Transcript of Podcast #2: Groceries 101
In Attendance: Melisa Perut (she/they) & Balam Benitez Mata (he/him)
Melisa: Hello, everyone! Welcome back to another Gic podcast episode. Today, we’re going to talk about grocery stores 101. We have Balam Benitez-Mata with us. He is returning mentor he’s been with GIC for 2 years, this is his second year. We’re excited to have Balam. Balam, can you introduce yourself? Oh, and also, before we begin, I should also introduce myself. My name is Melisa Perut. I’m coming back to you as another GIC episode, podcast, organizer. So yes, we have along here today. We’re excited to have you Balam. Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
Balam: Sure. Thank you very much, Melisa. Hello everyone my name is Balam. I’m a fourth-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, as Melisa mentioned, I’m a second-time GIC mentor, and I was also a mentee when I first arrived to UCI. So this is a nice way to kind of like return the, not the favor but just be happy to participate on the other side this mentorship program.
Melisa: Awesome. Where do you call home Balam?
Balam: Sure. Well, a little more about me. I’m from Mexico. I’m also an international student. I grew up, I was born and raised in Mexico central part of Mexico. Then I moved to the northern part of the country for my undergrad, and then I moved to the U.S. for grad school. So I’m just moving up north every time I can more or less. And some other things that I really enjoy, that I like is, I’m like a very active person. I love doing sports. I love weightlifting, going on hikes, playing basketball. If you invite me to go to the beach and play sports, I’ll probably say yes, if you invite me to a barbecue and play sports, I’m probably gonna say yes, if you invite me to do sports at all. I’m gonna say, yes. Also, I love playing board games. I’m terrible at them but like it’s just fun for me to just be there trying to understand rules. And also it is you have so many different games here in the U.S.. So it’s a very interesting and entertaining to explore new activities and new games.
Melisa: Excellent! Oh, thanks so much Balam for giving us a little bit more insight. And Balam is great at sports, by the way, so if you ever want to have like a soccer match a volleyball match, I think Balam is your person. He’s great, so again, we’re going to talk about grocery stores today. And I want to start off with asking, What are the main grocery stores around campus, and something that distinguishes them from the rest of them Balam can you tell us?
Balam: Sure. That’s a great question. So for my experience, there are really good stores near campus, especially close to housing communities, which is very important for us, because when we first arrived we might not have a means of transportation. So walking, biking, it’s basically our main transportation option when we first arrived. So the stores that are close to campus that are gonna be Albertsons, which is a little pricey. But you can find almost everything that you need for your home. You can also find target what you can find essentials of basically everything. It’s not. They don’t have like a lot of things. But you can find like, oh, maybe I need a little of these little of that. You’re gonna find it there. Some items are gonna be a little pricey, but you could just find some good stuff. Then we have Trader Joes. This store I really like it a lot, because it has a lot of organic items, and they have, like different options for dietary options. You can find some gluten-free items. You can find some vegan items you can find X, Y or Z depending on your preference and these are really close to campus. I think from, I live in Campus village, from campus villages, it’s 15 min – 20 min walk from Palo Verde and Verano Place, it’s like 5 min. – 10 minute-ish walk. If you’re living in some other little like outside of campus communities that are still close, it might take you maybe 25 – 30 minutes, but still is walking distance, and you can still carry all the things back to your place, with no big effort. And lastly, I would like to mention Wholesome Choice, which is a store that it’s close, well relatively close if you take the bus or if you bike, but if you decide to walk than it’s gonna take you some time. But this store is amazing because they have a lot of options for Middle East items and for Mexican or Latin items. And it’s relatively cheap compared to the other stores that I just mentioned. And another great thing is you can get a discount. You can get a student discount when you show your UCI ID. So you, whenever you’re gonna pay, you tell them, ‘hey, can I get the student discount” and just show your ID and boom! You get a discount? And people there are very nice. All the workers in that store are internationals. So they’re really used to talk to internationals, help them, and even give some recommendations on products.
Melisa: Awesome. Thank you so much, Balam and Trader Joe’s also has like to go lunch items as well. So for our lunch break, you can also go to just Trader Joe’s if you want to grab something quick. I think it’s a great option as well. Wholesome Choice has fresh bread. They have this Middle Eastern bread that they bake, and it’s really great, and everybody’s waiting in line to get the fresh bread because they have them out but then they can also, like get one that’s really fresh. That just came out of the oven. So Wholesome Choice is, it’s a great place, and I shop there as well. So Balam you kind of gave us a sense of grocery stores that are close to us. What if we want to explore a little bit further? If you want to like, drive, or take a bus, what kind of options are there for students that want to expand a little bit more in distance?
Balam: Right, so there are couple of stores that, are, we can divide them in, whether you have to take the bus, or you can still bike to them. So if you want to bike, you can find Whole Foods, Ralphs, and I think probably Wholesome Choice. Those 3 are the ones that you can bike and it’s not really far. It might take you some effort to bike back with all the weights that you’re coming from groceries. So it’s gonna be Ralph’s, which we have like couple of stores in like Irvine, you can find different items as well. I, personally, usually don’t do groceries there, just because I usually go to the cheapest options. Ralph’s you can find a variety of other items. I don’t know the actual range prices for it, but I know I’ve seen like people really like it for some items in a specific. Then we have, I mentioned? Whole food, Whole Foods it’s also near campus. Going to Whole Foods. You’re gonna find if you’re bike it’s gonna be down hill but then, if you come back, it’s gonna be like a little steep, the slopes. So you might want to think twice on that one. But if you have a really great condition, if you really love biking that could be, that could be a great option. And Whole Foods, it’s known for having high-quality items. But with high-quality items comes also higher prices. So if you are really into buying a high-quality items and just finding, like a very specific things that you might want to cook or to eat, then Whole Foods is gonna be your option. And then, if we want to take the bus, then we have some other options that you can still bike but for me, biking to these stores is gonna take at least 30 – 40 min, which is just better to take the bus. So we have Walmart, which obviously you can find a ton of different items. You can find from produce, meat, bread, canned stuff, stuff for your apartment like appliances, pharmacy. It’s really a big store where you can find everything and you can take the bus. You could take the bus that stops in front of the campus, and there’s some other stops near the housing communities. And it’s only one bus so it’s really quick. We can also go to Grocery Outlet. Grocery Outlet, it’s amazing because they have cheap products all year round. And quality is good. Maybe you’re gonna find some products that are like a little that might have, like some defects. But that’s totally fine. They’re still gonna sell then and they’re like in good quality. And you may want to take a bus, or in some cases you can take a like combination of bus and just an Uber, just to make sure that you get really in front of the store. And we have 2 other options H-Mart which is the store specialized in Asian items. For that one you have to take between. Well, depending on the time you go, you take one or 2 buses, and that store is amazing, because you can find a lot of Asian items that are either from Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan. Well, at least those are the languages that I recognize in the store but I’m pretty sure you can find some other things to. Also produce that it’s very well known in Asia. You can find it in h-Mart and maybe you’re not gonna find it at Walmart or at some other places. And finally, we have Costco. Costco, I would say, is a sort of the the further from campus. You really have to take one bus, and it’s gonna probably like an hour or hour and a half depending on the time. Or you can just drive or take an Uber or Lyft. And Costco is mainly known for buying in bulk. You can buy in bulk almost anything that comes to your mind. Produce, canned stuff, appliances for home, and some other things that you need from for your pantry. So that’s a great option. If you want to buy in bulk and still save some money. But you gotta like think twice. Because you’re gonna bring a bunch of things with you. So either riding the bus or taking an Uber on your way back, it’s gonna be the smartest thing to do.
Melisa: Yeah, Costco is a great option if you need to buy something that doesn’t go bad easily. For example, milk. I buy plant-based milk from there, and I buy them in 12 packs, and I just store them in my pantry. And it’s cheaper because I buy them in bulk and I don’t have to do as many trips for them as well. So it’s something that you can share a ride with somebody, especially if they have a car. I know many Gic mentors who would drive together with other mentors to go and do grocery shopping at Costco because you also need a membership. So one person at least needs to have a membership from your group. For all of you to buy, but it is great, and all of the other options that Balam has mentioned they have a variety of goods, and we’ll talk a lot about them in upcoming episodes as well. But there, there they have. We have a variety of stores around here, and you can find pretty much anything that you’re looking for. But there’s also at least from the culture that I come from. I go to a lot of Farmers Markets, because that’s where you get your produce and maybe Balam, do you have any recommendations for those that shop from Farmers Markets, or prefer to buy from local sources or local farmers when they’re buying their produce?
Balam: Yes, there are actually couple well, not a couple of like 3 or 4 different Farmer Markets around Irvine. We have, Tanaka Farms, which is open all week all week long, and you can find different produce items. It’s like very local farm, and you can also have like a small tour in the farm, just to look at what the produce they have. You can even like, do the strawberry picking some other items? You can, just, you can basically live the experience of picking your own food and produce. So Tanak Farms, it’s really close to campus. Unfortunately, there’s no way to get there by bus, so you have to either bike or share a ride, you can take an Uber or Lyft. But you can just share an Uber or Lyft with some friends. You’re gonna find fruits, vegetables, very local items such as I usually get honey from there, and some other like snacks. They really have good snacks there, and I think well, they have some other stuff that I don’t remember right now.
Melisa: Like bread. They have bread.
Balam: Oh, the bread is really good. They have different types of bread, and it’s fresh.
It’s not bread that’s been like in the store for days, which is great. And then we have some other Farmer Markets that will be established depending on the day of the week. So we have the Saturday Farmer’s Market but it’s literally 10 min from campus if you bike but like 5 min from campus, if you drive, I don’t know how to get there on bus though, because I think it’s a little tricky to get there. But if you have someone else that’s gonna that is driving, taking the bus, or even walking, you can get there very easily. And that one is on Saturdays. They have a lot of items from different places around Irvine and OC. And the prices are gonna vary a little depending on what items you’re gonna buy. But you can definitely find more variety of organic and local products that you’re not gonna find in the big markets. And I know a couple of other Farmer Markets that will sell around campus. I think there’s one Farmer Market that it’s part of one church, one church community that I haven’t been there, but my roommate. He used to go there, and he recommended it a lot. I don’t have the details about that one, but maybe in the next episode we can share a little more about it. And then we have some other Farmer Markets like in Orange County. You might have to drive a little. I think the closest one well the big one is near Great Park. If you can take the bus, you can drive well, you can definitely bike, but it’s gonna take a long time. But yeah, and we just share a little more about those in the next episodes. I don’t know, Melisa if you have what I think you have a little more information about them.
Melisa: Yeah, so there’s one in Newport Beach that’s relatively small but they do have fresh fish if you’re interested in that. The one or the one that’s close to campus also has fresh fish, and there’s always a huge line for fresh eggs. When so a lot of people also buy the eggs from there. So those are the ones that like, if you want to get fresh fish and eggs, those are close. Then there’s also one in Santa Ana. That’s so the one in Newport Beach is also on Saturdays, the one in Santa Ana, I think it’s on Wednesdays. It should be on Wednesdays. Unless they sometimes they change the dates, but you can always check online. The Santa Ana one is also very good. You’ll find more of diverse cuisine of Latino, South American kind of cuisine, related foods there as well, which is a great market as well, and you’ll also get to be able to get snacks as well, so it’s not just produce but you can also buy like coffee, or bread, or snacks, so there’s a wide variety and it’s a nice experience to go and walk around the market and see what people are selling, and you can get to taste things as well. So Farmers Markets are great options, for all of us. So Balam kind of told us about the variety of stores, their proximity, and I wanted to ask you, is there anything like if you’re looking for something specific let’s say, if you’re looking specifically for halal foods, where should we go? If you’re looking for specific like spices, what would you recommend? Are there any like stores that you kind of have a sense of, and would recommend to incoming students?
Balam: Right, yeah, that’s a great question. As an international we all miss the food from our country from our homes, and finding something close to that. Okay. It’s kind of just like we really need it. For example, for halal food. I know Wholesome Choice has some options, but you will have to ask the employees like, Hey, like, I’m looking for this halal item! Do you have it? Do you have it or not? And then they’re gonna tell you, direct, if they have it. I’m not really sure if some other stores will have halal food. I have maybe Trader Joes are gonna have some specific items but I’m not really sure. Other than that you might have to, maybe Google, some other places that are very specific for this type of just food because I’m not really familiar with it but I know Wholesome Choice might have. It’s the best chance for it. Now, if you’re looking for some other type of feel like more Asian food then H-Mart, it’s your place to go, H-Mart. It’s literally a store that sales a lot of Asian products. I’ve been there couple of times to buy some vegetables, some different drinks that you cannot find in Walmart and some other places. And they have, like, really, a lot of variety of Asian items. And finally, you can also try Trader Joe’s. It’s like a very well known chain for organic products, and sometimes they have, like very local products as well, that are either from animal cruelty free some others that are like very friendly with how they collect the produce. Some gluten free options. Some other like different items, as well. You might have to really make a good research on very specific items. If if you really want to find it. And then finally, as you Melisa mentioned, some like Latino, South American stores you can also find in Wholesome Choice but if you go to Santa Ana, then you can find couple of stores that are, I don’t remember the name right now, but not but literally the full store is dedicated to sell Mexican or Latin products. And during that then you can also go and find, like a different spices type of spicy food, etc. Now I know a lot of people like to cook with spices and you can definitely find spices in all these different store that we talk about. I haven’t had like a hard time finding spices in any of these stores, so you can literally find a little of everything. Yes. Well, also, the Farmer Markets are really great options for spices, because they are fresh, and you can also just get some tips from the farmers like, hey, how can I take care of these little spies so you can last longer, or how should I prepare my foods with these spice. So that’s also a great option.
Melisa: Yeah, that makes me also think about herbs. I use a lot of like fresh herbs in my cooking. So parsley, dill, oregano, so all of that. I always use it fresh, and I buy that from the Farmers Market. It’s harder to find. You can’t find it at like for example, target, you have very limited and very small quantities in Trader Joe’s Albertsons will have some of them in organic and regular form. So the thing is what we what I would recommend, and I think Balam would do the same, too, because we’ve explored so many grocery stores is just go and try to shop at different grocery stores. We’ll talk a little bit about you know, budgeting and how to like go to grocery stores and what you should prepare yourself for. So you don’t overspend in future episodes. But it’s a good idea to like try out different stores, maybe compare prices as well, so you kind of know what to buy from where, and then also, like try to see if you like, the convenience of taking the bus somewhere or taking the bike somewhere. So you get to experience a different grocery stores and buy different items. So things to keep in mind. We kind of went through a lot of options for all of you, but just so that there’s just so many options and so many availabilities around here that you can go to. I mean, we haven’t even broached going outside of like Irvine and Santa Ana. right like there are many, many different ethnic group related grocery stores that you can go to and shop from. You can always Google, if you’re looking for something and you’ll be able to like, see which store is selling what you’re looking for. But on top of that there’s also buying online and getting it delivered. So maybe, Balam, you can tell us a little bit about that, and how like students don’t really have to leave their houses to get some of these goods.
Balam: Right? Yeah, so this was actually kind of shocking when I first came to the US. Because back in Mexico, we don’t really have back then we didn’t have these delivery services for groceries. So it was for me, kind of like amazing, especially during the pandemic, where we had to really stay isolated. So deliveries, grocery deliveries, it’s a big thing in the US and we have, like different options. And I’m gonna mention the options that I’ve seen on campus. I know there are like some other options that you can find online, but the ones that I know will deliver on campus are Instacart so Instacart you can basically order stuff from any store around OC, Orange County. You dont need to have a membership to buy through Instacart and you can select as many items as as you want. The catch here is that delivery fees can vary a lot depending on the location of the store, and also how many items you are selecting, but also there’s this membership option where you pay a membership for a year and then you get discounts on delivery fees, or just like the fees in general. So you only get to pay for the products that you are buying. We also have Amazon grocery delivery, or AmazonFresh, which is a very nice option. If you really want an item like urgently, and you don’t have a way to get it. There’s also a membership fee if you want to opt for that but there’s like the different version where you can also just pick stuff from any of the store work from the Amazon store, and then it wil get delivered to your home and deliver it, usually around $10 per order, and some other fees will might add off, depending on the items that you are selecting. And the nice thing about Amazon is that there’s a like if you’re really really need the item, like, within an hour, 30 min, you can pay an additional fee or price to get it asap. And you’re missing one item you can just get it from AmazonFresh right away. Walmart also has delivery, which is amazing, and for Walmart, you don’t really want well you can opt for the membership fee, but also you can just get it, the option for free, and the orders, the deliver, the delivery it’s gonna be free for orders above $35, and then you will pay for the items that you order. What else we have. Oh, we have imperfect fruits. This option it’s very, it’s very nice, because it’s cheap compared to the other options that I’ve mentioned. But also, part of the imperfect food strategie is to sell, produce, or products that were not sold in the other big markets, because they have some defects. So maybe you’re gonna find one or 2 apples that have one or two issues with their structure and they have, like a little bruise but they’re still, you know, they’re still in good conditions. You’re gonna find some other canned products that might have a little dent but there’s still in good conditions. Maybe you’re gonna find some meat, fish, or some other products that are expiring date is gonna be suit like a week from now. Or maybe 2 days, 30 days from now. But there are cheap, and you can still eat it within that timeline. So that’s like a very nice option. If you are, if you want to go cheap and deliver it to your home. And finally, we have, I don’t know how to pronounce this one. It’s Wee!. It’s like w and eee like 3 Es, and the amazing thing about this delivery service is you can buy, you can buy specifically for items that are Chinese, Mexican, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Filipino, Indian, and Asian. So, if this is like a like company that is targeting these ethnic groups that are looking for specific items from their home countries, and I really haven’t used this one. This option, but I’ve seen them deliver it around campus and the delivery fee is gonna vary a little, depending on where the store is or where they’re delivering to and you can also pay for a membership which is gonna give you some extras or some benefits when you buy items. Those are the ones that I know deliver on campus. Maybe they’re gonna be some more other options that are not that popular. Such as there’s some services that will send you prepared meals, and do you like frozen prepared meals and you will just have to store them in the freezer and whenever you want to, it’s just gonna put them into the microwave. And you’re gonna have a nice meal, and those are usually they’re not too expensive. They’re not too cheap either. They’re just like in the middle range of prices. And then you don’t have to cook if you’re not into that. That’s a really good option as well, and it’s delivered to your apartment too.
Melisa: Yeah, well, these are great, and also, and on top of a similar to imperfect foods, Tanaka Farms also has a membership where you can get produce delivered, or pick it up from a pickup location. So they put a box together with seasonal fruit fruits, and vegetables for you to like just pick up you pay a monthly fee for that, and you get your box, which is great, and I have a lot of friends that use that I use very traditional vegetables from my own culture. So I kind of that package doesn’t work for me. I use very traditional vegetables from my own culture so I kind of that package doesn’t work for me most of the time, especially because you might get the same type of like cabbage for 2, 3 months, because that’s what they’re growing on the farm. But with Weee! I call it, whenever I see it, because it’s w triple e exclamation point right? So whenever I see it, I always say, Weee!, I don’t know. For some reason it just makes me, you know, excited. You can also, when you go to the website, you can select, you know, the ethnic group, the culture of foods that you’re looking for so it will sort things for you, so you don’t have to go through looking through all of these items that you’re looking for. So it will sort things for you. So you don’t have to go through looking through all of these items to figure out what you’re looking for so and it’s very it’s very convenient to order things online. I ordered a lot of things online when I was going through illness, because I just didn’t have the capacity or the will to go outside and, you know, make others sick. So it’s a great option, and it’s something to consider if you’re looking for something to consider. If you’re looking for something, and you’re, you know, dealing with your qualifying exams and you don’t have time to go out and shop. So if these are, these are great options. So before we let Balam go, I want to ask, Balam which store did you go last? And what was the favorite thing that you bought from that store?
Balam: Right. So I usually do if possible, I use the Instacart membership cause I can have access to different stores. Traditionally I do Costco. I usually do Walmart, and Wholesome Choice. Those are my top, 3 stores, and then every now and then I go to the Farmers Market, and I think the last, the last item that I was like really excited about to buy was it was oh, it was honey! It was honey from Orange like orange flower, it was like one of those citrus flowers, cause I like to like toast, toasted bread, and then just put some honey on top of it. Maybe some cream cheese as well, and it’s like a really great dessert. That was still one of the last items that I wasn’t really excited to buy. This item you can find at Tanaka Farms, but also you can find it in some other stores. Oh! And before I forget, there’s actually 2 other small stores where you can find really cheap things especially if you’re like in a budget, you can find some canned goods at Ross which is totally different store that it’s not for food, but you can still find some cheap stuff and at the dollar store. The dollar store believe it or not, you’re gonna find cheap canned stuff in some locations, you’re gonna find cheap produce. So that’s also like a really great option if you’re in the budget. Last time I went to the dollar store I bought mangos, which is really like ripe like good, sweet, which is a hard thing to find in Irvine, and I was so excited, so happy to buy those mangoes cause they were like literally ready to eat that same day, which was amazing. Yeah, so those are my to go stores. These are some items that I really love buying this last time that I went there.
Melisa: Awesome. Well, thank you so much. Balam. It was great having you, and we really appreciate your time and everybody that’s listening in hearing about all these grocery stores please don’t feel overwhelmed. This is just to give you a sense of what’s out there. What kind of options you have, and of course all of the mentors are here to help you through the challenges when you’re, you know, going to the grocery store for the first time, and if you heard something and you want to learn more about it, you can always reach out to us, and if you have any further questions just yeah, feel free, to reach out, and again, thank you so much, Balam, for being here, and we look forward to hearing from you again, and see you in the next episode.