You Can't See Me, But I'm Doing the Snoopy Dance

Because, you see, Trader Joe's is coming to town. Rumor has it that they're coming to Union Square, of all places, located in the first two stories of an NYU dorm building. Smart planning - nothing like locating a store full of cheap booze and upscale food in a building full of students. I don't care if it's as crowded as the Union Square Whole Foods (who can't be happy about this development), I can't wait to go get me some TJ's salmon jerky. Mmmmmmm.

Speaking of great locations, I'm... sort of happy that a new Sunac Market has opened up next to the Lorimer BART -- haha, I meant L of course, must be the Trader Joe's on my mind still -- which is insidiously convenient, right off of the Metropolitan exit. I mean right off of it; you're basically standing right in front of the market entrance when you come up the subway stairs on the northeast corner. It's pretty much a full-size grocery store, too; that and the convenience makes it hard to resist spending $2.50 for a can of tomatoes. Hard, but not impossible.

Then again, Sunac suffers from the same beer-pricing disease that affects many Brooklyn grocers - they don't seem to have any idea how much to charge for beer, or realize that customers might be aware of some standard pricing per brand. As a result, beer prices vary wildly from one bodega to another and although it's annoying when your favorite brand is overpriced, you can benefit as well. Recently, I've been buying the wonderful Brooklyn Brewery Monster Barleywine at a significant discount at Sunac; this is the same place that sells another favorite, Hennepin, at twice the normal retail price. So it goes.