Archive for the ‘Consumables’ Category

• Rain out

  Date: 2011.03.07 | Category: Consumables, East Norriton, Grocery, Local Bullshit, Norristown, Walmart | Response: 0

  I was out and about this afternoon and stopped by the WaWa in East Norriton, a rarity for me. I needed smokes and was headed in that direction plus I could use some air in my tires and it’s free there. Yes it’s true 7 Eleven charges for their air but this isn’t a pissing match. I grabbed smokes and filled my tires in the rain, and I was on my way.

  There were some nice rolls at home and I was getting hungry. I started thinking about a prosciutto hoagie. I thought this was all very convenient as I could swing by Talluto’s grab some fresh meats and do a review all in one. No such luck as they were closed.

  So I turned around and before I knew it I was in the barren zone. The first thing I noticed was they’re really making progress on whatever it is they’re building where Woody’s used to be (I know it was ‘Wood’s’ – what do you care!). The second thing I noticed was that for the life of me I couldn’t think of anywhere else to get fresh prosciutto but I knew Genaurdis would no doubt have some vacuum packed. I wasn’t thrilled with the prospect of going to Genaurdis but it was close and a guarantee and I wasn’t feeling real adventurous today.

  Naturally the whole shopping center was mobbed so I slipped in the entrance near staples with the gourmet foods and such. I wanted to grab soda and paper towels too, but there was no way I was paying top dollar for it at Genuardis. So I grabbed the prosciutto and some provolone and headed over to Walmart. It always comes back to Walmart.

  You can guess how this went.  I grabbed the usual – which I might add is becoming easier at East Norriton Walmart.  They had plenty of cherry limeade, and I grabbed some water and soda for good measure.  Also surprisingly despite the multitude of customers around the checkout, I got out of there quick because the 20 items or less lanes were open.  Those lanes are never open.  But in the last couple of weeks there has been a noticeable increased management presence on the sales floor.  Not just the leads and such, but also a trio of suits that sometimes walks around together plotting the execution of innocent endcaps based on inventory stats and sales figures.  I don’t know what exactly these guys are building, but they have definitely increased overall productivity and general effectiveness within the last month or so.

  It was raining still when I left and had a pretty uneventful ride home.  It was mostly focused on how to optimize my entrance so that I could make my hoagie the fastest.  Within minutes I had an excellent prosciutto hoagie with roasted red peppers and provolone cheese, on a nice roll with some oil.  Unfortunately I was so hungry I really didn’t have time to get any pics of it, so I got nothing for you right now in terms of images within this post.

• Local Meats

  Date: 2011.03.02 | Category: Consumables, East Norriton, Everywhere else, Grocery | Response: 2

  So a friend of mine, who we’ll call BobbyGrilladelphia turned me on to eating local healthy meats. Mostly because, and this was from carnivore to carnivore – that it tasted so much better. Well now you’ve got my attention.  So I finally wound up cooking some local healthy sausages.  And let me tell you the sausage was excellent! Sure it was local and healthy and all that crap, but the bottom line was it just tasted awesome. Also I figured it was time to kick things into high gear on the site with some of that multimedia experience. So please enjoy the look and sound of local healthy meats cooking.  I know the video quality is shaky and it’s pretty dark, but the audio is grade A!

  Local Healthy Sausages Cooking

• 7 Eleven

  Date: 2011.02.23 | Category: Consumables, East Norriton, Everywhere else, Grocery, Local Bullshit, Norristown, Nostalgia, Video Games | Response: 3

  It may come as no surprise that my favorite store is 7 Eleven.  It has been ever since 1993 when the 7 Eleven in North Wales on North Wales Road got a Mortal Kombat II arcade machine.  Ironically one of those machines is sitting behind me as I type this but it hasn’t worked in over a year.  I really have to get someone out here to take a look at it.  Hands down my favorite game ever and I completely dominate at it.  Don’t even think of messing with me.  During college I would double flawless/fatality challengers through a mirror.  It was intense, but this post is not about Mortal Kombat II, the greatest game in the history of video games.  It is in fact about 7 Eleven, the greatest mini mart in the world.

  Now mind you all 7 Eleven’s were not created equally, and some disgrace the precious TM they have adorned over their storefront.  However I haven’t seen tyranny like that in 20 years.  From City Line Avenue to Blue Bell 7 11′s dominate the landscape of southeastern PA for good reason.  Simply, they’re the best at what they do.  But what do they do?  For starters how about providing you with 365 days a year non stop interrupted service.  The only time I’ve ever seen one closed is right after a robbery.  7 11 knows how bad you need them too.  On City Line there are 2 practically across the street from one another.  In Norristown and the immediate surrounding areas there are at least 5. 

  However East Norriton itself only claims ownership of one 7 11 and sadly I rarely get over there.  You see in my opinion the East Norriton 7 11 is in what I like to call the barren zone.  Don’t get me wrong I love that 7 11 and it has some unique items that set it apart from the 7 11 on Swede in Blue Bell, but it’s in that zone.  The zone I’m referring to is anything between Whitehall Road and Swede Road.  If you are a Norristown resident, it’s very unlikely you will ever cross Swede Road for a spontaneous stop because there are no through roads again until you get to Whitehall.  East Norriton Township Park, Norristown Park, Elmwood Park, and the ever famous Norristown State Hospital all bump up against one another and permit no traffic.  Sure you could get through there with almost any vehicle.  But it’s just not a viable route.

  For the last 10 years or so my 7 Eleven of choice is far and away the Blue Bell location.  Friendly people, your brand of cigarettes is never out of stock, and it exists on an obelysk of concrete that you can only see from an overhead map.  I have been known to visit this store on multiple occaisions per day.  I was recently ousted as foursquare mayor because I got tired of checking in there!  I’m sure I could earn it back, but I don’t have the proper motivation to be honest.

  update:  I got my Mayor title back with one check in.

• Wal-Nite

  Date: 2011.01.27 | Category: Consumables, East Norriton, Grocery, Local Bullshit, Walmart, Weather | Response: 2

  So the office closed early today due to the expectation of more snow.  It still hasn’t arrived, but everyone is betting on it. (Update: it is definately here now in the form of ThunderSnow!)  I needed quite a few things and I had planned my route before leaving work.  First I stopped at the Walgreens on the corner of Township Line and 202 in Blue Bell.  Walgreens really is a superiour pharmacy and has the best retail goods out of all the chains.  However this location is not open 24 hours!  Sometimes I wonder about this area and their obsession with non-24 hour stores.  Surrounding East Norriton you really only have Giant and 7-11 in Blue Bell.  Sure there’s the 7-11 on East Johnson Highway but I prefer the one on Swede.  Come to think of it there’s also the one down Germantown pike towards the WaWa.  Of course there’s another Walgreens there but again it’s not 24 hours.

  I did what I had to do in Blue Bell Walgreens, and even grabbed my smokes there since it would give me more freedom of line choice at Walmart.  Coming into the parking lot at Walmart, I noticed one of East Norriton’s finest parked in the fire zone.  No one was in the vehicle, and I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary inside Walmart nor a police officer.  Maybe he just needed milk or rock salt.

  Since I had gotten out of work early I grabbed a cart and took my time tonite.  One of the first things on display in the front was a near empty pallete of rock salt.  Sure I’ll grab one of the last bags.  I was also extremely pleased to discover that they had cherry limeade again!  So naturally I stocked up on a few more boxes.  I also grabbed a packet of those Tassimo Maxwell House coffee discs.  I really do love my Tassimo machine, but I had a syrup problem with it before we moved.  Sometimes when you use the hot chocolate cups, the chocolate syrup goops up the dispenser.

  When I got to the registers there were only a few open and they were all packed.  The one I picked quickly became the slowest.  This woman was paying for her items with a huge stack of unidentifiable gift cards.  They were blue with multi colored dots on them and she had to have at least 25 of them.  She only used maybe 5 of them to pay so I’m guessing they were $10 or $20 amounts.  What do you know while I’m waiting for all this, the cigarette line opens up completely so I wound up in that line anyways.

• Valentine’s Massacre of aisle 5/6 endcap

  Date: 2011.01.25 | Category: Consumables, East Norriton, Grocery, Walmart | Response: 0

  Noo – Why!!!  My precious cherry limeade endcap is gone!  Sure I knew it was simply a matter of time before the endcap changed, but I didn’t think it would be in just over a week.  They sure moved a ton of cherry limeade in the past 10 days.  Now it’s been reduced to an assortment of Valentine’s day baked goods and marshmallows.  Which I’m sure are products worthy of endcap selection, but they don’t help me.  To boot they don’t even have any cherry limeade in the regular mixed drink aisle either.  Ahh what am I gonna do, at least I stocked up last week.  I still have 1 unopened 10 pack.

  

  cherry limeade is gone

  There really wasn’t much going on tonight.  Usually it’s kind of a struggle to make your way past the registers into the body of the store.  I think they should have a ramp and overpass for the people who aren’t in line.  But you could sell the same crap as they do in the lines on the overpass.  Why do the baseball cards have to be confined to one register?  What if that line’s really long and people are all squashed in there?  You’re gonna be the guy who tries to say excuse me to a bunch of irritated smokers waiting for cigarettes?  Speaking more to that, it amazes me that so many non smokers at Walmart go though that line even though it’s always the longest, and they don’t purchase anything else aisle specific like the “As seen on TV stuff” or the baseball cards.  Either way the sun has set on the cherry limeade endcap, I enjoyed it while it lasted.

• Sunoco

  Date: 2010.07.16 | Category: Consumables, East Norriton, Grocery, Local Bullshit | Response: 1

  I used to frequent this place a bunch, until I got into an argument with the lady behind the counter because they were selling packs of cigarettes that say “PROMOTIONAL – NOT FOR RESALE” on them.  That makes me pretty angry.  If you want to sell me Promotional Packs on a street corner for a discount I’m all for that.  But to slap a full retail price on them and take full advantage of Smokers and Phillip Morris like that is a disgrace.

• Great Stores in East Norriton

  Date: 2010.07.15 | Category: Consumables, Dining, East Norriton, Fashion, Grocery, Local Bullshit, Nostalgia, Recreational, Tech, Walmart | Response: 30

  I don’t want to get off on the wrong foot here with all of you East Norriton die hards like myself.  I shuffle through East Norriton every day, but I will concede that West Norriton far and away has the better Wal Mart.  But now that’s out of the way, let’s focus on what makes East Norriton awesome!  My most visited store in East Norriton has got to be Smokings.  Great little tobacco store with all the fun stuff like lotteries and beverages.  And the people are so friendly.  Seriously when you get to know them, you feel like you’re receiving the kind of small town service you would have at a family owned general store in the 1800′s. 

  Around the corner but in the same shopping center is the best Game Stop in North America.  No question about gaming will go unanswered there and midnight releases are a blast, AND efficient for that matter.  They move so fast that even though you’re excited to get home and game,  you kind of feel like hanging out a little longer with all the other pumped up gamers.  These are both located in Northtowne Plaza.  This is the most happening of the 4 shopping centers located at the intersection of Route 202 and Germantown Pike.