Sense of Adventure

Is your supermarket ripping you off? Probably!

It might just be worthwhile to stay alert. Specifically: make sure the price the item is offered at on the shelf is what you get charged. If you look closely, you just might find it often isn’t – that you get gouged a higher price.

Just now I went to the Lowe’s across the street to buy some English muffins (I shouldn’t be eating the starch, but as I’ve said I’m not making equal progress on all fronts.) They had the regular ones for $1.99. There was also a big sign under the sourdough ones offering “Meyer’s” sourdough English muffins for $1.59. Now, the name on the label says “Nature’s Grain.” But two things: these were the only items the sign could refer to; and you’ve probably noticed that sometimes one umbrella corporation operates numerous different brands, sometimes actually in competition with each other.

- And as if by magic - the magic of the Internet! - here we have an excerpt from an article on Harlan Bakeries: “Meyer’s Bakeries … [p]urchased by [Harlan’s] subsidiary, Southern Bakeries…. [T]he business also sells baked goods under the Nature’s Grain brand.” So yes, in fact, Nature’s Grain products are distributed through Meyer’s, as the article mentions a couple paragraphs later. The items marked as on-sale were in fact the ones I tried to buy.

So I decided to go with the sourdough bagels and save 40 cents. No big deal. I like ‘em well enough, and with food costs skyrocketing every little bit likely helps.

The cashier, who was a young woman I haven’t seen before, rang them up. The price: $1.99.

(more…)