Seattle Bewilderment Blog

Seattle #14: Food, part 2.

29/12/2017

Some foods are so rich they're out of this world, like American sweet corn, cotton-candy grapes and Irish-imported Kerrygold butter. (Mixing the ultra-tasty corn with the rich butter is too rich though.) But as is well documented in academia, Americans like their food sweeter. Why anyone would want their canned chopped tomatoes to have added sugar, I don't know. Most American bread is also far too sweet for me to stomach, but not as sweet as Japan which was even worse.

Bulk purchase discounts at normal supermarkets are a bit crazy here - why I would want to buy 10 large cucumbers at once, I don't know (or want to know?), and 4L (1 gallon) bottles of milk are the most popular size sold.

I'm going through a process of finding out what products I like here, and where to get them. Many big international brands here are diferent to their overseas versions, such as Special K, so that heuristic goes out the window (not that there are many international brands I recognise here).

The good news is I'm slowly getting there. So far I can scratch gouda cheese off the list, but it's the only cheese so far. Premium gelato brands are sorted, as are luncheon meats and water-crackers, but other than that I have to be prepared for disappointment wen shopping and eating, at least for a while.

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Seattle #13: Supermarkets

22/12/2017

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Supermarkets here are tiered in expense, quality and customer social class, like the UK. This is really mind-blowing for me because Australia has a supermarket duopoly that directly compete at the same tier. (This is changing with the introduction of discount supermarket Aldi.)

Walmart was not as trashy as peopleofwalmart.com led me to believe, although the staff are clearly paid less, the customers were of a lower socio-economic demographic bracket, and for the first time in my life, as I exited a supermarket someone checked my receipt and went trough my cart. Big store, especially by UK standards, but not a mind-blowing mini-city like I had heard. They're apparently based outside cities, which is true for Seattle.

Costco WAS the mini city that blew my mind though. Wow. Definitely my favorite, if I had a car.

Safeway and Quality Food Center are mid-range (and close to my place.)

Trader Joe's is smaller, does a lot of its own brands, specializes in organic food, aiming at slightly above mid-market.

Target is not the same company as in Australia. Their mix of food, apparel and home goods confuses me.

Whole Foods and Metropolitan Market are very expensive, but lots of really nice foods.

Pike Place Market is tourist attraction is expensive, but again, lots of really nice and exotic food.

Local farmers' markets on certain days of the week. Common, popular, vary a lot. Ones closer to the city tend to be more like artisan markets with little range in fresh produce and high costs.

Have a specific food question? Ask away.

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Seattle #12: How judgmental people are of food, especially non-organic food

15/12/2017

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Tonight, a complete stranger in my apartment building walked up to me eating my dinner on the communal rooftop area to point out the BBQ sauce was a cheap one that uses high fructose corn syrup. I checked the label, and sure enough, it's the first listed ingredient, and therefore main ingredient. Something I wish I knew when I bought it. Good to know. Really.

He then went on to explain he only buys organic, and the lack of the word 'organic' on the label' is another reason he wouldn't buy it. I had to bite my tongue before I made a comment about how blindly following such things is foolish. I could easily have given him many specific examples where it's simply a money-maker because the items were organic anyway, there is little or no advantage or a serious disadvantage for certain foods to be organic, or certain foods aren't really organic because of greedy companies labeling non-organic items as organic to boost their profits.

I did that 'smile and nod' thing I have heard so much about. It worked wonders. He moved on to ask what I do and what my thesis is on. Of course I excitedly told him it's on food labeling, and how we can alter consumers perceptions, even taste perceptions of foods through packaging. I grabbed the sauce bottle and used it as a prop to explain how we marketers can get consumers to pay more by making them *think* something is premium, when it really isn't.

He...did not like that. He did not like that at all.

Other label gimmicks are rampant. Chickens here can't be given growth hormones or raised in cages, but every chicken product in the supermarket has to say "hormone and cage free", lest consumers think the company that doesn't do this is worse than the others. Not to mention gluten free items for product types that have no gluten to begin with.
Game show idea: give three marketers 30 minutes in a supermarket to find as many products that they can that do this. Winner gets a year's supply of fat-free yogurt that is packed wish sugar.

Addendum:
My favorite podcast did an episode on organic food, and I'm stoked they mention the type of research my thesis was on. In blind taste tests people think vegetables *labelled* organic taste better (when it definitely doesn't).
I'm tempted to do a talk on organic food and market it to people who consume organic food, if only for the schadenfreude of being like a person telling a class of kids Santa isn't real.
To be clear, I'm not saying it isn't good, but it is not what most people think it is. Check out the Organic Food episode of Science Vs podcast.

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#11: Driving here. I love it.

8/12/2017

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Wide lanes like Australia, everyone follows the rules like in Australia, and people are courteous, but that might be because some people carry guns in their car, unlike Australia.

Driving on the opposite side from the UK, Japan and Australia means I need someone next to me repeatedly reminding me to drive on the right side, but the difficulty was reduced with every trip, and now it's just exiting parking lots where I need the reminder. The other mistake I kept making was looking to my top right to check my rear-view mirror instead of top-left, and turning the wrong way when checking my blind spot, but these faded with enough practice. I wonder how I go when I visit Australia and have to switch back, briefly.

When buying the furniture and kitchen items I needed I used rental cars and vans from Zipcar where I just paid by the hour. I really love it. Last week I got to drive a brand new Subaru Impreza with <250 miles on the clock. Plus, considering how rarely I drive right now, this works out to be extremely economical, and I don't have to even think about maintenance. Unless they're all booked out or I'm going somewhere with no parking, one-way car-shares like Car2Go (Mercedes cars) and ReachNow (Mini and BMW) are also convenient and cheaper than a taxi/Uber/Lyft.

This is another reason I love living in a large, modern city, and yet another way this place is an upgrade to my lifestyle.

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#10. They swear a hell of a lot less here.

1/12/2017

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But then, the Australia who lived in Scotland was always going to find that.

My moment of realization: Yesterday I left my bank card in the slow-as-can-be ATM. As I was walking down the street, the wholesome-looking teenage boy who was with his kindly-seeming mother who was in line at the ATM behind me ran up to me and yelled "mister, you left this."
I immediately remembered, and yelled "oh god damn it!" purely on instinct.
And then I realised...

I was telling this an Australian female friend who had this story to tell.
I was in a bar in Boston watching the Superbowl playoffs, when some dude yelled out "aww, shit!" and was immediately told off by about 3 other dudes to "watch your language, there are ladies present!"
Oh, my poor delicate female... ears? I didn't get the chance to tell him that I'm Australian and therefore immune to his adorable American swears, but it was temping.

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Seattle #14: Food, part 2.

Seattle #13: Supermarkets

Seattle #12: How judgmental people are of food, especially non-organic food

#11: Driving here. I love it.

#10. They swear a hell of a lot less here.

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Seattle #14: Food, part 2.

Seattle #13: Supermarkets

​Seattle #12: How judgmental people are of food, especially non-organic food

#11: Driving here. I love it.

#10. They swear a hell of a lot less here.

About this blog

Subscribe

Archives

Categories

Seattle #12: How judgmental people are of food, especially non-organic food