Re: Natural Food store on Castro & Rainbow

[Guest guest]

For Rainbow goers who are San Francisco residents or can get their

hands on a SF Yellow Pages, Rainbow has 20% off coupons good for 3

days/wk during four months throughout the year. Look in the coupon

section at the back of your phone book.

It's great for GF vitamins, Larabars in bulk, etc.

Sharon

>

> Oh yeah. I go to Rainbow & WF all the time. I had just heard about

the new

> Natural Foods store & got all excited. From what I had heard I was

> expecting a HUGE GF section for like, half the cost of Rainbow.

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

I went to Rainbow on Monday for the first time since being back in SF

and GF. I was looking for flours, and of course, they are all in bulk

which is fine, excpet that the barley flour is next to the brown rice

flour, etc, and frankly the " rather safe than sorry " voice chimed in

my head. Does anyone purchase bulk flours at Rainbow? The threat of

cross contamination was just too much for me. I was thinking of

writing a letter suggesting should move their bins around since they

even have a section on their website about Celiac and this is a big

issue. Anyway, if any of you do purchase their bulk flours and do not

have problems I'd be interested to know that it is actually more safe

than it looks. The rest of their stuff was great though!

Cheers!

Caitlin

> >

> > Oh yeah. I go to Rainbow & WF all the time. I had just heard about

> the new

> > Natural Foods store & got all excited. From what I had heard I was

> > expecting a HUGE GF section for like, half the cost of Rainbow.

> >

> >

> >

>

[Guest guest]

I never purchase flours in bulk precisely because GF flours are

always right next to the Gluten flour. I save money by purchasing

online through Amazon or directly through the company. If you can get

any store to listen to CC concerns and actually move stuff, I think

that would be great.

For those looking for a really fantastic GF friendly store, Harvest

House in Concord (I think) is the best in the " bay " area. It's a

drive but a great way to try GF products- they have whole aisles and

freezers set aside for GF stuff.

It's cool to have any new health food store, though... I have to

admit being a bit disappointed after moving here from Boulder,

Colorado (ok, Japan was in between, but close enough) and finding

much less selection here than I enjoyed there with their Vitamin

Cottage chain and fantastic whole foods. Any new store is a plus in

my book!

-

>

> I went to Rainbow on Monday for the first time since being back in

SF

> and GF. I was looking for flours, and of course, they are all in

bulk

> which is fine, excpet that the barley flour is next to the brown

rice

> flour, etc, and frankly the " rather safe than sorry " voice chimed in

> my head. Does anyone purchase bulk flours at Rainbow? The threat

of

> cross contamination was just too much for me.

[Guest guest]

Caitlin,

I don't usually get sick from cross-contamination, but

I've been buying Rainbow's bulk brown rice flour for

years with no problems. Now that you mention it,

though (and someone else mentioned that people switch

scoops), it's probably not the best idea.

However, i have found that Rainbow is definitely open

to customer suggestions. Since they're a worker-owned

co-op and not a big corporation, they have more

flexibility to make changes and accommodate customers'

needs. I will ask them about GF flours and

contamination the next time I'm in there. If others do

the same, perhaps we can get them to move the flour to

a " safer " place. Does anyone have any suggestions for

how far it would need to be from the other flours,

etc, to avoid contamination?

In other news, I went to Golden Natural Foods

yesterday and asked about the 2 GF things I want them

to carry: Annie's brown rice macaroni & cheese, and

Kinnikinnick bagels. They said they will definitely

start stocking the Annie's as of next week, and

they'll look into whether their distributor can get

them Kinnikinnick products. I'm really psyched to be

able to get so many GF products in my neighborhood,

finally...city life is spoiling me!

Aidan

__________________________________

1b.

Re: Natural Food store on

Castro & Rainbow Posted by:

" caitlinganter " caitlinganter@...

caitlinganter

Wed Feb 20, 2008 8:47 am

(PST) I went to Rainbow on Monday

for the first time since being back in SF

and GF. I was looking for flours, and of course, they

are all in bulk

which is fine, excpet that the barley flour is next to

the brown rice

flour, etc, and frankly the " rather safe than sorry "

voice chimed in

my head. Does anyone purchase bulk flours at Rainbow?

The threat of

cross contamination was just too much for me. I was

thinking of

writing a letter suggesting should move their bins

around since they

even have a section on their website about Celiac and

this is a big

issue. Anyway, if any of you do purchase their bulk

flours and do not

have problems I'd be interested to know that it is

actually more safe

than it looks. The rest of their stuff was great

though!

Cheers!

Caitlin

[Guest guest]

Another issue besides customers contaminating bulk bins is training

the employees and employee compliance. At one of my local health food

stores I wanted to buy some things in bulk and talked to the staff. I

found out that they often use the same scoop in filling the containers

to put out on the floor. Personally I have decided to only buy

prepackaged things to minimize any possibilities of contamination.

Maia