Monday, May 15, 2006
Pimento Cheese Black Market
Sadly, I have to admit I have an addiction. It's not just me - it's my family too. I may be a BIT worse than they are, yet still, I'm not alone. Living in the South - we do love our food. One of the very Southern items we love is pimento cheese. We even have our favorite brand - Palmetto Farms. This is where it starts to get ugly. You see, Winn Dixie, the ONLY grocery store where my FAVORITE brand of pimento cheese is sold, has closed ALL of it's stores in NC, SC and I believe parts of GA as well. I have tried many different brands and have been unsuccessful in finding a replacement. So, I started searching the internet for the manufacturer - no luck. I then sent Winn Dixie themselves an email asking if I could order it online through them, only to find out that I cannot AND they are the ONLY distributor of the brand. I have been assigned a case number with Winn Dixie, in case they ever offer online sales (how sad is that) I do however have a solution - there are still stores open in Alabama. My little brother is in school in Alabama. We have arranged a deal where I will put $$ in his account for him to bring back pimento cheese - possibly by the case - and we will sell this fabulous spread to the masses here in WNC who have been deprived of this as well. OK, well maybe not, but it sounds like a good idea. He is going to really bring me some back, but I wouldn't want to part with it by selling to others. Don't mess with a Southern girl and her food.
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54 comments:
I wonder how much bail money it is going to cost me to get you out of jail for bootlegging Pimento Cheese on the black market?
crazy cheese eater
Mmmmm. I love me some Pimento Cheese.
I feel your pain Heidikins. I happened across your blog as I was desperately searching the web for some way to obtain Palmetto Farms Pimento Cheese. I've had severe withdrawal ever since Winn Dixie left our area (Granite Falls, NC). It's not fair...PFPC Lovers unite!!!
i got the same problem...
Bootlegging the Palmetto Farms Pimento Cheese is a great idea! I know tons of PPPC addicts here in central NC willing to pay any price for a fix!
I would kill for some of that right now, I've search all over trying to find it!
Here I sit desperately looking for any way to find this stuff. No luck. I grew up eating Palmetto Farms Pimento cheese. Nothing else seems to compare. Can we get Winn-Dixie to come back just for the pimento cheese? At least you have a source - I'm jealous
i just did the same...emailing WD...will be interesting to see if they answer. hey, there is a market for palmetto farms pimento cheese.just can't find no other. i'm in florence,sc and we have no WD. we ought to be able to get a pal farms franchise..."THE Pimento Cheese Store". keep up the bloggin...we're not alone
I live in NYC.. .i cant find pimento cheese anywhere.. Im from NC and i grew up on the shit.. I LOVE IT.. when i go home i cram several containers in my luggage... Can you order this on LIne?????
haha, this is so amusing...we thought it was a lost cause to ever have our favorite pimento cheese but my cousin lives near a Winn Dixie! so we asked her to bring us some next time she was going to be visiting, but when she went to pick it up they only had TWO containers! the horror!! wonder why palmetto farms doesn't expand their distribution?!
It is with a sad and mournful heart that I post this recent reply from Winn Dixie...can you hear taps playing?
"Thank you for taking the time out to send your inquiry. Unfortunately, Palmetto Farms
Cheese Spread has been discontinued. Winn-Dixie Stores, Inc. manufactured them;
therefore, the products were only available through Winn-Dixie. We apologize for any
inconvenience that this may cause.
We appreciate your patronage with Winn-Dixie.
Thank you,
Winn-Dixie Customer Response
Case #:578690
------------------------------------Original Comments------------------------------------
I can't seem to find this in our store. Do you still carry this brand? Thanks,
NAME| Palmetto Farms cheese spread"
I loved Palmetto Farms Pimento Cheese!! It was the best around. Now it's gone. If we can't get Winn Dixie to come back to North Carolina and other areas, maybe they would they consider sharing the recipe. Then maybe we can make our favorite Pimento Cheese ourselves.
I just returned from Florida with 20+ containers of PF Pimento cheese. Yes I was raised on it also. I found 1 recipe that was close but just not the same. I had two PF pimento chees sandwiches for lunch today. Aren't you all jealous?
I too tried to get Winn Dixie to sell it to me online. Maybe I can get a friend in Florida to put some on EBay!!!!
NEW Best Pimento Cheese ever!! Have y'all tried the new Pimento Cheese called Palmetto Cheese?? It is so FAB! I got it at Publix at the Peach in Atlanta, but they have a web site to see where else they sell it. I found out about it because I go to Pawleys Island,SC every year and a friend of mine told me about it. If you ask the meat manager at Publix to order it, they will. Just Google then put in Palmetto Cheese!!
I too am looking for a source of Palmetto Farms Pimento Cheese. I agree with you all that it is the very best. Sad to see all your efforts have been in vain, which means there's no hope for me. If you hear any news, please post.
Publix in Atlanta carries it.
P.C. with jalapenos....YUMMY!!!
I'm just glad to see I'm not the only one. Came to VA from NC 30 years ago and had been transporting PFPC over state lines ever since, until Winn Dixie closed in Wilkesboro. I have a brother in law in FL...thanks for the tip!
I just started working in Jacksonville, FL, where there is a Winn Dixie around every corner. A friend from church asked me to bring her some of this cheese, and I had no clue about this. But I come home to Hickory, NC almost every weekend. If anyone reading this lives in the Catawba County area wants me to bring them some of this cheese just send me an email at pwoeckener@gmail.com.
I feel the pain aswell folks all this talk of winn dixie bailing out on the best product under the sun? That just gets me, and I to have had a friend get me some from georgia last year and trust me it wasnt the same brand and wasnt at all the same taste. Maybe in florida is different which I highly doubt. But if ever in florida I shall find out with a bag of cool ranch doritos to dip into it. And a big red or dr pepper.
And if anyone has a close recipe for this should post it. Thanks
Not sure if this helps but the closest I have found to PFPM is the Star's Private Stock Sharp Pimento Cheese. Hope this helps some but if I could get PFPM I would in a heartbeat.
Ingles carries Palmetto Farm Pimento Cheese. Found it there this week.
Correction!!!! Ingles carries Palmetto Cheese... Not the same as PFPC.. But I hear it is close... How about someone trying it and posting a reply!!!Winn Dixie...Please help us Southerners...
This is the moment we have all been waiting for and I already have the ball in motion I will need addresses phone numbers and enough customers to make it worth while I myself love pfpc its the only brand I will eat if you or anyone else you know wants some of the best pimento cheese in the world contact me or comment on this blog to all of the pfpc lovers out there Godbless
I used to love PFPC years ago when it was more cheese and less filler/mayo. Now it's just cheap goop with a little cheese thrown in. I make my own now; it's easy. It's just like their's used to be.
Funny, I have had the same urge to find P. Farms. My friend returned home from a trip to Charleston and brought Palmetto Spread and it is definitely not the same. This week has been set aside as PFPC scavenger hunt week. I plan to drive as far as possible to locate a Winn Dixie that is stocked. Drove nineteen hours to Maine and found a moose last month I'd been waiting to see for five years...with some luck, I'll return having found the cheese!!!
If you are from the Pee Dee area of SC and would like some let me know!
i will take some....can you ship it...
I am from Clemson, SC and so miss my Winn-Dixie Palmetto Farms PC. I have tried every brand to try to find a replacement. Now that Bi-Lo and Winn-Dixie has merged, I really hope that our local Bi-Lo will get this back in!!!
O.K I admit I also can only eat Palmetto Farms brand. And I found this blog by searching for the maker. I am however very lucky in that I live in Alabama where Winn Dixie still sells it!
sandra lewis
Finally, I found Palmetto Farms pimento cheese at Bi Lo in No. Myrtle Beach, S.C. I couldn't get home fast enough to make my sandwich!!!
The Bi-Lo Palmetto Farms Pimento Cheese is not only in different packaging...it's not the same as when it was distributed by Winn Dixie. IMO
There is yet another plot twist. I live in Lakeland, Florida. My regular Winn Dixie store stopped carrying Palmetto Farm pimento cheese a few months ago. I asked the manager for it but he did nothing to try to order some for me. So I called another Winn Dixie in town and they said they carry it. I went there and saw that it was in new packaging. I bought some, took it home and immediately knew something was wrong because it looked different. Then I tasted it and it doesn't taste the same. I read the ingredients and saw that mayonnaise is no longer one of the ingredients; instead, "dressing" is used which explains why it was loose and runny, too wet. It also lacks that rich fatty mayonnaise taste that I've loved for decades. So something is wrong but no one seems to be telling. Does anyone know what's going on? Another change, the containers used to say distributed by Winn Dixie, now they say distributed by a company called Hi-Lo in Jacksonville, FL.
To correct my previous post, the altered Palmetto Farm pimento cheese is distributed by Bi Lo in Jacksonville FL (not Hi Lo as I erroneously typed). And I now see others have commented on this change as well. Bi Lo, if you're listening, we don't care for your new sans-mayonnaise recipe.
Check this link for info about eh Bi-Lo/Winn Dixie merger. I had no idea until now. >> http://www.bi-lo.com/about/press-detail/bi-lo-and-winn-dixie-complete-merger/
Check this link for info about the Bi-Lo/Winn Dixie merger. I had no idea until now. >> http://www.bi-lo.com/about/press-detail/bi-lo-and-winn-dixie-complete-merger/
I just complained to Winn Dixie about the inedible new Palmetto Farm pimento cheese recipe that uses dressing instead of mayonnaise. If you'd like to as well, you'll find a contact form at this link. >> https://www.winndixie.com/AU/Page/ContactUs.aspx
After months and months I was so excited to see that Winn Dixie brought back Palmetto Farm Pimento Cheese .. What a let down... The recipe had totally changed and taste nothing like the original and actually it is pretty gross .. I too wrote Winn Dixie to complain and told them that this product has been a staple in many peoples homes for years and had a loyal following but I am sure that with market research they would have know that and just don't care. This product brought me to Winn Dixie and I bought all my groceries there but no more.. If a company could care that less about its customers its time for me to move on... They just a lost a very loyal customer.. If they had to increase the price to keep this product the same I would have been paid the increase like I am sure most fans would but they did not even try .. They can keep their new Palmetto farm Pimento Cheese and I will spend the money I use to spend at Winn Dixie that cares a little more about their customers..... I come with my own recipe that is very close to Palmetto Farm so Good Bye Winn Dixie !! "One Pissed Off Ex Winn Dixie Customer"
Yeah I agree with you. This is one of the items that kept me going to Winn Dixie. My brother and I grew up on it, my kids grew up on it. There is no other brand like palmetto farms pimento cheese well there was no other brand like it. I think they believe that we wouldn't notice. They are wrong my brother and his wife just bought some even though I told him that it was not the same and the first thing his wife said was this is not palmetto farms cheese spread and she couldn't believe it was. It is disgusting and inedible and I spent money on something I had to throw away. I called Winn Dixie all they said was they would look into it and gave me a reference number. No reason to shop there anymore.
After years of being deprived of Palmetto Farms Pimento Cheese following the mass closure of Winn-Dixie stores in the southeast, I finally decided to plan an annual trip to visit friends which brought be close to an existing Winn-Dixie store in Alabama. For about three years, I was about to stock up on enough Palmetto Farms Pimento Cheese to last about 4 months. It was the incredible, glorious pimento cheese from my childhood. Nobody else could touch it. Life was good again. As I write this, I have just returned from the 2014 trip, and just as a previous commenter has described, "the minute I got it home I knew something was wrong." It was way too runny and creamy. The consistency was more like pudding than PC and it wasn't even blended well. It was obvious that the cheese was being shredded instead of being cut into the distinctive little cube shapes unique to PF; and of course, the taste was nowhere near what I remembered or expected. Now, I'm stuck with 10 containers of inedible Pimento Cheese, which, after examing the new packaging, I discover has been distributed by Bi-Lo, LLC. If the new Bi-Lo/Winn-Dixie can't give us the product known as Palmetto Farms Pimento Cheese in the way customers have come to love and crave it down through the years, then they should retire the name Palmetto Farms, cause this stuff it ain't. I had not had any in over six months, and I wasn't fooled for one minute. It's appearance alone gave it away. Another family member concurred, and pointed out that their cottage cheese was not the same either. What's wrong with this Pimento Cheese is exactly what's wrong with Winn-Dixie and what's wrong with this country. You can't just throw away time-honored traditions and practices and expect to maintain the same level of quality as before. The name on the package should be more than just a label. You can't just throw away what makes something great and leave only the name and expect it to survive for long. This incredible Pimento Cheese, which bore the Palmetto Farms name and was sold by Winn-Dixie, was really owned by the PEOPLE who made it and loyal customers who consumed it. Now, all that's left is the name, acquired through a corporate merger. All else has been thrown away or ignored, all for the sake of downsizing and consolidation, cutting corners and maximizing corporate profits. Show some dignity Winn-Dixie, either start giving your loyal customers the same products they've become accustomed to down through the years, or stop calling it Palmetto Farms. We are not fooled and we are not amused. Before you can be a great grocery store, you've got to start acting like one. I would gladly drive hours out of my way for an annual supply of this wonderful product, but I wouldn't cross the street for what you're trying to pass off as Palmetto Farms Pimento Cheese now. Fellow PFPC lovers, consider yourselves warned - another product you once loved has become the victim of corporate greed and ignorance. Stay away from Palmetto Farms Pimento Cheese. Sadly, I'm afraid it just doesn't exist anymore.
I grew up in Florida, and my mom always bought PFPC. It was a tradition for me to buy PFPC every time I returned to Florida for a visit. I went to Florida in Nov 2014, and I could hardly wait to go to the Winn-Dixie and buy some PFPC. It was in a different container, but I figured that they had just changed it for marketing purposes. But when I made a sandwich, I discovered that the recipe had changed as well. I was so disappointed. It was a terrible change. It was so sweet that I couldn't even finish the sandwich. The thing I always liked about PFPC was that it was not very sweet and contained a lot of cheese. I feel like I've lost a part of my childhood.
Ok I too am a lover of the pfpc..more than u will ever know but..for once and all..pfpc no longer is produced!!!! It's time to try and find a replacement if that's possible..just a tip but Ruth's brand sold at food lion etc. isn't bad..not the same but not bad
Please send me the recipie!! I love and miss PFPC!! Judy from Charlotte. Judy.s2245@gmail.com
Judy.s2245@gmail.com
Please help with my PFPC craving!!!
Thank you!!!
Please send me the recipie !! Charlotte PFPC lover!!!
Judy.s2245@gmail.com
I have been enjoying W-D Brand Pimento Cheese for over 50 years and regret it's no longer being available. That is the standard for all pimento cheese spreads. Recently, my brother told me that the Pimento Cheese sold at Aldi's, a discount grocer. He and I have shared a love for the Winn Dixie brand " Palmetto Farms". He said is was as close to the Palmetto Farms as you could get. He was right, I bought one container and almost croaked! The first thing that you notice is the reddish orange color. Then you try it. It is excellent. I purchase a container every week. 12oz. $2.69. If you want to jazz it up a bit, use the juice from green Spanish olives, or even better, chop up the green olives and add to the mix. It also loosens the spread so you can take Ritz Crackers and dip right in.
What's the name of this Pimento Cheese sold at ALDI? I'm a lifelong Palmetto Farms Pimento cheese addict who used to drive across 3 states to get it, until Winn-Dixie screwed it up for everyone.
I believe Aldi only sells one kind. Look in your local store and you should see just the one brand. I hope you like it. It is the closest so far that I have found. There is another brand I have tried in my local grocery store but can't remember the name. I believe it is made around the SC beaches. It has a cute picture of an African-American lady on the front. She is the maker of that PC and that also comes pretty well close to PFPC. Kind of pricy though. I pay about 5.50 a small tub for it. Good luck and anyone has any other ideas or recipes to come close to the Winn-Dixie old recipe...please let me know!!!
Winn Dixie was bought out by the company that owns BI-LO you might check and try their brand of PC maybe the company has combined their packing plants by chance.
Update August 2019--Food Lion sells a brand made in Charlotte NC called Trade and Tryon pimento cheese. It's a little thicker than PFPC, but to me the taste is pretty close.
I will definitely try that one! I previously posted about the PC with the lady on the front made in SC. I have tried to continue to buy this brand but unfortunately, as with everything you buy, they have changed the recipe. It use to be pretty good. A couple months ago I bought it, it's called Palmetto Cheese from Pawleys Island, and had to throw the container out. It was too salty. It tasted so salty that it was inedible. I tried it again a couple weeks ago and it had way too much cream cheese in it, or at least that is what it tasted like. Horrible! I'm gonna try what Newt suggests and also continue purchasing the Aldi brand. Please let me know if any other suggestions for good pimento cheese close to the old school PFPC.
I too grew up with PFPC from Winn Dixie. I live in SC but was working with a friend in AL. I found myself traveling south through AL and saw the sign for Winn Dixie. I pulled in and ran to the cooler area. Yes, it was there and it was the same recipe, I texted my cousin a picture of it with the caption - "How many?". Luckily I had a cooler for drinks and filled it up. We ate like royalty for a while. So, I am hoping that it is still available. My college friends and I jokingly are planning a PFPC road trip where one girl is flying from Baltimore to GA where the remaining 3 of us SC girls will pick her up and start on our quest! Good luck to all!
I want my Palmetto Farm Pimiento Cheese back in my area too. I have not found anything close to it since Winn Dixie left us high and dry.
Me Too!!.. I live in Rock Hill SC ..we need to figure this thing out.. someway ..its been way too long and I have tried way to many..none have come close.. have not tried Aldi's
Alas, our local Winn Dixies closed long ago, and there is no match for Palmetto Farms pc with just the right consistency. Even though I grew up in SC, the newer version of Palmetto pc from Pawleys Island doesn't begin to taste like Palmetto Farms. Also, even their version without jalapeño peppers is a bit too spicy for me. Solution: Make your own, but don't use the pre-packaged cheddar!
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