7 Things You Should Buy at Dollar Stores

I can’t be the only mother who takes her kids to Dollar Store on a cold or rainy day for a little fun.  I usually tell my kids, they can pick one thing from the store, and they go to town. The first time my younger daughter visited a Dollar Store, she ran around like a wild person, squealing with joy. The only reason why I was able to keep track of her, was she found a balloon and ran with it. So I could see this big balloon bobbing over the isles, and surprise her in the middle of her hide-n-seek. Ah, the memories.

Most dollar stores are the Heaven of cheap toys and lots of useless junk. I only go to Dollar Tree because they’re generally clean and well organized. After a few years of price comparison, I find these things at Dollar Store are worth buying:

1. Straws. $1 for 180 straws vs. 100 in Walmart. I go through tons of straws with my young kids. Yes I know sippy cups are better for the environment, but I was given a hard time by my daughter’s preschool teacher. Apparently sippy cups mess up their teeth. At least straws reduce spilling a bit.

2. Party supplies. My oh my, the money I wasted at places like Party Depot! Dollar Store’s selection is quite sufficient for most parties.

3. Aluminum pans. For a buck, you get two small pans or one big one. Granted they’re not the most sturdy ones, but these are like disposable plates, I discard them once they get the work done, usually for bringing dinner for a friend in need. I refuse to pay $4 at Giant, although sometimes Giant has buy one get one or two sales.

4. Band Aids.  This is a magical device that can make all boo-boos go away, regardless of the type. Sometimes my kids just like to put it on their body as body art. I yell at them about band aids cost money, etc. Sometimes they listen to me, sometimes I give in to the whining.

5. Surprisingly, I’ve gotten quite a few educational books at Dollar Store. Books such as practice books of addiction or subtraction, workbooks on colors, numbers or shapes. They give me something to work with my kids, so I don’t have to reinvent the wheel by coming up with my own materials. And the workbooks are usually very colorful and fun looking.

6. Balloons. Only suckers buy balloons from anywhere else! Their balloons last just as long and the selection is great.

7. Seasonal/holiday stuff. There’re just so many holidays these days you need to buy crap for. Halloween, Valentine’s Day, Grandparents’ Day, the list goes on. Yes the only way to discourage this kind of commercialization of everything is not to give in to the buying pressure. But I admit I give in all the time. My kid can’t be the only one that does not give out a Valentine’s card, or stays home on Halloween night. So instead of going to big box stores, I go to Dollar Store for seasonal stuff. Just like the aluminum pans, most of this is only for one time use, why spend more?

What’s Missing in Your Community – Grocery Stores

I couldn’t agree more with last week’s Washington Post Magazine article, “What’s missing from D.C.’s food scene?” I was just writing about grocery stores a few days ago.

There’re many reasons why I don’t live in downtown D.C. and the lack of reasonable and sensible grocery stores is only one of them. $5/pd for Canadian tomatoes at Whole Foods? Give me a break! And don’t get me started on the numerous farmers markets in and around D.C. Last weekend I got $0.99 a pint of blueberries from Fresh World, a local international store. The fruit was from Oregon, U.S.A. Granted, it’s still not local, but it’s a great price and it’s actually very sweet. No wonder bus load of Chinese Americans come to Great Walls every month from that pathetic puny Chinatown in D.C. for their grocery shopping. Gentrification has squeezed every last bit of decent independent grocers out of there. It’s sad really, for such a beautiful city with metro stations that actually take you somewhere, and accessible, pedestrian friendly sidewalks, you can’t walk down the street to a small but sufficient grocery store to pick up the ingredients for your dinner without selling your soul. It’s not a city friendly to single income 99% families, or people looking to cook an ethnic meal in their homes. I used to think Harris Teeter and Whole Foods had some variety in their selections, but they do charge an arm and a leg for anything out of ordinary. I actually shopped at Whole Foods at one point, when I was a DINK (double income no kids) and it was on my way home from work. Now we still live less than three miles from one. Will I go in there? Not a chance if I wanted to save for my retirement and my kids’ college!

And the farmers markets here are such a joke. You can buy a few peaches now and then, or even a homemade ice-cream for your fussy kids, but trying to feed your entire family for a week? Well nope unless you’re ready to go into an extreme thinning diet for the rest of the month. This is not like the deep South, when farmers sell by the bushel, instead of the individual fruit. I am sometimes tempted to purchase free-range meat from farmers markets, I confess. But ultimately the cheap side of me decided we’d just eat less meat, which is healthier for us anyway. You want fresh? Get your hands dirty and grow it! Here’s a glimpse of my vegetable garden this year.

Vegetable Garden

No you probably don’t know what these are because you’re not Asian but you get the idea!

Shopping at “Ethnic” Stores

Ethnic store is a silly word. Is Safeway or Giant an ethnic store for white people? I don’t care for a lot of the diversity mumble jumble but that’s beside the point. For our purpose I’ll stick with this notion of ethnic grocery stores. Just because you can’t read a lot of the names of the food shouldn’t stop you from shopping at ethnic grocery stores. As a Chinese American I’ve shopped at Korean stores and Hispanic stores. There’re certain food items I have to get at an oriental store, but I don’t shop anywhere exclusively.

That being said, ethnic stores tend to have much cheaper produces and many more options of them. For example, green onions are about 3 for $1 at ethnic stores while Giant charges over $1 for one and of lousy quality for that. So you don’t eat green onions, how about $2 cheaper on a watermelon? Once you get used to purchase fresh vegetables and fruits from ethnic stores, you’ll feel the sting when you shop else where. The mainstream grocery chains sometimes have better prices of meat, and if your family eats a lot of snacks or are picky about brands, go for the sales at mainstream grocery chains. Fresh produces are so much better for you, and you get so much more bang for your buck. The only place I find that can compete with ethnic stores in terms of produce pricing, is Wegmans. If you’re lucky enough to have a Wegmans near you, by all means go there. I shop there for milk, eggs, and bread. But even Wegmans pales in comparison when it comes to the variety and prices of fresh produce.

In our area, I shop at Fresh World, H Mart and Great Wall Supermarket. Other well-known ethnic markets in our area include Lotte, Grand Mart, and Bestway. Check their sales ad online before you go, since they don’t send flyers to homes like Safeway, Giant or Shoppers. Costco and Walmart are separate topics. I’ve never tried to use manufacturer’s coupon at ethnic stores, but H Mart does send you their own coupon book periodically if you sign up. Be aware though, their coupons don’t always provide better price on a specific item than other grocery stores, so do your comparison shopping. H Mart’s seafood and beef are almost always more expensive than other stores too.