Breaking my own rule of avoiding grocery stores on Saturday, I ran in yesterday to pick up milk and a few other things. Luckily, it wasn’t very crowded, but I only had a few items and so decided to use the self-serve register.
I generally avoid these; I’d rather the business give someone a job instead of plonking a soulless machine in front of me. It was kind of interesting, though, once I got the hang of it. Bananas don’t come with a bar code, so I had to look up the category, find the correct picture, and wait for them to be weighed.
The whole experience, though, really made me realize what I’m paying for some things.
I usually arrive at the register with my cart groaningly full of a week’s worth of groceries. I pay close attention to the prices in the meat department, and if one brand of cheese is less, that’s the one I pick. But some things I’m going to buy no matter what; I’m not going to skip milk because it’s 25 cents more this week. And usually, as things zip past me on the conveyer belt, I might look up from time to time to see the price, but I’m generally back at my cart, unloading it. This time I had to place each individual item on the machine and wait for it and its price to show up on the screen.
Unlike other people’s daily orange juice, my mornings aren’t complete without a handful of grapes. When I grabbed them in the produce department, the price of them wasn’t much different than usual.
But at the finish line, after the picture of shining green globes popped into view, and the weight was noted, I was horrified to learn that I had just paid $8.26.
I rarely buy grapes because my store pre-packages them and it's always a quantity more than I want or will eat before they start going bad. Now they started doing that with green beans. There's just two of us so I just count out my 20 green beans and put them in my own bag. Maybe I could do that with grapes.
ReplyDeleteSadly, that pre-packaged trend is growing.
Deletemarkets and the Coop seem to be more sensible way to shop. We are just two people and one of use eats everything the other eats next to nothing. If I shop at the grocery store we waste a lot of food it seems. The quality is not as good either. I agree about self check out. I used them in London but if given the option I always choose an employed human.
ReplyDeleteOh, for a Coop near us!
DeleteWe also use a person to check out our items when we can. And avoid prepackaged food when we can too. The prices are often much, much higher per unit.
ReplyDeleteGood lord! That's insane!
ReplyDeleteWhen I lived in NYC I was continually horrified by the price of groceries. I remember my Progresso canned soup cost something like $4, which was just ridiculous. And this was more than 10 years ago!
The other day I was shocked to see that my favorite brand of soy milk had gone up from $3.25 to $4.79! In one week! And that was at my Coop. :-(
ReplyDeleteBack when I ate grapes I would undo the bag containing pounds of them, extract and bag one pound. I had a runin with the produce manager over it, and explained that he could not force me to buy more than I needed. Offered to explain it to his boss. He backed off and gave me dirty looks whenever he saw me! I responded with a sunny smile.
ReplyDeleteI hate the attempt to force sales by bagging far too much.
A produce rebel! I love it.
DeleteI don't worry when things are going through. I sit down after the check out is done and check my receipt. I have a list and write down my prices.
ReplyDeleteYes, I've been shocked by the price of grapes at the checkout stand too. I've even asked the checkout person to set them aside as I changed my mind.
ReplyDeleteI remember years of shopping with a little plastic adder to monitor how much I spent. Too often I had to put things back since I couldn’t afford to go over my limit.
DeleteI remember years of shopping with a little plastic adder to monitor how much I spent. Too often I had to put things back since I couldn’t afford to go over my limit.
DeleteI remember years of shopping with a little plastic adder to monitor how much I spent. Too often I had to put things back since I couldn’t afford to go over my limit.
Delete$8.26 doesn't sound so bad to this Australian, all our fruit and veg are ridiculously priced now and a lot of the blame is on Covid for stalling deliveries, also on the recent storms for wiping out growing produce. I tend to buy my apples two at a time now instead of a bagful. Our milk prices rarely fluctuate though, I pay the same price per litre as I have been for five years now.
ReplyDeleteThere's a lot of sticker shock going on, but what can you do? The grapes really seemed excessive. I wonder what I pay? Perhaps just as much.
ReplyDelete