But I need to find another source for it: for a while I could get Kern's Pineapple-Mango juice for $2.49 at our local tiny Ralph's (the most expensive Ralph's in the world, but within walking distance, so worth it if one only needs a few little things).

I knew it wasn't a great price, but orange juice was mostly that price, too, because of the frost last year. So I got what I preferred to drink.

Then the Kern's tropical juices went up to $2.99 for a half gallon, and that was just beyond the pale. I couldn't do it. There are a few other options: Paul Newman lemonade is less, so maybe that's my next juice jag. I went back to the OJ section, though, and most of them were also marked up to $2.99. Way at the bottom was store-brand citrus juice at $2 a carton.

I wonder if Costco sells mango juice. I'm sure some of the local Middle Eastern markets do, but I doubt I'll be doing better on price at any of them. Trader Joe's? Smart and Final? Bank jobs to support my mango-juice habit? Holding up people as they come out of Ralph's to demand that they hand over the mango, or the mango-pineapple, or the mango-guava, "and no one will get hurt"?

More will be revealed, I suppose.

I mean, prices weren't wonderful at the Ralph's in La Canada, but they were liveable (well, one had to double-check the grapes and cherries, of course: those could get a bit silly if they'd travelled too far, or weren't in season, or there wasn't a sale going on).

But at the itty-bitty Ralph's here on the north side of Glendale? I concluded my price check by noticing that fresh-squeezed local orange juice (the only kind my mother would buy from Fireside market in Santa Monica in the 70s/80s) was a mere seven dollars for a half gallon. Or two for $14. Or they would trade me a selection of my half-dozen favorite juices for my engagement ring, because it features a champagne diamond . . .

What I really want, though, is mango juice. And lots of it.

Someone's got to have it at a decent price. I don't want to be forced into a life of crime because of some "correction" in the tropical-juice market.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 10:16 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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