Binghamton, New York Guide for Organic Groceries

I live in Binghamton, New York and I buy my groceries from Giant, Price Chopper and Wegmans. I try to eat as healthy as possible and as organic as possible. Organic food is still very expensive so I try my best to find the best deals.

Before I start comparing the grocery stores, I would like to recommend you the "Shoppers' Guide to Pesticides" list from Harvard University's website (www.greencampus.harvard.edu). The list names the fruits and vegetables which pesticide is used most. According to the list the peach, apple, bell pepper, celery, nectarine, strawberries, cherries, kale, lettuce, imported grapes, carrots and grape you eat, should be organic. On the other hand (luckily) it is okay to eat onion, avocado, sweet corn, pineapple, mango, asparagus, sweet peas, kiwi, cabbage, eggplant, papaya, watermelon, broccoli, tomato and sweet potato that are not organic.

My general comment on Organic Groceries in Binghamton is that they are very expensive. I moved to Binghamton from Chicago and the grocery stores in Chicago would give discounts or weekly specials on their organic foods. I remember buying organic milk from Dominicks with a sale price quite often. When the organic milk was on sale, it would cost almost as cheap as the regular milk. I never saw any discount on any organic food in any of the Binghamton grocery stores yet.

In Binghamton, Wegmans comes first to mind when we are discussing healthy eating. They have a great selection of organic foods. They have everything I need including organic eggs, chicken, milk and breads. The only problem with Wegmans is that I don't remember paying less than $40 there. They have breads as expensive as diamonds. How many people in Binghamton can pay $4.25 for a loaf of bread? I used to buy cheaper organic bread from Trader Joe's(in Chicago). Why is it so expensive in Binghamton? Today I have guests for dinner so I had to pay $14 for an organic chicken! Wegmans is the only place that you can buy organic chicken in Binghamton. The taste of organic chicken is much better because as well as they were fed organically, they are also free range. Having a Wegmans in town is good but I think they should try harder to lower the prices of their organic foods.

I live close to the Giant which is also called "The Ghetto Giant" in between some residents of Binghamton. The Ghetto Giant has made a lot of improvements lately. They even have vegetables that look like vegetables now. Honestly I really appreciate their effort to improve the shop and I buy some of my groceries from the Ghetto Giant. They started to sell some organic products such as milk! But they never have fat free milk. So the Ghetto Giant is still not a great place to shop from if you are in search for organic groceries.

The bigger Giant on Main Street is one of my favorite grocery stores but it doesn't have much organic food choice either. They have organic eggs, organic yogurt and organic milk. That is all I saw as organic in that store.

The Price Chopper has the best specials (their buy one get one free specials are really great) and they now carry some organic vegetables and fruits as well as eggs, milk and yogurt. I have to admit, I was never a big fan of Price Chopper before but they really have good specials and discounts in that store. And now that they have a decent selection of organic products, I think I will visit it more often.

Binghamton is not a very big city, it is not one of those small rich towns that everybody can afford everything easily either. Therefore it is not surprising that we don't have a Whole Foods or Trader Joe's here. We have Wegmans, Price Chopper and Giant instead. If you are looking for organic food and if you don't care how much it costs - go to Wegmans. Wegmans has the best selection. If you are like me, you want to eat as organic as possible but you can't afford to buy everything organic, I suggest that you study Harvard University' s list and just buy the necessary things from Wegmans, follow the specials in Price Chopper.