This Week's Hot Grocery Deals (IMHO)

We have a new weekly sale starting today at our local Sprouts stores, while Sprouts' Big Brand sale, with 20 to 35% off some bestselling brands continues through May 29th, the current sale at Whole Foods continues through the 28th, and the current sale at Vitamin Cottage goes through June 1st (click for prior reports).  Here's what's looking good to me now.

In addition to the continuing Big Brand sale, Sprouts is whooping it up for the Memorial Day weekend with some new specials through the 29th.  In meat, boneless country-style pork ribs (or pork shoulder roast, but the ribs are what go on the grill or in the smoker for the weekend) are stunningly low at $1.49 a pound, center-cut boneless pork chops are $2.99 a pound, whole or cut up chickens are $1.59 a pound, and all chicken sausage (pork too) are $2.99 a pound.  If you're waiting for the price of newly arrived fresh wild Copper River salmon to drop from the stratosphere (see yesterday's post below), there's still the fresh farmed variety as a fallback, which Sprouts has for a very reasonable $5.99 a pound.  They also have previously frozen swordfish steaks for $9.99 a pound, and I once caught them being very good ones from the USA, but I think that was a rarity.

Before we get to the organic produce, I have to mention that conventional California sweet corn is exceptional at six for $1, as we impatiently wait another month and a half for our local corn season.  In organic produce, one pound bags of roma tomatoes are good at $1.49 each (although the bag concept is irritating), broccoli is $1.49 a pound, red or green leaf lettuce or romaine are all $1.29 a head, baby carrots are $1.49 a one pound bag, bulk mixed greens or spinach remain great at $3.99 a pound, and cantaloupes or honeydew melons are 99 cents a pound.

I've mentioned many times here that I love Lucky's Market and wish it were closer to be convenient for me, and the fact that today's paper includes a rare weekly sales insert from them makes me wish I could shop there all the more.  Since I'm looking at that flyer, here's what I wish I could get at Lucky's Market through the 29th.  Organic produce looks great (as it always does there), with seedless watermelons 25 cents a pound, on the vine tomatoes $1.50 a pound, russet potatoes 99 cents a pound, red and green leaf lettuce $1.50 a head, green beans $2 a pound, red or green chard $1.50 a bunch, and peaches (!) $2 a pound.  In meat, I'd love to try their Teton Waters Ranch beef, with grass-fed New York strip steaks $10.99 a pound, and a promise of "never ever" given growth hormones or antibiotics (Teton Waters grass-fed single grind ground chuck also looks good at $4.99 a pound).  They're also announcing the arrival of the first Copper River salmon of the season, but are not revealing its price in print, which nobody else is doing either.