Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
...I would love to be able to order many types of wines online, but Delaware has a wine lobby from three major wine/liquor stores that has made us almost a Communist country and we cannot get wine delivered to our door. We do have several politicians trying to change the law but I do not see that happening any time soon.
I always check Amazon when I see products of interest, but I also like to order directly from small specialized businesses that I find as I read cooking magazines.
There are other laws that can be a PITA when it comes to buying certain food items. For example - I used to buy raw cheeses like Epoisses on line from a store in France. After 9/11 - US customs started to enforce an old law that prohibits importing cheeses that aren't aged for at least X (think it is 60 or 90) days. If you age something like Epoisses that long - it winds up smelling like ammonia. So I no longer buy those kinds of cheeses when I'm home - either on-line or at a bricks and mortar store.
FWIW - sometimes it is cheaper to buy a product directly from the manufacturer or a retailer other than Amazon - even when shipping costs are taken into account. It's always best to do a price check before ordering. Robyn
Bill Penzey, Sr. and his wife Ruth started The Spice House. When they retired, the sold it to their daughter Patty Erd, who runs it and its outposts with her husband Tom. The Spice House founders' son, Bill Penzey, Jr. started Penzeys on his own, and for years it was strictly catalog/mail order based. When Penzeys began to open brick and mortar stores, they directly competed with The Spice House. The siblings are not huge fans of one another.
The products are pretty much the same, but Spice House is less corporate in feel and operation, so all else being equal, I go with them when I can.
I prefer Spice House. I really had a problem when Bill Penzey started sending political e-mails but that appears to have ceased. I don't think that I was the only one who complained. I only want spices and not political commentary from a spice vendor.
Can't speak specifically about Eureka over the centuries - but it seems to be in drought now - like a lot of the rest of the state (although the drought there seems to be less severe than in other parts of the state):
What is odd to me is that even with the drought - people there are allowed to irrigate their landscapes more often than we can (although our rain situation is normal). We now have mandatory water restrictions all the time. Residential irrigation is limited to 2 days a week during daylight savings time - 1 day a week during non-daylight savings time. Kind of makes you sensitive to the kind of things that are well-suited to grow where you live. Also - we have tiered water pricing. The more you use - the more you pay per gallon (which a California court ruled was illegal there due to a specific California law).
Today - there seems to be somewhat of a backlash developing when it comes to previous food trends - including things like the concept of "food miles". For anyone interested who is interested in reading a bit - I recommend the book mentioned in this article (the author is a very talented food critic/writer):
In any event - the way I look at it is I support many different businesses (and the jobs they create) as a result of my purchasing. Whether it's at local bricks and mortar places - or on-line. Some are small - some not so small. But the thing they have in common is all of them are good in terms of what they sell. I suspect a lot of smaller artisan companies couldn't survive and prosper today if they didn't sell non-locally (either through phone or on-line orders). So it's a win-win IMO. I get products I want. And the producer makes a decent living. Robyn
Eureka is NOT in drought. Some of you don't seem to recall that California is a huge state, 1000 miles from north to south. We are in our tenth straight day of rain but the drought is NOT over for the main part of the State. Thanks in advance for your good wishes.
Eureka is NOT in drought. Some of you don't seem to recall that California is a huge state, 1000 miles from north to south. We are in our tenth straight day of rain but the drought is NOT over for the main part of the State. Thanks in advance for your good wishes.
I know California is a big state. Florida is too .
And - as of 5 days ago - Eureka is either in a moderate or severe drought according to the US drought monitor website (can't tell which because Eureka is in the middle of Humboldt County - the second county south of the Oregon border - and the moderate/severe drought line goes pretty much through the middle of the county):
FWIW - this is what your county has to say in general about drought in your area (the link contains additional information):
Humboldt County, traditionally one of the wettest counties in the state, is no exception. Many communities in our region are vulnerable to significant drought impacts.
FWIW - we had a horrible drought in most of - not all of - Florida - in 1998-99. And it took a lot more than 10 days of rain to end it. And just because some areas were better off than others didn't mean that they weren't bad. My general area was particularly hard hit - and I know it isn't any fun at all. So I wish your area and the rest of your state good luck when it comes to rainfall in the future.
Still - in some sense - we all make at least some of our luck. I find it somewhat humorous that - although I live in "tea party" country - we have had pretty strict mandatory rules about water use - especially when it comes to residential irrigation. Since the 1998-99 drought. That almost everyone seems to follow. But - when I was in Los Angeles a few months ago - I was staying in Beverly Hills. "Liberal chic" kind of place. Where the rules are less onerous than where I live - and seemed to be widely disregarded. I especially can't understand why California - which is such a wealthy state in general - has laws that prohibit the imposition of tiered water pricing. Or laws that are so tilted in favor of agricultural interests in terms of water pricing that growing crops that otherwise wouldn't made sense if water was priced correctly - do.
Where this ties in to buying on line (or bricks and mortar from non-local producers) is I suspect if water was priced correctly in California - and everywhere else (including parts of Florida when it comes to certain food things) - the cost of some products would be so prohibitive that a lot of things wouldn't be produced locally - except perhaps in the most upscale places for the wealthiest customers. OTOH - it would still make sense to grow at least some things in most areas. Depending on the area. Where I live - that's some varieties of potatoes and cabbage.
We are very blessed in our very large country to have a very large variety of climates - soils - and the like. Plus lots of land. Some areas are best suited to growing this. Others to that. We ought to make the most of it. Our biggest problem here isn't that we can't get organic kale grown 5 miles away. It's that a lot of people live in food deserts where they can't find any decent affordable fresh fruits and veggies and similar. My on line purchases here - like those of other people here apparently - are often whimsical and self-indulgent. But I don't get up on any high horse about them - locavore or otherwise. I recognize them for what they are - treats. And certainly not a solution to the food problems we have in our country today. Robyn
Nope..Nadda another ever purchased online...I'm old fashion..I have to actually look, feel touch, read labels before I purchase...I also don't give a care about sales, if the product is full of cripple...So call me old fashion..I refuse to fall for ad's and promotions, when I actually read their labels, which tells a different story!!
Online purchase may be convenient..but often can lead to food purchases not so heathy much less nutritional !!! IMO
Nope..Nadda another ever purchased online...I'm old fashion..I have to actually look, feel touch, read labels before I purchase...I also don't give a care about sales, if the product is full of cripple...So call me old fashion..I refuse to fall for ad's and promotions, when I actually read their labels, which tells a different story!!
Online purchase may be convenient..but often can lead to food purchases not so heathy much less nutritional !!! IMO
For the most part I agree, but there are always a few ingredients I want to try that are not locally available or are prohibitively expensive in nearby stores. For that, I really appreciate the option to order on-line. Belgian pearl sugar meets the first criteria, and vanilla beans meet the second. I've found reputable vendors for both and have no qualms about ordering them. That said, I do not utilize grocery delivery unless it's an emergency, like when my husband had surgery earlier this fall, and I could not leave to shop in person. In that case, I happily took advantage of my grocer's delivery service.
I don't buy any food online. It's either my go-to grocery store, Costco or Trader Joe's. I was going to order a crab or lobster base online until I found a local Penzey's and found it there.
Last several months, I ordered the staples online from Walmart. They come in larger sizes, and they always have them, and I can get a total before I pay for it. If its over my limit I've set, then its easy to fix. I also find I don't end up missing stuff they were out of or buying stuff not on my list but sitting seductively in front of me. I don't get fresh stuff since they don't sell it and there's non food items you have to shop for. But it actually saves money with the lets try thises gone.
I've also bought household sort of stuff from Amazon, and some of that is a very good price. I have Prime, and am thinking of getting Walmart's form of prime, and save more on whatever discounts. We have another store of the discount variety, though their stuff isn't any better, and the fresh stuff costs more. Milk I get from Brahms. If ONLY they'd deliver....
Essencially, it cost me no more to order and get it delived than it would in the store, so why not?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
