Safe hugs to you Pinga - and to anyone else who is feeling a bit (or a lot) down right now. I had a conversation with my doc about this . Poor guy is young enough to be my kid - in a couple more years one of my grands could be a medical doc had they chosen that route. After checking with me about boundaries he confessed that he too is feeling sort of depressed and sort of grumpy/bored/frustrated/lonely. It was quite eye opening to hear the specific difficulties he was experiencing. It seemed therapeutic for us both to share and I thanked him for trusting me to keep his private remarks between us alone. How I wished I could just wrap him in a big hug! Neither of us are contemplating suicide so we agreed that in Covid times that means we are fine!
Yeah, we haven't paid a bill in person in so long, I've lost count. If we can't put something on pre-auth, we pay it online. I have better things to do than stand in line at my bank to pay a bill.
Whole Foods near us in Vancouver used to make really good ones - all their prepared food is excellent, like gourmet-homemade. It was comparable in price to the Safeway down the street. I haven't been to the one here in a long time and don't know how much they cost now. Probably a lot.
We don't have one in London yet. I think I went into the one in Mississauga once years ago. It was near a company office that I was visiting. They are the ones that are owned by Amazon now, IIRC.
We don't have Giant Tiger here, but I have bought canned and dry goods from Dollarama. They have a few name brand products. But you have to be careful because sometimes they're about to expire. In Vancouver, I was disappointed to realize things I bought had already expired. But I guess that's why it's cheap. It didn't kill us. Usually canned things last awhile beyond expiry, but the quality goes down.
Yeah. I know. Amazon.
The one near us was a local chain called Capers that got bought up by Whole Foods (it was even better when it was Capers) - they kept some of their specialty items. I think they were called Caper's Whole Foods for a while. Then just Whole Foods. And then Amazon bought them. Still, the food is really high quality. But expensive. If I do go, it's a novelty now. It's been at least a year. They still make the best fresh guacamole I've ever had - not too expensive because buying the ingredients to make it costs more and something will spoil before I use it all. And fresh pieces of coconut are cheap! (I think it was summer a year and a half ago, I got some). Nowhere else sells fresh coconut pieces, chunky pieces, that I know of. It's an experience, munching on whole pieces of coconut - and you don't have to do the work to crack it and get the shell off.
We never got one, there was the space, a sign and then they pulled out. It's the H Mart now.
That's too bad...or not. You probably have places like it. I'm not sure how well the one here does. It's in the same complex as Walmart and they couldn't be more different. It's also across from another complex with a Save-On Foods...which is sort of in the middle quality and price-wise. Maybe that was actually smart location planning. Not sure. I shop at a different Save-On regularly.
Planet Organic - which I actually forgot we had so close to us. I don't think Wholefoods is going to expand at all in Canada from what I heard. The reason they pulled out was due to the recession.
I've been to the Planet Organic here only a couple of times. It's beside another popular local kind of mid-priced chain called Thrifty's, so I went in when I was out with my step dad and he was at Thrifty's. It's smaller than Whole Foods, but same idea. You can always find a few good deals, even in those places. It's fun to try unusual brands and products sometimes. I feel like I'm being healthier and more environmentally friendly when I do, but much of that's probably just superficial.