Lunching at the Grocery Store

Pret a Manger (translation:"ready-to-eat" in French), is a chain of lunch places that you'll find all over London. Sandwiches in cardboard and cellophane, drinks and chips are ready for tourists, office workers and shoppers to pick up and take to a park or to a seat at the counter where you can eat and watch the world go by.

There are just 24 Pret a Mangers in New York versus 118 in London, so a visit to Manhattan may still involve a deli and waiting in line to have a sandwich made.

Ready-to-eat fare is also becoming more common in the suburbs. Some delicatessens have ready-made offerings. Wilkes's comes to mind. But now you can also pick up ready-made sandwiches for lunch at the supermarket. Salad bars are still popular but they are no longer the only option.

In Ridgewood, I think Whole Foods started it all with ready-made sandwiches in the deli case, but now you don't have to wait for help at the counter. You can just pick one up in open cases in the deli section. (And if you've got the time, now you can get a Panini.)

Sushi used to be big at Whole Foods and now I see you can pick it up at Stop & Shop too. (Last time I was in London, Pret a Manger was not into sushi.)

What I hadn't noticed until recently is that both Kings and Stop & Shop also have started offering ready-to-eat sandwiches in cases near the deli counter, apparently the better to compete with Whole Foods.

Stop & Shop one day had very large classics, ham and cheese, etc., for $7.99, about what you pay for a ready-made in the deli case at Whole Foods. But the next time, there were sandwiches for $4.29 to $4.49, depending on the weight. I think that whoever makes the sandwiches at Stop & Shop may have realized that not everybody wants or needs a quarter of a pound of meat in every sandwich. (They are all sold by the pound.) Managers might also have realized $8 sandwiches would not sell as well as ones price at $4 and change.

One of the days I was there at lunchtime, the Stop & Shop sandwiches were all on hard rolls, round or long, and they were selling well, perhaps because they looked like what you would get at a neighborhood deli.

Kings sandwiches were not as fat as those I first saw at Stop & Shop, and cost $6.49 for the one I bought –a turkey and cheddar on whole grain bread. There were also more options than at Stop & Shop. Both places carry ingredient labels, which is how I found out the bread in my sandwich from Kings had high fructose corn syrup and other things I try to avoid.

But the ham and cheese I picked up a Stop & Shop for $4.49 last Wednesday had no high fructose corn syrup listed. (High fructose corn syrup will again be the topic of an upcoming column.  There is just no substitute for reading labels.)

One problem with picking up lunch at the grocery store is that, except for Whole Foods, there is no place to sit. And unlike Pret a Manger, Whole Foods offers a view of shopping carts and the parking lot, not New York and London street scenes.

The other problem is cost. Let's be conservative and say you picked up a Stop & Shop sandwich at around $4.50 instead of $7:99 every day. You are still spending roughly $25 a week on lunch. If you buy the $7.99 versions so readily available, it is closer to $40.

But if you buy ham and cheese sliced at the deli counter, a package of rolls, lettuce and tomatoes, you can make your own every day for much less than $20. And many of us who work locally can eat at home, or take a home-made sandwich to the office or the park. Or you can pick up a $7 or $8 ready-made sandwich, look at Whole Foods parking lot and lament your lack of ready cash.