Thursday, October 9, 2008

Shuffling to Wal-Mart

You keep hearing people discuss food prices going up. You can see and feel gas prices going up, no doubt. Food? That's a little sneakier. I kept hearing about it, but never really noticing it.

Until I noticed it.

The past couple of times I've been to my local store, Publix, I've noticed. Now, I never used to shop at Publix in my old city because a) there was none near me and especially b) Winn Dixie was much cheaper. Moving to this new city, the nearest Winn Dixie is miles and miles away (6?) while Publix is less than one. I've enjoyed Publix, especially their Buy-One-Get-One (BOGO) sales.

Isabel LOVES Campbell's soups, especially Dora and Disney Princess cans. Yes, I am paying more for the stupid character. They used to sell for $1.25 a can and once a month, they'd put them on sale; 10 for $10, or $1 a can. I'd stock up. Last week, I go to get more. They're 3 for $5. I do the math. $1.66 each. Holy increase, Batman! Do they think by putting "3 for $5" we'd be fooled?

We like Cheez-itz. The 16 ounce box for $3 something has shrunk to a 10, yes 10 ounce box for the same price! I put it back.

General Mills fruit snacks - $2.25 a box?

The generic grocery store yogurts that were 10 for $5 (or 50 cents each) are now 10 for $5.50. Ok, they went up a nickle each....and came DOWN two ounces in size!!

I was stunned. I heard about it and never saw it until now. I came home dejected, telling David that we would be buying most of our items at the Super Wal-Mart down the road, that sells the soup for $1.36 instead of $1.66, that sells 16 ounce Cheez-Itz boxes at the same price as the 10 ounce at the grocery store. Where General Mills fruit snacks are $1.50 instead of $2.25.

I'll still stop at Publix for the meat department, and pick up BOGO items, but no longer can I justify going there for everyday staples.

It's crazy.

5 comments:

Ryan said...

About that 3 for $5... yes, it'll fool people. I had a math teacher who once worked at a supermarket. They had oranges that they wanted to get rid of but couldn't sell them for 20 cents each. So they put up a big sign: 4 for a buck! Sold out that same day!

People aren't very good at math. =)

-- Ryan

Anonymous said...

i hear ya sista... just started going to costco to try and save. the catch there is to only shop for what you need !!

Kaaren said...

I actually went to Sam's Club and got 5 pounds of ground beef (90/10) for like $2.30 a pound. I bought that, and tons of chicken, then came home, separated them each into baggies and now have meat for 10 meals. Have to figure out how to save money somehow.

Anonymous said...

I'm so with you! Food is killing our budget. I've had to break Mike of his Publix habit.

amy@thefoilhat.com

Anonymous said...

I wish my freezer/pantry was bigger. I wanna shop at Costco/Sam's Club. :(