On 6/20/2015 5:22 PM, l not -l wrote:
> On 20-Jun-2015, Nancy Young > wrote:

>> Have you noticed that there are only a few shapes in the dried
>> pasta section any more? Maybe just where I live.

> I have 9 supermarkets less than 2 miles from my home, including an
> international market; three of them are of the same regional chain, two of
> the others are from the secondary regional chain and their pasta selction,
> brand and shapes, vary significantly. Two of the stores are in a wealthy
> suburb and have the fewest dried pasta shapes; but, more "fresh" and frozen
> pasta. Two other stores are in a part of town with an older demographic,
> they have the best selection, brands and shape, of the chain stores. With
> today's data warehouse/mining software, if something doesn't move well, it's
> not going to be in a given store.

I feel like dried pasta takes up about the same amount of room that
is used to, but now there are more brands plus gluten free, whole wheat,
etc.

I really only noticed it once when I wanted to make pasta fagioli and
what the heck ... no ditalini? No other little shapes, either.

> The international market has a huge variety of pastas; but, they are
> scattered all over the store, which is organized by universal staples and
> cuisines. I can find just about any pasta shape; but, I might have to hunt
> for it. 8-)

I guess if I'm in the mood to look around, it would be okay. If not,
please just put all the dried pasta in one place?

> I found fideo in the Mexican aisle, next to the sardines in
> spicy tomato sauce, rather than with the short shapes in the pasta aisle.

There are two gourmet Italian stores nearby, I know one of them had
different shaped pastas. I haven't been to either in some time, I
think I'll check them out this week to see what they've got in pasta
shapes. I'm pretty sure I'll wind up with some nice food and a
cannoli or such, too.

nancy