Small luxuries: Comparing small bags of roasted, salted macadamia nuts, from Wegman's, Trader Joe's and Acme/Safeway/et al.

Other stores I find myself in less frequently will sell you small bags of the oily soft nuts, shelled and pleasantly oversalted, but these are the stores where I happen to have picked them up in the last several months...and all are unsurprisingly cheaper than Mauna Loa brand, the monopoly brand on Hawaiian macadamias.

Trader Joe's 8 oz/227 g bag runs about $8, and is comprised of Australian macadamias, the bag announces. Their flavor is good, in the case of my three bags, of the middle in saltiness, and a relatively light taste and a bit less oil in these oily nuts than the other two. TJ also provided the most destructible bag, so that on opening, half of the resealing top came off one side. Serving size is 22 g and weighs in at 230 calories. (Shown is the very similar package of the slightly larger unsalted bag.)  $1/oz.

Wegman's (or, since online hates apostrophes, Wegmans) offers a 9.5 oz/289 g bag with the least salt and the fullest-flavor of macs for just under $10, source of nuts not cited on package but noted by Cooklist online as being South African, Guatemalan and Kenyan. Serving size is 1 oz/28 g at 200 calories. $1.10/oz.

Signature Select, the store brand of Safeway, is now also the store brand of the mid-Atlantic chain Acme, where I shop (no Safeways are handy), and of former Osco stores and many other chains Albertson's (now also sans apostrophe) has bought over the decades...Safeway being the biggest chain absorbed, hence defaulting to their brand. I bought Signature Macadamia Halves rather than the apparently less expensive un-halved macs, since there were none on the shelf (nor a space for them): $7.48 for a 6 oz/170 g bag; serving size is 30 g at 210 calories. All South African. Perhaps the sweetest as well as saltiest. $1.25/oz.

You could do worse. Aloha.