Hi- Has anybody heard when the Skokie Mariano's is going to open up? I was in that neighborhood a month ago, and it looked like they had a ways to go. I have too wondered if that Mariano's store is going to try to attract the kosher crowd. The new Walmart on Touhy has just made a half hearted attempt to attract the kosher crowd. It does not appear that the Mariano's store is going to be as large as the Howard Jewel store.

NFriday wrote:Hi- Has anybody heard when the Skokie Mariano's is going to open up? I was in that neighborhood a month ago, and it looked like they had a ways to go. I have too wondered if that Mariano's store is going to try to attract the kosher crowd. The new Walmart on Touhy has just made a half hearted attempt to attract the kosher crowd. It does not appear that the Mariano's store is going to be as large as the Howard Jewel store.

The Skokie Mariano's is going to have it's own kosher shop with prepared meals and packaged foods.

SCORE! I don't know if they all have them, but the east side Elgin Jewel has whole pork shoulders for 99 cents/ pound. The guy behind me in line ran back to get one when he saw the price and the cashier had plans to get one too.

knitgirl wrote:SCORE! I don't know if they all have them, but the east side Elgin Jewel has whole pork shoulders for 99 cents/ pound. The guy behind me in line ran back to get one when he saw the price and the cashier had plans to get one too.

Hi,

When I was leaving Jewel I remembered your post. I walked back to the Highland Park Jewel's meat department to find the same deal. The smallest pork butt was just under eight pounds.

Tomorrow, I will make Bo Ssam inspired by Momofuku. When I reminded Mom of this dish, she was delighted this is on our menu tomorrow.

Thank you for highlighting this most excellent score.

Regards,

I was in the Jewel on Milwaukee Avenue in Libertyville today and remembered the 99-cent pork shoulder sale. I bought the smallest one they had, just under 7 pounds. The largest one I saw was nearly 18 pounds ( ). That was a slab about as long as my elbow to my fingertips. Most were in the 8- to 10-pound range. They had a lot of them: a dozen or more near by the meat counter and another dozen or more in a cold bin at the back of the produce area, where there were also cold bins for fish and seafood on sale. The pork shoulder sale runs through Wednesday, Feb 25th (so the sign said).

Oh, and Jewel has chuck for $3.99/lb through Tues the 24th.

Cathy2 wrote:

knitgirl wrote:SCORE! I don't know if they all have them, but the east side Elgin Jewel has whole pork shoulders for 99 cents/ pound. The guy behind me in line ran back to get one when he saw the price and the cashier had plans to get one too.

Hi,

When I was leaving Jewel I remembered your post. I walked back to the Highland Park Jewel's meat department to find the same deal. The smallest pork butt was just under eight pounds.

Tomorrow, I will make Bo Ssam inspired by Momofuku. When I reminded Mom of this dish, she was delighted this is on our menu tomorrow.

Thank you for highlighting this most excellent score.

Regards,

Cathy,

Were these bone in?

The one I just bought does have a bone in it. Haven't cut into it yet but it doesn't feel very big.

Hi,

Yes, they were bone-in.

Regards,

Excellent

Hi- Has anybody here signed up for the mymixx program at Jewel yet? It is supposed to be similar to the J4U program that Dominick's had, and I loved. Jewel has some kinks to work out with their mymixx program though. You log into mymixx, and attach what coupons you want to your account, but instead of presenting the cashier with a shopping card so they can scan the offers that you have selected, and apply them to your order, you have to enter in your mymixx number at the machine where you also swipe your debit/credit card. The cashiers are supposed to ask you if you are a member of mymixx, but I have not had one ask me yet. You then have to rush over to the panel, and enter in your mymixx number, which is the phone number which you have registered with Jewel. Half the time I either make a mistake entering the number, or the cashier rings up my order before I am done entering my number, and so it does not go through. Right now at Jewel they have 2 liters of pop on sale for $.79 if you buy four, and they have a mymixx coupon for $1 off two 2 liters of 7up, which is one of the brands on sale. When you look at your receipt if you are able to correctly enter in your mymixx number though, instead of taking $ 1 off of two bottles, it is applying the coupon to just one bottle, and so it is only taking $.79 off.

Right now in the Monopoly game there are coupons for $.25 off a 2 liter of 7 up too that are store coupons, and so you can combine them with manufacturer's coupons. When people present their $.25 coupons though, the machine is deducting the $.25 off the regular price, and not off the $.79 price. Hope this helps, Nancy

NFriday wrote:Hi- Has anybody heard when the Skokie Mariano's is going to open up? I was in that neighborhood a month ago, and it looked like they had a ways to go. I have too wondered if that Mariano's store is going to try to attract the kosher crowd. The new Walmart on Touhy has just made a half hearted attempt to attract the kosher crowd. It does not appear that the Mariano's store is going to be as large as the Howard Jewel store.

Mariano's Facebook page says April 21.

We'll be there!

Hi- Thanks about the Mariano's opening. I was in the neighborhood on Saturday, and they had opening soon signs up in front of the store. I don't know if I will make it there on April 21st. I am leaving for New Orleans for jazzfest on the 22nd.

I have heard rumors that the Kosher section of the new Mariano's in Skokie is going to operate like the other sections of the store - cooking food to order ao it won't just be rotisserie or fried chicken -

The new Skokie Mariano's is being discussed over on this thread...

viewtopic.php?f=16&t=37241

The Jewel-Osco store at Clark and Division streets will close next month to make way for a long-awaited apartment tower.

http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20150506 ... ment-tower

Ram4 wrote:The Mariano's thing is just the shiny new toy that everyone wants to see. I still go to Jewel for the everyday stuff.

(Above quote from another thread.)

I relate to this. For me, Jewel is the "salt of the earth blue-collar guy" to Mariano's "supercilious yuppie." Jewel does the basics better. They'll never match Mariano's high-end wine selection, but if you're looking for fake "krab" seafood salad from the deli case, Jewel's is actually better--their "krab" is a convincing simulacrum of crab, while that from Mariano's isn't. In another category in the prole food sweepstakes, comparing Jewel to Whole Foods, Jewel's fried chicken is better than Whole Foods' fried chicken, and so's their rotisserie chicken. And when it comes to your basic garden variety supermarket shopping, the full-size Jewels always have everything. (As huge as Mariano's is, you can still end up discovering they don't have what you need, and you know Whole Foods won't.) We were attracted to the bright shiny toy of Mariano's, and we still go there for novelty, but Jewel is home. I hope they survive the onslaught.

riddlemay wrote:Jewel does the basics better.

I can't agree with this, although I'll grant you that some Jewel stores are better than others, and it's possible that the one near me is in a particularly low percentile. I've been in there searching for unsalted butter, only to be told they were out, and I should come back in a few days, or just get margarine. The same thing happened one time I went in to get eggplant. And the time I wanted frozen (or fresh) cherries. Or short grain rice, for risotto. No luck, not in stock. I asked for miso, and no one knew what it was. I'm now at the point where if I want anything out of the ordinary (like unsalted butter) I assume I'll have to go to the Whole Foods (more $$$, but four different types of miso) or Trader Joe's (interesting stuff, but also can't be relied upon for everything), both across the street.

I hear you, nr. It's one reason I inserted the phrase "full-size," because not all of them are. And the non-full-size ones can turn up in any neighborhood. For instance, I've been frustrated on occasion by the newish Jewel on Southport just north of Addison. But every single time I've failed to find something there--or at someone else's chain--I've found that item at our mothership Jewel, the one at Ashland and Wellington.

Hi- That particular Jewel in Evanston is the one closest to me, and I was just there Friday night, but that is my least favorite Jewel. I know a few years ago while I was at self checkout, I saw a sign posted for employees stating that particular Jewel received the lowest rating among the Jewels in that district. I much prefer the two Wilmette Jewel stores, but the one at Plaza Del Lago is a smaller store, and they don't always have what I need. One of the few things I like about the Chicago Avenue store is that they still have self checkout. I belong to mymixx, and when I am at one of the regular checkouts at any of the Jewel stores,, I have a hard time entering my phone number before they are done with my order. When I ask the cashier to enter in my phone number, the cashier does not always know what mymixx is. The produce at the Chicago Avenue Jewel is no where near the quality that it is at the two Wilmette Jewels. You think that having Whole Foods across the street, would encourage them to up their game, but apparently not. If I go in the store anytime in the evening, there is nobody manning customer service, and so the person manning self checkout has to cover customer service too Jewel had Smucker's peanut butter really cheap back in July. I believe it was $1.60 a jar if you bought six jars of it, but twice when I went to the Chicago Avenue Jewel, the shelves were empty. Finally after my second visit there at 1:00 in the afternoon, I went to customer service to get a rain check.

Hi,

I shop at two Jewels: Highland Park and Wheaton. Just by visiting these two, I learned Jewel targets its sales to the community. It has happened what I planned to buy in Highland Park on sale was unknown to the store in Wheaton.

Yesterday at the Jewel in Wheaton, they were selling bone-in pork shoulder for 89 cents per pound with a limit up to five. They offered a free package of 40 corn husks valued at $4.99, which was the approximate cost of the meat I purchased.

I am not yet sure I want to make tamales, though I have just about everything now to do it.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:Hi,

I shop at two Jewels: Highland Park and Wheaton. Just by visiting these two, I learned Jewel targets its sales to the community. It has happened what I planned to buy in Highland Park on sale was unknown to the store in Wheaton.

Yesterday at the Jewel in Wheaton, they were selling bone-in pork shoulder for 89 cents per pound with a limit up to five. They offered a free package of 40 corn husks valued at $4.99, which was the approximate cost of the meat I purchased.

I am not yet sure I want to make tamales, though I have just about everything now to do it.

Regards,

A limit up to five . . . pounds? That is a small shoulder. Or is it a limit of 5 shoulders?

Kman wrote:A limit up to five . . . pounds? That is a small shoulder. Or is it a limit of 5 shoulders?

Five shoulders.

Chouxfly is smoking two of them tomorrow! (89 cents/lb at the Jewel at Clark and Howard).

We call this one the Happy Jewel, and that one in Evanston the Sad Jewel (it's dark and crowded and the people working there don't seem very happy about it).

I love Mariano's. It's a little pricier, but I just have more fun there. I wind up going there maybe once a month, as a treat to myself. I find the supercilious, entitled yuppies to be far more likely to frequent Whole Foods and Trader Joe's.

mamagotcha wrote: I find the supercilious, entitled yuppies to be far more likely to frequent Whole Foods and Trader Joe's.

Seriously? Judgmental much? They are far more likely to be full of NU kids, in my experience. And there are two Jewel stores in Evanston (plus one more right at the Wilmette/Evanston border, on Green Bay Rd.). Which of these is the "sad" Jewel?

I'm guessing the sad Jewel is the one on Chicago Avenue and Greenleaf.

Cathy2 wrote:Hi,

I shop at two Jewels: Highland Park and Wheaton. Just by visiting these two, I learned Jewel targets its sales to the community. It has happened what I planned to buy in Highland Park on sale was unknown to the store in Wheaton.
Regards,

They've been doing that for years and so do a lot of other chains. For example Petes Fresh Market always has different ads on their website as does Ultra Foods. Even Costco targets different areas. Melrose Park leans Latino while 1400 S Ashland Chicago goes Asian.

Hi,

I remember when Jewel had their ads on tv, when it seemed a sale was universal.

Until I began to regularly shop at two different Jewels on a regular basis, I did not realize how targeted their sales were to a store location.

Sure, I knew HP was the Jewish Jewel. Some stores in the city had products on the shelves which reflected the ethnicity in the immediate area. I just did not recognize the marketing was even more fine tuned than that.

When was the last time you saw an ad for Jewel on tv, I guess its been years and I never really noticed, either.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:Hi,

I remember when Jewel had their ads on tv, when it seemed a sale was universal.

That was several owners ago and in a completely different environment, where Jewel and Dominicks had a near monopoly on the Chicagoland market and were all nearly the same. Times have changed, competition is much stiffer and, most importantly, the population has changed to include many more ethnicities; each looking for specialized ingredients for their native cuisine. Market conditions (and yet another new owner) have forced Jewel to adapt or continue to lose market share to the upstart Mariano's and other independents.

The Palos Park Jewel (131st and LaGrange) earns my undying loyalty for something they did recently. We live on the north side of Chicago. My wife's elderly aunt (who can't travel) lives in Palos Park. She desperately needed some things faster than Peapod was going to be able to deliver them, and we couldn't make the journey. A young man at that Jewel, whom we spoke to on the phone, cheerfully agreed, with the support of his manager, to put together the items and deliver them that morning. They didn't have to do that. But they did.

A store walking the walk in terms of being part of the community, instead of just talking the talk, deserves recognition, support, and patronage.

Would Instacart work for you? I've used them twice. I can get delivery from Jewel, Mariano's, Whole Foods, Costco & others. It depends on your neighborhood. So far it's helped me out a lot when the weather is bad and/or I'm desperate. Please let me know if this works for you.


...