I LOVE shopping at my local Gourmet Garage as much as the next guy. But sometimes I plop a can of chicken broth down on the checkout counter and think, “$2.19? For someone to boil chicken bones? I want that job.”

So when I heard that the food you can buy at 99-cent stores is more diverse than you might imagine, I decided to conduct an experiment. I’d make dinner every night for a week using mostly ingredients bought at these stores and then, on the eighth night  once I’d gotten my game down  I’d prepare a meal for friends made only from ingredients bought at 99-cent stores.

There are 99-cent stores, and then there is Jack’s. It’s Closeout Central, an off-brand oasis. Located at 110 West 32nd Street, near Herald Square, with satellite stores at 16 East 40th Street and 45 West 45th Street, Jack’s has not only lots of freezer cases and five or more aisles full of food, but also an upstairs gourmet section with more upscale items  Buitoni and Bertagni prepared pastas, Lindt and Ferrero chocolates, Hero jams  at prices ranging from about $1.99 to $4.99.

Making Jack’s my base of operations, I started with both the 99-cent and gourmet offerings.

I quickly met with my first surprise. Though there’s a constancy to the food items for which 99-cent stores are famous  pasta, rice, nuts, cookies and candy  other items sometimes ebb and flow.