I don't email large companies to patronize them; I offer my hope that they will move in healthier directions for the sake of my family and for an entire nation that is battling obesity even in children. We can't continue blindly eating. We must question where it came from, how it was cultivated, were chemicals used in growth, were chemicals injected, were natural ingredients replaced with manufactured ones and labeled light?
Customer Message: I am a new member of Sam's club in Roswell, NM. I have shopped once and found a few things I was interested in buying from this store. I was mostly disappointed with how few healthy options were offered. The world is moving in a healthier direction and it is for the best. Please offer more organic options and check ingredients for high fructose corn syrup. I was really looking forward to buying meat from Sam's, but you do not offer any options in poultry that include free roaming, air chilled chicken or at least all natural. We were very excited to join Sam's club, but we will not renew next year if we do not see healthy changes for the better. Thank you.
Now that we live in a small town, Sam's shopping was an exciting Christmas gift for us to receive so we can save a few bucks in comparison to our pricey small town options. We drove a little over an hour to the nearest Sam's, got our picture cards made, and started shopping! As we went up and down the isles, I saw a lot of things I used to buy, but have stopped purchasing because of the long lists of artificial ingredients.
*If you are comparing two similar products and scanning two lists of ingredients, when in doubt, choose the smaller list.
*Avoid high fructose corn syrup and aspartame like the palgue.
*Quick meat lesson: 1.) Many cows and chickens spend their entire life standing in one spot, squished in a windowless building with hundreds of other cows or chickens. Not only is this a horrible life, these poor animals are constantly producing the "fight or flight" hormone in their bodies without the ability to fight or fly which is stressful. Those hormones do not disappear when they are butchered, they are eaten by you if you buy the cheapest beef or poultry options. What to do you think happens to our bodies if we consume these stressful hormones? 2.) Chicken has two popular options of being preserved. It can be air-chilled, which is exactly what it sounds like. The chicken is immediately cooled for freshness; this is the option you want. Look for air-chilled when you purchase chicken. The other option is for the chicken to be dunked in water. This makes the bird expand so you appear to have more meat. Besides the dirty optical illusion, the water lessens the flavor of the meat so the chicken is then injected with a salt solution that the packages cleverly refer to as "broth". (If you live near me, Thrifty Way and Mario's are the only places in town that offer air-chilled chicken.)
*Be very careful when buying frozen, prepared foods. Check ingredients and nutritions facts, especially for fat and salt content.
Now see Sam's response.
Kristyn:
Thank you for contacting Sam's Club regarding your concern. Sam's Club offers a variety of healthy food options including tuna, MM canned chicken breast, and our healthier light chicken and beef progresso soup. We appreciate your business and thank you for shopping with Sam's.
Regards,
Senecca
Sam's Club Member Services
(The tuna she is referring to is albacore- the worst tuna you can eat because it has the highest concentration of mercury. From this tuna-lover, stay away from albacore and always make sure the fish is packaged in water, not oil.)
The more customer feedback companies receive, the more information they can put back into ordering products for their shelves. However, in this case, I feel like my healthy requests fell on deaf ears (or eyes rather). Senecca is correct; there are three products Sam's sells that may borderline on the healthy side. What I can't believe is that Sam's Club Member Services finds "three" an acceptable number of healthy options to offer their shoppers.
Saving a few dollars is not important enough for me to feed my family food I do not approve of.
2 comments:
Wow, that was a horrible response from Sam's. Thank you for this post- very informative. I find it hard to buy healthy food and eat cheap. One of these days we would love to have our own garden, chickens and maybe a cow or two. Then, we'll know where our food comes from.
wow very intriguing Lance and I begin also looking more and more into what we are eating and trying to pick the more healthy organic choices.... great thing about HEB is they have generic organic brand.... Man that really was a horrible response by SAMS goodness. Thanks for the encouragement it's good to hear someone else looking at these things as well. Hope you guys are doing well love and miss you!!
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