I've become buds with many of the folks at Penn Dutch in Margate; the deli crew and the fish people in particular; produce as well. They're nice, friendly and helpful... and appreciative of a kind word and a smile, like most humans. I'm done with Whole Foods after the CEO's WSJ op-ed against health care reform. He has the right to his opinions, of course, as I have the right to shop elsewhere. And I do. Wish Trader Joe's would get here already!

I find that Whole Foods' 365 deals are about even with Publix, but that's only selected products. I wish they'd advertise their sales and specials online like Publix, makes it easier to plan. A few times we've taken out their hot food, which has a "happy hour" special on off hours, but twice the cashier has forgotten to plug it in so we had to go to customer service. I didn't know that about the WSJ editorial, too bad!

My Publix butchers are still behind glass, but I find that I can catch one and ask for something special. Usually that's a beef roast on sale for about $1.99 a pound, I like the top round they call London broil, which I hand to a butcher and ask them to grind it up for me. Wow! That's lean ground beef, usually above $3 a pound, for $1.99.

Hi Joan, I LOVE the cheap ground beef idea and am definitely going to try it. My Mom used to buy whole sirloin tip roasts when they went on sale and had the butcher grind it for her. That makes pretty lean hamburger, too, but never see those roasts at $1.99.

Hi Beverly, This is what I did this time with the roast. I cooked and seasoned the whole package, froze it on a cookie sheet and put it in a freezer bag. It's all loose so I can just scoop out what I need for a recipe. Since I usually just cook for two, I usually only need one cup or a half pound. By the way, I probably picked up the tip of grinding the roast in Cheap Fast Good! Now I remember reading about that in the book. Or was it in one of your columns?

I shop more often than not at the Harris Teeter here in NC. All of the meat managers know me. They may not know I "do food" professionally but they definitely know I'm the woman who asks a hundred questions. LOL. But seriously, they are always helpful and have great ideas. Was recently at the coast and went to a huge new Lowes foods. The fish monger was unbelievably helpful. That store offers to steam the fresh shrimp for you. The lady in front of me ordered 5 pounds and then bustled off to do the rest of her shopping. I saw her leaving about the same time I did and noticed the shrimp package as she loaded it into her car...sounds like dinner to me!

Yep Joan -- page 41 in Cheap. Fast. Good! to be exact. I had TOTALLY forgotten I had written about that --- I even christened Mom "Queen of the Sirloin Tip!" Thanks for reminding me.

I was at the Kroger in Coppell TX and asked the butcher to cut me some 1 1/2" thick steaks that were on sale. Those in the counter were less than an inch. He said they weren't allowed to because it caused cross contamination. He finally did it anyway when I told him Tom Thumb always did. I don't go back there very often.