Are we going to still be able to get Kosher Salt?

[CharlieD]

I have two boxes of salt in front of me. The "kosher" one and the pickling one. First says Salt, Yellow prussiate of soda (Anti-caking agent) the second one says Salt.

 

[jennyema]

I have two boxes of salt in front of me. The "kosher" one and the pickling one. First says Salt, Yellow prussiate of soda (Anti-caking agent) the second one says Salt.

I bet you use Morton's kosher salt.

Diamond Crystal has no anticaking agents. It also has larger crystals which dissolve better than Morton's.

 

[DramaQueen]

Yeesh... shopping at Walmart for groceries? No offence, but don't they have normal grocery stores where you live? I know it's cheap, but do you really want to put Walmart quality food into your body?

Sorry, I just have a prejudice against Walmart. I might buy toilet paper and some other cheap junk there, but I can't imagine buying food from them... Surely you have discount grocery chains like Price Chopper or No Frills?

I was surprised at some of the things you say in your post. I have shopped at Wal-Mart on occasion and know that they carry the same brands as any supermarket. They also carry their store brand just like every other supermarket and I doubt if they can be called inferior. To assume that people who shop at Wal-Mart for groceries are somehow buying inferior products is unfair. You don't do the kind of business that Wal-Mart does by selling garbage. Their neighborhood stores called Wal-Mart Neighborhood store (clever huh?) are just as good if not better that most supermarkets. They just carry grocery items rather than merchandise like their other stores. In all fairness to Wal-Mart and the people who shop there, they carry good products at a reduced price. This is not an " I like or don't like Wal-Mart" thing, it's just reciting the facts as they really are.

 

[Harborwitch]

I have two boxes of salt in front of me. The "kosher" one and the pickling one. First says Salt, Yellow prussiate of soda (Anti-caking agent) the second one says Salt.

I have a box of Morton's kosher salt sitting here on my desk - Yellow prussiate of soda - but my box of Diamond just says "salt". We don't buy Morton's any more.

Uh, JasonR we have lots of wonderful grocery stores here - and as much as we hate the crowds in the Walmart SuperStore I have to say that every piece of meat or produce we've gotten there has been wonderful. They carry name brand products and the prices are usually good. We vary where we shop - the Mexican supermarket, the Asian supermarket, Safeway, SMart Foods, etc. just depends on what we're looking for.

 

[jpmcgrew]

I agree with yoy Drama Queen,The grocery store in town which is 45 miles away isnt that good so I drive another 20 a total of 65 miles one way to get decent produce and stock up at Walmart and buy meat at Safeway.A can of soup in town is around $1.50 as opposed to Walmart under $1.00.
I dont for some reason buy Walmarts Meats you know the ones wrapped in the styrofoam.I dont get a great feeling with their cut meats.Besides we eat mostly Bison and Whitetail Venison.

 

[Caine]

I have a box of Morton's kosher salt sitting here on my desk

Okay, I'll bite. WHY would someone have a box of kosher salt on their desk?

 

[DramaQueen]

Okay, I'll bite. WHY would someone have a box of kosher salt on their desk?

ROFLMAO: I'm glad you asked. I wondered too.

 

[muzzlet]

Never heard of this before. However, a little Googling came up with this judicial opinion from the Indiana Court of Appeals in the case Hofferth v. State of Indiana:

"Inside Hofferth’s vehicle a powdery substance, later determined to be methamphetamine, was found. The officers obtained a warrant to search the vehicle further and found a box containing multiple lithium batteries, camping fuel, a box of kosher salt, and some clear liquid in a jug with a residue at the bottom, which was later identified as methamphetamine."

Here's the link if you want to read the whole case: http://www.in.gov/judiciary/opinions/pdf/11080601par.pdf

So, maybe there is something to it. However, just buy your kosher salt from somewhere else. Or, if you can't find it, I'll send you some!

 

[jasonr]

Ok, I'll admit, I have a prejudice against Walmart. I live in a City and I don't drive. Walmarts are only accessible by car, so right off the bat, I'm not exactly in their customer group.

Also, while I'm not exactly a lefto tree-hugging type, the concept of giant box stores taking over the world... not exactly appealing. It's like Blockbuster video; once these mega chains take over everything, inevitably, you become at their mercy. Walmart decides, for whatever reason, not to sell kosher salt and presto, no kosher salt. Today you can walk down the street to Sobeys or IGA or whatever. Tommorrow? Maybe not.

I don't know... it's not that I haven't shopped there before for junk... but I don't exactly trust them.

But I know it's not totally rational, especially for boxed products like salt or named brand stuff. Still, I wouldn't touch meat or produce from them. I don't want to know where / how they get stuff like that. If it's anything like their electronics, probably made in China somewhere by children, and poorly too

 

[GB]

jasonr, I feel the exact same way as you do. I think the most important part of your post was saying that it is not rational. I feel dirty when I go into a Wallmart and it would gross me out eating any food that comes from there, even though I know that it is the exact same thing my supermarket carries (for things like salt and other pre-packaged items). It is a mental thing for me that I know is baseless.

I do buy some things there (cheap camping equipment like tent stakes and tarps), but as soon as I walk out of that store I feel like I need to take a shower.

 

[Corey123]

Yeah, that's the main problem with Walmart. I also, feel the same way as well, Jasonr and GB!!

That makes my blood boils as well!! You're not alone. None of their stores are close to the cities!!! To get to one, yes, you DO need a car.

You'd think that they'd want to open their stores closer to the cities for competition with Target, Kohl's and Kmart.

Seems that they just don't want the business of city dwellers, as their butts only seem to want to cater to people who live in the suburbs!!

 

[RPCookin]

Yeah, that's the main problem with Walmart. I also, feel the same way as well, Jasonr and GB!!

That makes my blood boils as well!! You're not alone. None of their stores are close to the cities!!! To get to one, yes, you DO need a car.

You'd think that they'd want to open their stores closer to the cities for competition with Target, Kohl's and Kmart.

Seems that they just don't want the business of city dwellers, as their butts only seem to want to cater to people who live in the suburbs!!

Well, not sure about where you live, but out here they are all over the place. I live in the southwest Denver Metro area (Littleton is a Denver suburb) and we have 2 Walmarts within 10 minutes of the house. One is an older store, the other is a newer Super Walmart with the full grocery department too. There are quite a few others in the area too, and many are on regular bus routes, easily accessible for non drivers.

 

[DramaQueen]

Seems that they just don't want the business of city dwellers, as their butts only seem to want to cater to people who live in the suburbs!!

You need to take another look at the locations of Wal-Mart stores. They are certainly in big cities and the bigger the city, the more stores they have. Wal-Marts are everywhere because they do business everywhere. They employ more people than any other business in the world and someone must be buying from them since their yearly gross is in the billions. This is what the public wants and as long as they support WM there will be more WM. No one wants to pay top dollar for merchandise they can get elsewhere at a lower price. And as far as merchandise being made in China, I owned 5 retail gift shops and almost NOTHING was made here in the U.S. Most of what you buy in any store is made overseas somewhere. That's the name of the game.

But this thread is about Kosher salt. I stopped at W.M this mornig out of curiousity and sure enough there was a ton of kosher salt on the shelf. I think your sales person was mistaken. You can make bombs with household items too. Doesn't mean they'll be pulling those items off the shelves anytime soon. Just wouldn't make sense.

 

[keltin]

Well, not sure about where you live, but out here they are all over the place. I live in the southwest Denver Metro area (Littleton is a Denver suburb) and we have 2 Walmarts within 10 minutes of the house. One is an older store, the other is a newer Super Walmart with the full grocery department too. There are quite a few others in the area too, and many are on regular bus routes, easily accessible for non drivers.

Same here, Wal-Marts are all over the place.....but not in the downtown areas where the municipal courthouse, police station, etc are. Heck, not much but lawyers are downtown anyway.

And it’s not Wal-Mart that kills the Mom & Pop shops, it’s the customers. People vote with their feet, and if a customer doesn’t frequent the smaller shops, they go out of business. Wal-Mart doesn’t run them out, the customers do.

I hate Blockbuster and refuse to go there, and I frequent the Mom & Pop video stores instead. Lately, all but one have closed here, but I still go to it. The selection is smaller, but I still make sure to show my patronage. I shop Wal-Mart, Target, and K-Mart as well. Target is a fancy Wal-Mart in my opinion. It costs a bit more there, but I often go there because I don’t like the crowds at Wal-mart. Plus target often has some really great specialty cuts of meat and seafood.

I’ve never had a problem with the meats at Wal-Mart, and in fact, I’ve discovered you can get special cuts there. I’ve had the meat cutter in the back cut me 1.5 inch rib-eyes many times because all the rib-eyes on display were too thin for my liking. Not many people know you can ask the meat cutter to do that.

 

[Harborwitch]

Okay, I'll bite. WHY would someone have a box of kosher salt on their desk?

I think it had something to do with looking up "yellow prussiate of soda". It's also helpful as a paperweight when the breeze is blowing in the office window!

My desk is where I spend a lot of time - looking up recipes, researching new food items, and keeping things here keeps them on my mind. I had a bag of African yellow beans on my desk for a month - to remind me to keep looking for recipes.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

 

[DramaQueen]

And it’s not Wal-Mart that kills the Mom & Pop shops, it’s the customers. People vote with their feet, and if a customer doesn’t frequent the smaller shops, they go out of business. Wal-Mart doesn’t run them out, the customers do.

.

Well good for you. I wondered when someone was going to pick up on that idea. A business cannot flourish unless customers patronize that business. The failures of "mom & pop" businesses are due to the fact that the big boxes offer much more and the consumer wants to take adavantage of the bigger selection and lower pricies. The smaller stores go out of business because the public would rather shop at the larger stores. As for Blockbusters, most of them have closed because Netflix offers much more. I no longer go to Blockbuster, I subscribe to Netflix and I am one of many. Netflix rents over 2 million DVDs per day nationwide. They stock 70,000 titles and Blockbuster can't compete with that.

 

[GB]

The failures of "mom & pop" businesses are due to the fact that the big boxes offer much more and the consumer wants to take adavantage of the bigger selection and lower pricies.

I think that is the key right there though. The Mega big stores like WM have the buying power to be able to offer lower prices and still make a profit. Something the smaller mom and pop stores can not do. You can't really blame the consumer for looking for the best price. The Walmarts of the world could price theirs items competitively so the mom and pops would not have to close (nothing saying they should, only that they could).

 

[jpmcgrew]

We dont have many mom & pop stores here and I dont think when I get the main staples in groceries at WM its going to hurt Safeway and all the other major chain stores.

 

[Corey123]

We got a lot of mom & pop stores around here.

But none of them sell Kosher Salt. Have to go to the supermarket up the street for some.

 

[keltin]

I think that is the key right there though. The Mega big stores like WM have the buying power to be able to offer lower prices and still make a profit. Something the smaller mom and pop stores can not do. You can't really blame the consumer for looking for the best price. The Walmarts of the world could price their items competitively so the mom and pops would not have to close (nothing saying they should, only that they could).

Whoa.......good point.

But you know, you could take it one step further and lay this on the manufacturer. The manufacturers could all decide to sell their items for the exact same price to every customer/merchant. Wal-Mart, Target, and the local Mom & Pop all pay the same manufacturer’s price for the item no matter the volume you purchase. From there, it becomes a question of mark-up, and the Mom & Pop stores would surely win since they have less over-head. But, like you said, I’m not saying manufacturer’s should do it.....but they could.