By Rita R. Robison
Which consumer happenings cheered you this week and which ones made you want to scream or weep?
Here are my best and worst consumer experiences this week:
My best: Finding a kid friendly restaurant in Seattle
When I wanted to go out to lunch with my sister, daughter, and grandchildren in Seattle, we debated what would be a kid friendly restaurant. I didn’t want to go to the pizza place where we’d celebrated my birthday. Some of the staff weren’t polite.
We picked the 5 Spot on Queen Anne Hill. It worked out well. The 5 Spot has a kids menu, and we had enough space so that we didn’t feel crowded. The atmosphere was lively, and the waitress pleasant.
My worst: Trying to find gluten free bread at QFC
When I walked into a QFC store, I was pleased to see a big sign touting QFC’s gluten free products.
I looked through the fresh bread section to see if they had some nice, locally baked bread. I couldn’t find any that was gluten free.
When I went to the checkout counter, I asked about the sign. The cashier said they had gluten free bread in the Natural Food section and Freezer area. Since I wasn’t familiar with the store, she showed me where to look.
The bread in the Natural Food section was made from 100 percent rice flour. It’s a brand I’ve had before; it’s not tasty.
In the Freezer section, the cashier pointed out a gluten free loaf with flax seed that she thought looked good. I read the label and rejected it because it contained sugar. I selected another brand, Food for Life’s that isn’t too bad. It’s called Rice Almond and is sweetened with fruit juice.
I don’t know why stores are putting up huge signs about their gluten free food when their offerings are so poor. I had a similar experience at Safeway when I was looking for gluten free muffins.
Maybe manufacturers are making the signs. More and more products are saying gluten free on them, such as tomato sauce, even though many of them are products that wouldn’t normally contain gluten anyway.
A friend of mine said she's been able to find good gluten free food. I'll ask her where she buys it.
