Sometimes all you can do is shake your head in wonder!

[Paper Roses]

Yesterday I went grocery shopping. I don't go often but every few weeks I will go to a particular store where I find staples to be much more reasonable.

My list was short but as always, I find a few things I have to buy. Yesterday, a big bunch of Hydroponic Basil. Had to have that. I was told it was $1.49 a bunch, there was no sign. When I looked at my receipt when I got home, there it is... $2.49

This is the part that astounded me. I needed sugar, down that isle, Domino and the house brand, both in 5 pound bags.
House brand, $2.69, Domino(the yellow pkg) .....$5.79. Cannot figure this out. If this is some kind of a marketing thing from Domino to make us buy their 4 pound can at a lower price, it will backfire. People do check the 'price-per-pound tags, although sometimes they are missing.

There is no earthly reason for this brand to be over $3.00 higher.
Sign of things to come? I bought 2 bags of the house brand when I would usually buy one.

Almost all the fruits and veggies are now sold by the pound. Takes some getting used to. I'm used to paying whatever was on the price sign. Now in small letters appears 'lb'. Nice heads of Romaine used to be .99, of course now it is .99 (lb). To add insult to injury, the greens are sprayed. I really don't like that. I feel it accelerates spoilage plus, I'd rather not pay for the water, thank you.

Like most of us, I shop the fliers but even that is discouraging. As an example, one big chain around here almost always advertises a popular brand of cheese, with the 'save $2.00' legend. Baloney. Our local, small town deli sells it regular price for less than the sale price of the big guy. Sure is getting complicated.

Probably going to get worse. With all the floods, rain, whatever, there will e fewer gardens this year. I have my list of veggies to buy but if this rain goes on much longer, it will be too late to get some of this stuff planted. I share a garden with a neighbor. I buy the flats, he plants and we both water and weed. I will miss that this year if it does not clear up soon. Last year the tomatoes were awful but the beans were good. Lettuce OK, squash OK too. This year it is still in the 40's and we will have a stretch of rain again for 8 days. Normal temp is about 65 degrees at this time in May.
I fear the whole country has a growing problem. Things will be tough, I think.

[Tesha]

1. We just joined a CSA

with another family. Since there's only 2 of us we couldn't manage the package that was offered.
So a split will be great - and we'll benefit from having organic and fresh stuff grown in optimum methods.

Like corn needs a certain number of plants to be really productive... but our garden is only about the size
of a car... we'll grow eggplant and zucchini and tomatoes and radishes, but its been so wet and cool that
nothing's going to benefit from being planted now.

It sure is nice to see all the New England green out there tho'.

[trud]

5. CSA are not set up for singles, either. n/t

[Denninmi]

2. I understand about the price confusion issue.

Our lovely new Republican governor signed a repeal of Michigan's item pricing law that had been effect since the 1970's. Stores no longer have to individually tag every item, they just have to post a price sign somewhere near it.

Yeah, right. Went to Meijer yesterday. I needed to pick up a canister of parmesan. Kraft was on sale for $2.99. I wanted to check the price of the store brand so compare, because it's fine in quality (for pre-grated cheese, but I can't afford the good stuff on a regular basis, and it works).

So, no price tags now. No shelf tag to be seen. I took it to two different end-of-the aisle price check scanners, and neither one would read it.

And, of course, trying to get human help in that place is a complete fools errand, might as well as for unicorn steaks and dragon's eggs.

So, I just went with the Kraft, at least I knew what the price of that was.

I see this as the wave of the future in Michigan -- no way to really tell what an item costs until you get to the checkout, at least.

And yes, food inflation is rampant.

I'm strongly considering trying to raise a batch of meat chickens. I have until next week to place the order with the feed store. It probably wouldn't save me any money, but would definitely be fresher. However, I've never killed anything before. I've cleaned birds that others have killed, that I can handle, but I'm debating the whole issue.

My garden this year -- well, it's a real mess. I planted potatoes two weekends ago in the rain. I have a few salad greens in planters along my greenhouse. Everything else is in the greenhouse in flats. All it does is pour down rain, and generally it's been very cold.

[housewolf]

3. And more and more stores install self-check out lanes

for even more automated processing.

I don't like them, to me they take much longer to scan, bag everything and check out than waiting in line for an experienced checker to scan & bag it all.

[trud]

4. I never use the self check lanes

Are they paying me or giving me a discount to do the checker's work?

Also, a very nice thing about Trader Joes is the checkers unload the carts. When you are somewhat creaky that Matters.

[Paper Roses]

6. Our local TJ'S moved far from me. It is no longer within a reasonable distance.

I miss their products and their way of doing business. With gas prices the way they are, it would cost me a fortune to shop there. It used to,be about 2 miles away, now about 30. Phooey!

[Stinky The Clown]

7. I refuse to use those self check-outs. They put union workers out of work.

What amazes me is how giddy the union checkers get wen they supervise six self-check lines and can help customers navigate. I'm thinking how blissfully ignorant they must be, as they help us help their store eliminate their jobs.

I'll bet those self checkout machines will never unionize.

[grasswire]

8. no price visible?

That would send me to another store, if there was one with prices. I am a huge comparison shopper, and those tags are imperative, IMO.

I want even MORE price info. My niece, who has taken shopping lessons from me for many many years, has a learning disability that does not allow her to quickly compute the prices that are marked "3 for $5" and "$2 for 6" and so on, and compare that to items that are marked a straightforward amount. I want that sign that says "3 for $5" to also say "$1.67 each". I'm sure that many shoppers have trouble parsing that.

[trud]

9. item tags

We lost those years ago. It is just as bad as everyone predicted.

[Warpy]

10. Investment bankers are also creating speculative bubbles in commodities

because they're easier to manipulate than the stock market. The increased cost of food is part of what's driving the mess across the Middle East. When people get hungry, they can no longer put up with rotten government.

That's what we're seeing in the price of staples like sugar. Processed food will always follow the staples prices, although there's a small lag time. You were smart to get those 2 bags of sugar. That prices is definitely going to go up to within a dollar of the Domino.

BTW, spraying down the veggies is absolutely necessary where I live, in the high desert. Produce would wilt by noon and be dried out by 3 if they didn't. They used to come around with a garden hose. Now they have the built in sprayers. Just give the stuff a shake when you pick it up to dislodge the drips.