What produce/ingredients did you buy or obtain today (2025)?

[SandwichShortOfAPicnic]

View attachment 126967
Indomie noodles, darjeeling tea, bananas, fuet garlic sausage, bread, and small cereal packs

A nice holiday haul you have there
I love shopping for food when I’m away. I usually take a lot of familiar necessities like teabags and GF bread with me but I really enjoy looking around unfamiliar food shops and trying new things too.

 

[TastyReuben]

I really enjoy looking around unfamiliar food shops and trying new things too.

I do as well, but sadly, within the US anyway, it’s become so homogenized that it’s getting harder and harder to do.

My thing was always…snack chips/crisps, candy bars, and pop/fizzy drinks, because it used to be, every region had a good sampling of their own, but now, “from Portland East to Portland West” (thank you, Louis Jones), it’s all Lay’s, Hershey, and Coke/Pepsi, as far as the eye can see.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s still some little local treasures to be found, but it’s harder and harder, and nothing breaks my spirit more than picking up a bag of something like “Raymond’s Old-Fashioned Potato Chips,” stamped with “A Peoria family favorite since 1909,” and thinking, “Great, a potato chip I’ve never had,” only to turn the bag over and find small print that says, “Raymond’s Old-Fashioned Potato Chips, a fully-owned subsidiary of Frito-Lay Corporate Megafood Soul-Crushing Conglomerate…you really think there are any independent snack chip companies left?! We own ‘em all, sucker!!!”

 

[Windigo]

A nice holiday haul you have there
I love shopping for food when I’m away. I usually take a lot of familiar necessities like teabags and GF bread with me but I really enjoy looking around unfamiliar food shops and trying new things too.

This is all pretty familiar to me, but that's because we're planning to go out for dinner frequently.
But it's cheaper and more practical to have breakfast & snack foods available

 

[SandwichShortOfAPicnic]

I do as well, but sadly, within the US anyway, it’s become so homogenized that it’s getting harder and harder to do.

My thing was always…snack chips/crisps, candy bars, and pop/fizzy drinks, because it used to be, every region had a good sampling of their own, but now, “from Portland East to Portland West” (thank you, Louis Jones), it’s all Lay’s, Hershey, and Coke/Pepsi, as far as the eye can see.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s still some little local treasures to be found, but it’s harder and harder, and nothing breaks my spirit more than picking up a bag of something like “Raymond’s Old-Fashioned Potato Chips,” stamped with “A Peoria family favorite since 1909,” and thinking, “Great, a potato chip I’ve never had,” only to turn the bag over and find small print that says, “Raymond’s Old-Fashioned Potato Chips, a fully-owned subsidiary of Frito-Lay Corporate Megafood Soul-Crushing Conglomerate…you really think there are any independent snack chip companies left?! We own ‘em all, sucker!!!”

That happened here to an extent too but it’s so disliked that not having the same old same old is exactly what draws the money in and has kept those things going.
In Bristol there’s a place called Gloucester Road (no prizes for guessing where that road leads ) that is an eclectic mix of independents. Costa's managed to get permission to open a premises there and large protests happened.
Eventually both Costa’s and Subway pulled out because ultimately no-one wanted to eat or drink in those sort of places.

Why would they when theres so many other excellent independents next door!

 

[SandwichShortOfAPicnic]

This is all pretty familiar to me, but that's because we're planning to go out for dinner frequently.
But it's cheaper and more practical to have breakfast & snack foods available

It’s also easier. It’s one of the reasons I don’t like staying in a hotel for too long. I don’t want to travel back n forth to a dining room for all my meals n snacks all the time and within a week you’ve generally exhausted the menu which IMO is always lacking in fresh clean tasting veg!

 

[Windigo]

It’s also easier. It’s one of the reasons I don’t like staying in a hotel for too long. I don’t want to travel back n forth to a dining room for all my meals n snacks all the time and within a week you’ve generally exhausted the menu which IMO is always lacking in fresh clean tasting veg!

Yass girl I so agree! We're even contemplating buying a chalet like this one after my surgeries. We love the convenience!
It's definitely the better option.

 

[SandwichShortOfAPicnic]

Yass girl I so agree! We're even contemplating buying a chalet like this one after my surgeries. We love the convenience!
It's definitely the better option.

Well that would be a lovely thing to have! That’s an exciting thing to think about

 

[Barriehie]

I do as well, but sadly, within the US anyway, it’s become so homogenized that it’s getting harder and harder to do.

My thing was always…snack chips/crisps, candy bars, and pop/fizzy drinks, because it used to be, every region had a good sampling of their own, but now, “from Portland East to Portland West” (thank you, Louis Jones), it’s all Lay’s, Hershey, and Coke/Pepsi, as far as the eye can see.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s still some little local treasures to be found, but it’s harder and harder, and nothing breaks my spirit more than picking up a bag of something like “Raymond’s Old-Fashioned Potato Chips,” stamped with “A Peoria family favorite since 1909,” and thinking, “Great, a potato chip I’ve never had,” only to turn the bag over and find small print that says, “Raymond’s Old-Fashioned Potato Chips, a fully-owned subsidiary of Frito-Lay Corporate Megafood Soul-Crushing Conglomerate…you really think there are any independent snack chip companies left?! We own ‘em all, sucker!!!”

So much for their being no monopolies...

I feel you on the little roadside independents. Good thing about rural GA is there's still quite a few of those. You'll never find them though until you just happen by.