HT Oaktree: Behind the chicken feet, cheap food
When the Oaktree Larry’s was bought with ambitions of becoming an Asian market, we all got ready for the plethora of they-eat-that-stuff? sights and tastes coming to the North End. And as those dishonorable cowards at Seattlest have begrudgingly noted, it’s exactly that — a global paradise of all sorts of edibles. And not all Asian, either — they have more Mexican/Central American food products than all the Whole Foods and Safeways in this town combined. But, it is a mile wide and an inch deeo. They just about carry the entire Herdez line, but they only have four brands of salsa, all national brands. And as far as I can tell, they have one brand of toilet paper. (At least it’s two-ply.)
But buried behind all that, the prices on staples are, well, ridiculously good. You know how miserable the California onions have looked due to the freeze earlier this year? Safeway has been charging $1.99/lb for them. HT, $.49/lb. Same awful quality onion (they’re really dry and blistery), but $1.50/lb less.
And the frozen chicken parts they get shipped in from the poultry factories in Arkansas (usually labeled “Southern grown”)? Safeway has been charging upwards of $5/lb for them. Meanwhile, I walked out of HT with skinless thighs for $2.49/lb. And oh, whole free-range chickens for $8.49. Total.
And that leads to two questions. First, why is HT so much lower? On the walk home, we think we came up with two theories — non-union labor and limited selection of staples. Second, what’s the point of going to Safeway or QFC for staples? If I’m getting the same quality onion at HT as I am at Safeway and they’re charging 75% less, why should I even go to Safeway anymore? It just surprises me that they’re getting away with such low prices in a market where Albertsons is shuttering locations and Safeway and QFC are fighting off Whole Foods usurping the high-end market.
(There should be a picture of HT Oaktree in there, but I couldn’t find a CC-licensed one on Flickr… or anywhere else.)
Ohhhh yes, my roommate and I are big fans. Here are my 3 favorite things about this place, not including those that you mentioned above:
3: Frozen dim sum. If you, like me, are often too hungover to face the sunday morning drive to the ID and have finished mourning the loss of Hakka House, the only dim sum ever to grace the North End, you will realize that all your favorite dim sum delicacies come in frozen form. You steam them on your stove, they’re really pretty good. Should you lack the proper steamer….
2: For $10 I got a three layer bamboo steamer to steam my frozen dim sum in. For $0.99 I bought 26 pairs of chopsticks so I never again have to get splinters from the takeout ones my boyfriend keeps a full drawer of.
1: There are literally 4 aisles full of Ramen. I am not kidding you. Just when you think there couldn’t possibly be any more ramen in this store, you trip over another aisle of it.
While the factors you cite are most likely part of the equation, another factor is that Asians and Latinos, as a general rule, do more day-of or near-day-of purchasing than Whites and ubran-dwellers. Since they purchase more frequently (albeit in smaller quantities), the store is able to turn over items much closer to their expiration date (in the case of perishable goods) or in the case of produce, items that aren’t “picture perfect”, which in both cases tend to be cheaper at the wholesale level than items with more more aesthetic appeal or with longer shelf-life.