I drop into the IGA in Lillington, North Carolina, every so often, when I am passing through. Actually, I have to make a slight detour because I am normally going between Fayetteville and Raleigh on Hwy. 401, and this IGA is on Hwy. 421. If I was going to/from Sanford, or to/from Raven Rock State Park, then I would be on Hwy. 421, but there are also lots of winding country roads along the way.
One of my early reasons for stopping into this IGA was that they carried the cheap cans of Polar Smoked Oysters. But, that was when those cans were either a dollar or $1.25 each. They no longer carry those.
My last visit, I bought some Bright Leaf Bacon, which is often the cheapest bacon sold at various stores, but I find it consistently good bacon. I think it was only $4.99 per package (1 lb.) and I bought a couple. *And remember, “a couple” means “two,” like in “two makes a couple.”
If I haven’t visited this grocery in a while, I might forget how impressed I can be with the look & feel of their “green grocer” section. The fresh vegetables section.
They have other food, including a BBQ chicken wing counter nearby, but the IGA in Erwin has a better selection of wings.
I saw they had a large selection of dried beans & peas. I took pictures and fed them through ChatGPT for the following table:
| Type | Brand | Price ($) |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Lima Beans | Best Choice | 2.28 |
| Black Beans | Best Choice | 1.48 |
| Blackeye Peas | IGA | 1.98 |
| Cranberry Beans | Super Star | 1.84 |
| Field Peas | Super Star | 1.28 |
| Great Northern Beans | Best Choice | 1.96 |
| Great Northern Beans | IGA | 3.25 |
| Great Northern Beans | Super Star | 3.18 |
| Green Baby Lima Beans | Super Star | 2.73 |
| Large Lima Beans | Best Choice | 2.48 |
| Large Lima Beans | Dixie Lily | 2.75 |
| Lentils | Super Star / Best Choice | 1.30 |
| Mixed Beans | Best Choice | 1.58 |
| Navy Beans | Best Choice / IGA | 1.39 |
| Pearled Barley (Quick) | Quaker | 2.85 |
| Pinto Beans | HamBeens (Artificial Ham Flavor) | 2.98 |
| Pinto Beans | IGA | 1.18 |
| Pinto Beans | Super Star | 2.18 |
| Red Kidney Beans | Super Star | 3.20 |
| Yelloweye Peas | Super Star | 3.20 |
| 15 Bean Soup Mix | HamBeens | 3.19 |
Someone takes special care in displaying all the items in this section. The other thing I noted during this visit was that the actual quality of the produce seemed to be better. But this comment is from someone that noticed when, a few years ago, Food Lion started selling smaller colored sweet bell peppers at the same price they had been selling larger ones, $1.49. And WalMart sells them at that same price. I’m not sure how much the larger bell peppers would have cost. Maybe $2@.
I’ve written about this type of change-up at the grocers regarding the size of yogurt containers (many years ago) and Spaghetti Sauce Starters (e.g. Hunts, DelMonte, Rao). The small yogurt containers may have held 6 oz. of yogurt and then they were resized to about 4.5 oz. Hunts & DelMonte sold their starter sauces at $1 per can, but then one of them started selling a slightly smaller can at the same price.
Oh, and RAO was never part of that because they were selling their glass jar of starter sauce at $9. But, they do have a better starter sauce, and I justified buying that by only using a half jar of Rao’s for making my spaghetti sauce at home.
For years, I made spaghetti sauce at least once a month, but having gotten more serious about my Blood Glucose Levels & A1C, I have severely cut back on the number of times I have pasta, and much smaller portions also.
NOTE [10/08/25]: I’ve recently been fixing a small side dish of medium pasta shells (50 shells per serving) with a little RAO’s Marinara Sauce. Oh, and I cool the pasta before reheating, in order to produce some “resistant starch.” It may only be about 7% RS3, but every little bit helps. [end NOTE]
I liked starting with a starter sauce and adding a can of diced roasted garlic tomatoes. Dicing up some onion and yellow or red bell peppers and adding some ground beef and or maybe Italian sausage. And because Italian sausage has fennel seeds, I add more fennel seeds. Garlic powder, red pepper flakes, some sweetener, and S&P. For years I added a small can of mushroom pieces, but that has fallen out of flavor favor.
“A couple” means “two,” like in “two makes a couple.” A few years ago I was travelling down in Florida and stopped at a Hardees Restaurant. A young man asked me for my order and I said, “I would like a couple of hamburgers.” His reply confused me, “And will that be two or three,” as he quizzically looked back at me. I didn’t say anything and he brought me two hamburgers. How could someone not know that “a couple” meant “two?” But then a few years later I was ordering “a couple of eggs” for breakfast at Famous Toastery in Southern Pines, North Carolina. My young waitress then asked me, “Will that be two or three eggs.” If I had asked for “a few” eggs, I might understand the follow-up question, but once again “a couple means two.” But, she never got that message and others had the same misunderstanding. And when I was at Famous Toastery ordering breakfast, I would have to stop and instead of asking for “a couple of eggs,” I would change the way I ordered and say, “I would like two eggs.”
Famous Toastery went out of business in Southern Pines. I think that was during the Covid Epidemic.
Bill Gibson, II 