Grocery Store Techniques

Times are tight, right? Diesel is 4$ a gallon, and oil companies make record profits. Corporate tax breaks, government bailing out banks who make billions every quarter, inflation running crazy. You read the news, and all of this is old. Now hear how the stores are combatting it.

First off, prices are going nuts for food. Its always a slow increase, so you might not notice, but almost every type of item (except stuff from China) is going up. Remember 2.99 for a gallon of milk? Try 4 if you are lucky. Remember 2.49 for a loaf of decent bread? Try 3.69 and counting. Pretty much most items are like this.

Second, they are making it harder to see what is a deal and what isn't. Shaws, our local store, makes the price tags for sales pretty mathematically challenging. Today, I found yogurt priced at 20/$10 and juice at 4/$8.88. Gimme a break. You don't need to buy that many to get the deal, so why not say $.50 or $2.22. Another way that stores are making it harder to get deals.

How about obstacle courses? Buy, this, that, and something you don't need, get this free. Buy 10 boxes of this brand of cereal this month and get 5$ off next month. This list of gimmicks goes on.

Lastly, I've noticed that they cleverly put stuff that isn't necessarily on sale in big piles, to make you think it is. Then the things that are good deals are quietly on the shelf with very little marking about the sale.

Clearly, the mind games will get more creative. Those of us who are pissed off about it will continue to get our deals by playing their games, but most people want. Its just like the casinos, who are willing to play close to 50/50 with some to get the less fortunate to play stupidly. The grocery stores are paying for the higher prices by taking it to the community that can't divide large numbers to see the price.