Cake yeast

Pam,
In grocery stores, fresh yeast is usually stocked near the butter, eggs, or refrigerated biscuit and roll doughs. However, I recently learned from an experienced bread-baking internet acquaintance that fresh yeast cakes sold in grocery stores often are stale and dead, even if the expiration date says it should still be viable. And, indeed, after I recently purchased some and proofed it, that was the case. It's probably because the stock turnover for fresh yeast is slow, due to low demand for it. Most of the time, you'd be better off using dried yeast.

The other option I can think of is to find a bakery or micro-brewery that would be willing to sell you some fresh yeast. I'm sure it would be fresher and better quality than anything you could get at the grocery.