What using airbnb as a guest taught this superhost

I shop at Costco and use the stuff up pretty quick - except for, like you said, cans of tuna that sit in wait for their moment to shine rescuing me when the fridge is empty. ; )

But it can be ‘consumerist’. Studies show that the more that is available for people to buy, and eat, they more they will buy and eat. I may not be saying it well - but in other words, one thing that Costco does is inflame appetites because people see “OOOOOHHH!!! Look at all that I can buy” which is, in part, why they are successful. Of course, all stores do that, Costco at a higher level.

But their prices are great, and if the price isn’t better, the quality is. And because they treat their employees well, they are usually happy and quite efficient at their job. AND you can buy a huge ‘everything’ pizza for $10. YES!

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Hi Faheem,
It depends on what the food is and how it is prepared. Canned tomatoes are a great alternative to fresh tomatoes and don’t contain a lot of sugars or other additives if you buy the unflavored varieties. The flavored varieties - even simple things like Italian spices - can have high fructose corn syrup in them so you have to read labels.

Chef Boyardee canned pasta, however, has no redeeming features.

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Thanks for the explanations, @dcmooney and @Artemis. You folks are my own private Brains Trust (a British reference, I think). :slight_smile:

ADDENDUM: I was thinking of the British radio programme, but apparently it was originally an American expression,

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Although the BPA in cans is quite unhealthy, which is why limiting consumption is a good idea (particularly for pregnant women and very young children). BPA is the chemical found in the inner lining of most canned products and it leeches into food at a particularly high rate if the contents are acidic or oily (or if the plastic is heated, like a water bottle in a hot car).

You can now find canned goods that are BPA free. The cost is generally higher, but well worth it in my opinion. For tomatoes, I now buy Pomi which is the best of all worlds. And, no salt added!!! Almost impossible to find that in any other canned tomato.

I liked Pomi too! I almost don’t want to send this to you but there are issues with tetra-pac as well (there’s quite a bit of EU-based research on the hormone disruptors in Tetra). I still buy my chicken stock & milk in those cartons but if I can’t do fresh tomatoes I usually just shortcut to a sauce like Rao’s, because at least it’s in a glass jar.

Costco used to carry organic tomatoes packed in glass jars but they stopped a couple years ago. Total bummer.

http://www.greencradle.net/2009/11/are-tetra-paks-a-healthier-or-greener-container-for-organic-foods/

Yup. But it is the only thing I buy in tetra-pack, and I don’t actually use packaged tomatoes that much in my cooking. Mostly, I think Pomi are the best I can find. No Salt. No Basil. No puree. I can use them for Moroccan, French, Turkish, Italian, or any other part of the world cuisine without hiding added flavors.

Yeah, I have the same approach. I try to minimize exposure and prioritize since it’s impossible to completely eliminate. Kinda like when I was researching less toxic fire retardant car seats and then realizing that the entire interior of the car is soaked in chemical fire retardants…

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FYI, its not just Walmart !!! Its the entire Retail Business that does this to their staff . Its part of their Business Model . They tell you that you will work full time , but in reality you work less then 35 hours per week , so you will never qualify for benefits or overtime . Working in retail is stupid, but unfortunately many people do not have the education level to do better . There is also a reason why these stores like to be close to a poor community , as they get their working staff from that area and they won’t stand up for themselves for being exploited .

@KenH, I believe I made that point in my post already? I’m not convinced, though, that US states are readily comparable to European countries. You have one official language and all salute the same flag, for starters. Plus you haven’t been at war with each other during the past 150 years, which is sadly not the case here. It’s those little things that make a difference, you know? And I’m not even going to mention bedding and kettles :wink:

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We are called the UNITED States of America, so in some ways the separate states share a culture more than the separate European countries (as you point out language, wars, the flag). However, there are some statements about Europeans which apply to the vast majority: metric measures and weights, day/month/year instead of month/day/year, later dinner times than most Americans, use of the fork and yes, duvets and kettles. Also, there are certainly cultural differences between different states in the U.S. (think Texas and California). I do agree with Ken’s point that many posters seem to find it more acceptable to stereotype Americans than they would Europeans.

I don’t wish to be combative, really I don’t. But your post screams insulation to me. Have you ever travelled anywhere at all in the world? Spanish take dinner late, Brits earlier, French eat more at lunchtime, etc etc etc. And what’s with the use of the fork?? What’s that about? I really don’t understand how anyone can cite fork use as a “cultural difference” unless they’ve lived in a bubble or transported themselves from another era.

As you can see, I’m not the only person who thinks that Europeans use forks differently than Americans. I have no desire to show you a copy of my passport, but yes I have travelled.

https://www.google.com/search?q=european+use+of+the+fork&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

Of course Europeans use their fork and knife differently! Europeans think we are nuts for using all that energy switching the fork from side to side; while we don’t understand that over-shovel motion at all. Not a big deal. And these cross Atlantic spats make no sense. We all have different cultures. The United States have far more different cultures contained within its borders than any European country, many of which are smaller than our medium sized states.

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Well, I guess you must have travelled in very different circles to me if fork etiquette was the most noticeable thing! I bow to you :slight_smile:

omg, we’re talking SIZE now?? Aaaagggh! I agree that cross-Atlantic spats are unhelpful at best, arrogant at worst. Because we’re basically talking about USA and Britain, aren’t we? As if we are the touchstone of all things cultural and can blithely spar away dishing out our pronouncements on how “they” do it. Apologies for starting such a silly spat.

Susan only mentioned size as being far apart tends to foster cultural differences. She carefully pointed out that we have different cultures and that neither is better or worse.

You don’t think that a common language and a “national culture & history” are pretty significant in consolidating the U.S.? Practically every child and adult across the U.S. can tell you about Abe Lincoln growing uo in a log cabin or “freeing the slaves” or George Washington cutting down an apple tree, because these otherwise trivial anecdotes/mythologies are definitive of American values and U.S. national identity. Each European nation has their own version of these things – a national history, a national culture, a body of canonical literatures. There’s a reason that we’re all forced to read the same American novels in junior high and high school – Catcher in the Rye, Huck Finn, Great Gatsby, Scarlet Letter, etc. We are incorporated into a common national culture and these stories (which we are all taught to interpret in the same way) are what define American values and constitute us as American citizens.

So I think there’s a logic behind saying or thinking of “American culture” as opposed to “European culture” that may be in conflict with a national culture or identity (which Brexit makes clear).

I don’t know who you are responding to, but I think that it’s more complex than the U.S. is one culture and Europe is many cultures. In Texas, parental permission is required for a student to read Huck Finn. The other books you’ve mentioned have all been censored. In the high school where my husband teaches, the students are reading Their Eyes Are Watching God. I doubt the same can be said for high schools in The Bible Belt, not to mention that in California we don’t teach creationism. Many Southerners still call The Civil War “The War of Northern Aggression” and argue that they should be permitted to fly the Confederate Flag at government buildings. I could list many, many cultural differences between states in the U.S. and also many cultural similarities. I don’t think many will argue with me when I say that the current presidential election is easily as contentious as Brexit.

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The very fact that schools in Texas attempt to contest/challenge the national canon underscores its relevance and power. There’s always a contestation over what defines national culture. More people started critiquing the near exclusivity of white male authors on the list in the 1980s and so we started seeing more Zora Neale Hurston, Sandra Cisneros, Maxine Hong Kingston, Toni Morrison, etc. enter classrooms. To say that there’s an official national culture doesn’t mean that there isn’t always continual push back from many different competing interests or that national culture succeeds in creating homogeneity. Canons try to suppress or smooth over difference (regional, economic, racial, gender, religious, etc) and it can never be completely successful. But the tensions that are inherent in any national project (regions in Spain that don’t identify with the nation-state, etc.) doesn’t negate the existence or relevance of national culture, history, and identity.