How to Beat the Salad Bar by Nate Silver

[Renew Deal]

<snip>
Let’s start with that confounding multipiece puzzle of modern life: the local salad bar. Odds are that it’s a pretty bad deal. You plop a few items into a plastic box, and next thing you know you’re forking over 13 bucks. There’s got to be a better way.
<snip>

1. The choice of lettuce is key. Avoid romaine ($3.06 per pound off the shelf) at all costs — and consider baby spinach ($6.67) and mesclun ($7.99) your friends. They’re good for you, too.

2. Too much dressing will weigh down your value proposition. Ranch and Italian ($3.99 each) are to be skipped; blue-cheese dressing ($4.65) — or simple oil ($4.26) and balsamic vinegar ($5.10) — offer a comparatively better deal.

3. Veggies can be a trap, but especially beets ($1.84), carrots ($1.69) and red onion ($1.99). A few white button mushrooms ($3.99) can perhaps be indulged in. The real value, however, is in sun-dried tomatoes — cheaper at the salad bar than on the store shelves ($9.99).

4. Go crazy on toppings. Check out how high the prices for walnuts, almonds, gorgonzola crumbles and croutons are in the graphic above. Much to its credit, Whole Foods doesn’t stock the best salad topping of all — bacon bits, obviously — in its salad bar. Why? Because it costs a whopping $21.28 per pound. With any luck your local salad-bar merchant isn’t quite as savvy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/20/magazine/mag-20Subversion-t.html

[Happyhippychick]

1. I read this article but I didn't realize it was by Nate Silver until you posted.

So now he's a salad bar expert :)

[Renew Deal]

3. That's a big part of why I posted it.

I knew people would be interested.

[WingDinger]

2. I'm waiting for the "Dine and dash ettiquitte article on Yahoo.

[Warpy]

4. First, know what it costs. Thirteen bucks for a serve yourself

salad bar into a plastic tray? Is he kidding? There is no way in hell I'd pay that for a trip into bunny food land and sodium bisulfite diarrhea later.

Second, realize you're paying for a loss leader, that salad bar is likely never going to pay for itself even if you prefer the cheap stuff like I do. It's to get people into the place so they'll spend money on higher profit items like drinks in a restaurant or just about anything in Whole Paycheck.

Third, if you're the type of chisler who feels he has to "beat" everything, perhaps the salad bar isn't the place for you. One of those "all you can eat" buffet places where you can keep pounding food into your gut until you puke might be a better deal for you.

[former9thward]

5. Is this what he does between elections ?

[Renew Deal]

6. I think he was originally a sports guy

And did politics because he found it interesting.

[66 dmhlt]

7. Very interesting! But how many salad bars stock sun-dried tomatoes?

[jillan]

8. I have a better way -I grow my own lettuce, romaine, spinach, onions.

Every day I go pick fresh salad from my garden.

It only cost me $1 per seed packet.

Salad dressing is a problem tho... haven't figured out how to grow italian dressing or ranch ;)

[Blue_Tires]

9. who in the world has a $13 salad bar? must be one of those

midtown manhattan things....

[Renew Deal]

10. There are salad bars that cost $7.50 per half pound.

See... It's cheaper! :D

[NJCher]

11. the salad bar rundown

Yep, that would be Manhattan. Out here in the NYC burbs, salad bars are anywhere from $4.99 a lb (Shop Rite) to $7.99 at Whole Foods.

Whole Foods has a very large selection. SR, OTOH, is just your basic fruits, a couple kinds of greens, some horrid salads like tortellini or garbanzo bean. Then there are tuna, chicken, and shrimp salads.

There are some pretty extensive salad bars at the Portuguese restaurants in the Ironbound. Still, even there I have never seen sun dried tomatoes.

The one salad bar that does have sun dried tomatoes is Stop 'n Shop's antipasto bar at $7.99. WF also has an antipasto bar but I can't recall seeing sun dried tomatoes.


Cher