Good Food Blog
Warehouse shopping
Posted at 11:30AM, 23 January 2008 by Jenni Muir - food writer
Artists Gilbert and George go shopping at the cash and carry once every two years to stock up on toothpaste, cans of coffee and 3000 rolls of loo paper because they want to keep their time and brains free to concentrate on things other than shopping. I'm quite the opposite - I shop for food almost every day, and get sent a lot for work - but still love stocking up at a warehouse. There's something very satisfying about knowing that I've got all this stuff on hand - cases of canned tomatoes and tuna, catering-sized bottles of soy sauce, enough mango chutney to run a takeaway. My mum used to do it too. Nesting instinct? Some sort of squirreling gene? Greedy, or practical?
A few times a year David (my husband) and I drive to a warehouse outlet in Watford - not even the closest one to where we live because, yes, you've guessed it, we have tested them all. I always know a trip will be mooted when he starts forlornly roaming the house of an evening looking for nuts like a lost lion cub trying to find its mother, and the giant block of loo roll 12-packs no longer takes up half the guest bedroom. He thinks it's worth warehouse shopping for the nuts alone but from time to time remembers that the original purpose of his membership was to pick up bulk tea bags and sugar for his office.
Thing is: the nuts are fabulous, so are the organic tomatoes, and there's a surprisingly good range of genuine gourmet lines at very attractive (I wouldn't necessarily say 'bargain') prices. We regularly buy tubs of Orkney herring, plus sliced sides of Loch Fyne cold-smoked salmon and the heartier Coln Valley hot-smoked salmon, which I divide into two-portion servings and store in the freezer ready for breakfast. There's the AOC-rated Isigny Ste Mere butter (also freezeable) and camembert from Normandy, a lovely DOC gorgonzola and huge wedges of decent Parmigiano-Reggiano. We won't buy the chorizo again, but the Polish kabanos is good.
There's always an element of lottery to warehouse shopping. On our recent visit they didn't have the excellent Denhay dry-cured bacon in stock but we picked up a mixed platter of smoked meats from Rannoch Smokery who have won oodles of Great Taste Awards. And while - yet again, grrrr - they had no regular baked beans, we were pleased to find cases of organic canned chickpeas that we'd not seen before.
The trick is to only buy foods that won't go off before you use them, so you do need to read and analyse the fine print. A catering-sized jar of Californian sun-dried tomatoes (some of the best) is no problem because even once you open it you've got 12 weeks to finish them. Any large packs that state 'use within 4 weeks of opening' I tend to leave on the shelf. The mango chutney has to be refrigerated after opening but will last until 2010.
We've been known to linger in the electricals and books sections, but the Brucie-bonus this time was stacks of Nike running gear and tennis shoes - in sensible colours! Exercise takes on particular importance when you've got all these nuts and cheeses to eat, after all. (If you want branded shoes in awful blue and purple colour combinations, warehouse shopping is definitely for you too, don't worry).
Comments
Your binder
Save your favourite recipes; add, rate and comment on recipes. Plus, get our newsletter.
Your binder
Here are three other great reasons to sign up:
- You get an online binder, where you can store all your favourite recipes and create menus.
Search Good Food
Recent Posts
Flag as inappropriate
Please let us know your name and the reason you find the above comment inappropriate.
Flag as inappropriate
Please let us know your name and the reason you find the above comment inappropriate.
Flag as inappropriate
Please let us know your name and the reason you find the above comment inappropriate.