There are still a few things I buy at Walmart, despite everything. Most of them are things I can’t find elsewhere, or things that are SUCH A GOOD DEAL I CAN’T STAND IT. For example, Paul goes through more pickle relish than you would believe, and it costs $2 per regular-sized container, but Walmart had an industrial size (a gallon, I think) for $3.50. (Our Walmart doesn’t have that anymore, in case you are a relish lover who is already putting on your coat and getting your purse.)
Another is imitation vanilla extract. I use real vanilla too, but I’d just as soon use the imitation stuff in certain things, like flavoring Vanilla Sugar Milk (a “recipe” my brother and I came up with in childhood, which is adding sugar and vanilla to…well, to milk). I also use it in recipes that call for a TON of it: I have a no-bake cookie recipe that uses 1 TABLESPOON of vanilla, and that just seems like a whole heck-ton more vanilla than any recipe needs, so I use 1 teaspoon of real and 2 teaspoons of fake.
ANYWAY, Walmart carries an 8-ounce bottle of fake vanilla extract for 99 cents. That is CHEAP, my friend: our grocery store has a 2-ounce bottle of fake and it costs $2.00. Walmart, 13 cents an ounce; grocery store, $1.00 an ounce. The last few times I’ve been there, though, they haven’t had it. (This is another way in which Walmart drives me nuts: great prices, but then no stock for months on end.)
So today I was feeling frustrated about that, and frustrated with my inability to find it anywhere else at a price that didn’t make me feel like throwing a tantrum. That’s when it occurred to me to check Amazon. And look what I found:
(image from Amazon.com)
A 3-pack of 32-ounce bottles! For $16.54! That’s 17 cents per ounce! Only 4 cents/ounce more than Walmart’s store brand, and this is brand name!
Well, sure, that is a LOT of vanilla flavoring, but it doesn’t seem to go bad and I do go through a lot of it. Plus, it keeps me from having to keep checking Walmart for it; it keeps me from having to buy it for $1.00/ounce from the grocery store in the meantime; and it helps me with my goal of reducing the number of things I buy at Walmart.
You need to come visit me here in Texas. I can get you a huge glass bottle (think wine-bottle size) for 5 bucks. :) Yummy Mexican vanilla!
If you were interested in making a whole lot of real vanilla cheaply, all you need to do is break up a bunch of vanilla beans and put them into a big jug of cheap vodka. Let it sit a couple of months and then you’ll be the proud owner of More Vanilla Than You Can Handle. And it’s sooo good. Penzey’s carries the beans for a reasonable price, as far as vanilla beans go. I made a jug two years ago and we’re still using it.
Sarah- I do that too! Yummy AND fun!
YES. I’m always trying to find things at better prices than Walmart just so I can go there less. I lean on Target pretty heavily but we don’t have a Super Target.
Yay for Vanilla!
Oh I loathe Wal-Mart but had not yet thought of turning to Amazon. Thanks for the tip!
Oh PISH POSH, Swistle! Walmart is out of the vanilla?? Heavens me! What a thing to suggest! SURELY you just did not look hard enough for it! SURELY they have it, for Walmart does everything in perfect form! Why, they probably have just invented some kind of brand new and VERY ADVANCED product displays and the vanilla is now located elsewhere in the store! Or! It the new system is very space-aged, and requires you to stand in front of where they vanilla USED to be and just ASK for it and it will magically appear! So really, you should should just go back and look harder, because clearly YOU are the problem. And DEFINITELY NOT Walmart.
Do you have Alice.com in your area? I haven’t used it yet, but I have friends who rave about it. I buy regular Vanilla at Costco, btw, and it’s a good deal for a giant bottle – I bake a lot and what is up with those tiny ass bottles you get at the grocery?
Caitlin- You are right! I’ll bet it’s that they’re doing it for our convenience! And also, I should not be complaining about a company that ACTUALLY EMPLOYS WOMEN.
I HATE it when WM is out of things that I really, really need or buy regularly or JUST out of the cheaper version of something (say, graham crackers) but have the more expensive version because they KNOW I’m going to buy the g.d. graham crackers instead of dragging the 4 kids elsewhere for 2 friggin’ boxes of graham crackers. SO frustrating. urrrrrgh!
Also, I buy from Amazon a lot too. They often have good prices on their bulk items.
Speaking of vodka and vanilla, vanilla vodka is a magical drink of fairies and rainbows and can be mixed with almost anything to becomes a delicious drink wherein you don’t realize how much you are drinking before you get all giggly and huggy. Just a little tip for your next Controversial Post Assy Comment Drinking Game…. :)
Oh VANILLA. I could write an entire post ODE TO VANILLA. I love that stuff. Doesn’t matter: fake, real, bean, liquid, vanilla SUGAR.
You have sent me to my happy place. Thank you.
Is that not the WORST feeling when a store is out of something? We have an automatic litter machine and of course the only place that sells the litter is Petsmart, a good 15 minutes out of my way of any other store. I’d say half the time I go there to get it, they’re out.
Smart to check on Amazon! Even if it is a little more expensive it’s worth the price to not have to truck it all over town. Especially if you have Amazon Prime w/ free shipping!
Yeah, I’m definitely bookmarking this blog…2nd one in a row where I’m going, “Yeah, high five, sistah!”
Personally, I’d rather be caught dead that to buy something at Walmart, even if the price is unbelievably cheap. If I buy it there, I’m condoning them. Just won’t do it. Like you though, if they were the *only* ones who had something, I’d make the concession. And the *only* thing they had that nobody else had, was a NICE variety of colors of thread for my sewing machine. And THAT was only because we were new to the neighborhood (we’re talking 2002) and hadn’t found all the “other” places that sold them. Walmart did me a HUGE favor though (the only good thing it ever did for me) and stopped selling thread. YIPPEE! So I eventually found a JoAnn’s Arts & Crafts not all that far away and I get to thumb my nose at Walmart ALL the time (and it’s easy too because there are 6 within a 20-mile radius of me). Was almost 7, but they were shot down. Yay!
Nice to “visit” again! Oh and thanks for visiting me, Swistle. As a relative newbie to “real” blogging (read: still trying to figure out how to find an audience), it was MUCH appreciated!
Good to stock-up before the impending doom.
what does paul put relish on? (just a spoon?) i love relish too, but i don’t consume so much. just now you’re making me CRAVE vanilla ice cream.
Beyond- He piles it onto tacos. TACOS. And we have tacos often.
Hmmm. Vanilla sugar milk? This sounds pretty AWESOME.
I’m fortunate that we do not have a Walmart Super Center in the WHOLE DAMN COUNTY. We have regular Walmart, but frankly, that’s just not worth the misery. So no Walmarting for me up to this point in my life.
(But I’d TOTALLY shop at the supercenter if they put on in.)
I don’t know if this is me being clever or me being obvious, but I’ll throw it out there anyway: If I think of something that Amazon carries, but that I don’t need urgently, I go ahead and put it in my Amazon cart and just let it sit there until I need something else. Then when my total equals $25 (free shipping), I go ahead and place the order. Seems like vanilla might be one of those nice cheapish things that could live in the cart for a month or two. Then I never find myself trying to find something for $4 (and spending another $20 on stuff I don’t need) just to meet the free shipping minimum.
As you may have guessed, I rain down hate on other sites whose carts expire (and empty) too quickly (a day, a week, whatever).
Have you ever seen the documentary “Walmart: The High Cost of Low Price”? It is very good (& fun to watch). It is hard to believe what they are saying is true. Wouldn’t everybody know this if it was true? But yes, indeed it is true. I took the time and read 4 books on Walmart & Sam Walton because I just couldn’t believe it, and found out what the documentary said was true and more.
So anyway, my point is, if you do a little research, it will make it easy to quit buying those last few items at Walmart that seem like bargains you just can’t pass up.
So I have to ask– I know you made vanilla for gifts– why not make the real deal for yourself? Is it cost?
Lisa- I do make the real deal for myself, but I still like to use the fake stuff for some things.
Cook’s Illustrated once rated vanilla, and the taste-testers preferred the fake stuff. Granted, their taste-testers seemed to think they know what carrot cake should taste like, and they couldn’t be more wrong. But still.
Count me in as another vanilla sugar milk fan, although I use real vanilla because I am a capitalist woman. Oh, wait, that explanation makes no sense. Drink up, Swistle!
Good deal!
Oh no, real vanilla all the way. Yes, it’s cheap, but imitation vanilla is just wrong.
In truth I use Kalhua most of the time. Cheaper per ounce, roughly the same alchoholically (thank you Family Ties) and more flavor! For vanilla, Costco’s is a decent combination of flavor and price.
David pours my vanilla liquid creamer into a glass of milk. Sounds very much like your vanilla milk!
I was all excited to share my childhood stories of Mexican Vanilla, and my very proper grandmother paying people big bucks to smuggle it to her in Ohio….and then I saw the very first comment and realized other people know about Mexican Vanilla, too. Kind of takes the Danger Factor out of my grandma and the lengths she will go to for REAL Vanilla extract…
Now I want to know if Amazon has good deals on real vanilla, too! *going to explore*
Forgive my ignorance, but can you really tell the difference between something made with fake and something made with real? (This question from a woman who can’t tell the difference between butter and margarine. Yeah, I’m wacky.)
Patois- Probably not—and see Slim’s comment above about taste-testers preferring the fake stuff, hee! I do like the FEELING of using real vanilla—it feels like Bringing Out The Good Stuff, or making something special. I think it’s better in fudge, which seems to need the alcohol of the real vanilla to come out right.
The fake stuff always worries me with the ingredients. But I’m with ya on not buying the name tiny things. I’ve actually found that I love the Costco brand stuff. It’s a refrain of mine ;)