Foody Friday: Shopping at the WHOLE WALLET

That's what my father in law calls Whole Foods.
As you might have noticed, I'm notoriously cheap. So you might think I would buy my groceries at Sam's (A six-pack of pound cake! Brownie mix that comes in a box the size of my closet!) or a co-op (5 gallon drums of dried pinto beans! 144 frozen tofu burgers!). Would you be shocked to know that I actually shop at Whole Foods?! (cue gasping, infomercial-esq).
Really I shop at a number of stores, but one of them is Whole Foods. To get the best bargains and freshest foods you have to commit the time to shop at several locations. Here's how my grocery stops break down:
Whole Foods:
*I buy most of my cheese from Whole Foods - it's actually less per pound than most stores, and there are often amazing sales. When feta cheese is on sale for $2.99/lb, I stock up (those tiny 4 ounce tubs of feta at the grocery store are usually over $3!).
*Whole Foods also offers a good selection of bulk rice, beans, dried fruit, and spices. Obviously you should always buy bulk spices, but some large health food stores undercut Whole Foods prices, so double check. The bulk rices are a good price, as are most fruits and nuts (and their pistachios are very high quality so I recommend them), but don't buy the bulk maple syrup, honey, peanut butter, or cereals. Most are stale of overpriced, and the honey is not local (buy local honey for pollen allergy protection!).
*Check the wine sales: regular prices are high; sales are good.
*Check the produce sales, too. I'm not a huge fan of Whole Foods produce since it is rarely local and very expensive, but I do buy the occasional bargain. Last week cherries were 2.99/lb.
*Don't buy herbs, supplements, cleaning products, beauty care, etc here: you can probably order most of these items online for much less.
*I don't buy meat from Whole Foods because I don't eat a lot of meat and I don't really care if it's hormone treated, free range, etc. I WOULD care if I ate more, but since we eat so little it's not high on my agenda right now. So I can't really advise in this area.
I pick up other groceries in the area from:
Farmer's Market:Our markets are small, so I basically buy whatever fresh produce they're offering this week. I go prior to a grocery store trip so I can fill in the gaps at the grocery.
Produce Truck: I stop at the roadside produce trucks for amazing deals on avocados and fruit. It's not usually local (with the exception of satsumas), but you can't beat the 99 cent avocado prices.
Rouses: My main grocery store. They have a store-brand organic line and great produce, so I buy most food items here. They also have a decent meats section that I trust for cleanliness.
Roberts: This is another local grocery but I go here just for the bread. They have the best french bread in town. Their bakery is good altogether; I buy a lot of my breads here or at the patisserie down the street from my house.
Wal-mart: WHAT?! Wal-mart?! Yes...I do shop there, but for only two items. Let me get on my little Wal-mart soapbox. YOU WILL NOT SAVE MONEY DOING YOUR GROCERIES HERE. You won't! Some items are less expensive, but you can't take advantage of sales. Grocery stores price a few items and loss or minimal profit, hoping to lure you into their aisles. Wal-mart doesn't, so you can't get create with your menus and save on super low sales. Plus I just plain old don't like Walmart, because it's gross and dirty and slow and awful and makes me doubt humanity.
However, I force myself in there a few times a year to buy grated parmesan in the refrigerator section and Great Value columbian coffee. It is awesome coffee and almost worth standing in line for 45 minutes.
Odds and Ends: Since I work in a drug store and get a discount, I wait for paper products to go on sale and buy them with my discount then (even better if I also have a coupon!). If you don't happen to have a 15% discount going for you, try to combine sales and coupons. It feels a little like stealing.
How 'bout you? Where do you shop? Do you buy from many places or tend to get it all over with at once?

A peach by any other name, or "A Perfect Example of New Orleans Service"

Last night I had to give in and go grocery shopping or we'd be eating spaghetti with raspberry jam for breakfast. I hate making groceries at any time, but I really didn't want to go when I should be memorizing how many grams of codeine are allowed in a 100 ml bottle of schedule III cough syrup (BORE-dom. My test is tomorrow though, so by Friday I should have forgotten everything I crammed up in my brain-attic). I decided to run down to Winn-Dixie, which was a bad idea on two accounts: for one thing, that involved changing into close-toed shoes because that store is notoriously dirty. For another, I have bad feelings for the Winn Dixie because I had my wallet stolen there two years ago (on New Year's Eve, too!). Basically it's a really creepy place but I go there because we don't have any other grocery uptown.
So I dragged myself through the aisles, listlessly throwing things in my cart (Haagen Dazs was on sale, so much for losing weight), then lined up and one of the TWO open registers. My cashier was kind of crabby. So was I at this point - I was in line for 20 minutes just to get to the check out belt! As Ms. Cashier started checking, she got to a bag of peaches that she couldn't ring up. She asked if they were nectarines, and I said no, they were peaches. She asked what kind of peaches. I said regular peaches but they are the ones on sale for $1.29 a pound this week. She gave a little shrug, hit a few keys - and rang my peaches up as nectarines for $2.99/lb! I said, "Excuse me, those are peaches, not nectarines," and she shrugged and said, "Well I can't find the code for peaches. I've done all I can do." Um, really? Have you? Your job is to ring my groceries up and you aren't even doing the bare minimum! You just asked me if those were nectarines and I told you no, crabby lady! I had to ask her to call a manager to look up the correct code for the peaches, which she did, but she huffed a huge sigh and rolled her eyes. Am I asking too much to have my groceries rung up correctly? Apparently so, in New Orleans. I love this city but every service industry acts like they are doing you a huge favor - no concept of keeping customers happy by your excellent service. The sad thing is it works just fine because in a pinch I'll be right back at Winn Dixie, guarding my wallet with my life.

By the way the peaches were excellent, almost worth the trouble...but the Haagen Dazs was better.