for fresh meats and vegetables.

I recently was laid off and my husband is now taking his lunch to work. I check the dates and the brands of the lunch meats and also the bread. The lunch meat turkey and ham are low in fat, name brand and expiration dates are over a month out. The bread I am seeing is very nice, tasteful and fluffy and the dates are good for about a week. So bottom line for $2.00 he can have a sandwhich for a week compared to $3.89 bread at the grocery and the same ham for atleast $2.00. Freezing is also a good option. Another suggestion: pick up one of the pound cakes...good for months. Pick up some berries (they have rasberries, strawberries blueberries at mine) wash and freeze them. Unexpected company? Thaw out the berries, cut pound cake top with whip cream and an inexpensive emergency desert! Enjoy! Oh and don’t forget to pick up the Hearts of Palm...$4.50 at the regular store!