Shop Till Ya Drop

Supermarket Shopper Shock

I have been doing the grocery shopping for our family for several years now. I’m not real sure how I ended up with that demanding, dirty, detail, possibly it has something to do with my IQ score. Recently my shopping experiences at our local supermarket have been a real shock, an eye-opener so to speak. Almost all of the stores will run a few items as weekly specials, just to get you to come into the store. The problem is, they usually sell out all of those items within the first hour, but then they do offer you a rain check to pacify you for the moment, by the time you get to the checkout lane, you always forget to ask for the rain check, or just say the hell with it anyhow. I thought I would share some of these shopping experiences with the blogging world. I am sure many of you shop and prepare your own meals. I can tell by your exceptional writing knowledge, wit and wisdom.

Some brilliant War planner in Washington DC labeled the invasion of Iraq, a shock and awe experience. Shopping for groceries at your local supermarket, “should not be a shock and awe experience!” That is what it’s turning into for many disgruntled shoppers. I had my list all prepared yesterday, canned beans and corn were on sale, two for only a dollar I thought to myself, better stock up for that price. When I found the corn and beans, the can size was a third smaller than the last time they downsized them, last year. I could not believe my eyes! I did not buy any of them. Mushrooms were on sale for only $0.78 a can, the can size was approximately half the size it was before. These are just two examples from the canned goods aisle. What is one supposed to do, if you want to feed your family healthy food by preparing it at home?

There are no longer 5 lb. bags of anything, flour, sugar, rice, whatever they’re all a pound less, you might get a 5 lb. bag of red potatoes for about $5. The coffee can size continues to shrink, to Juan Valdez’s bewilderment and amazement. Bacon now costs around $4-5 a pound, for one simple reason, the fast food joints are putting bacon in just about all of the sandwiches they serve. The demand for bacon drove the price up dramatically. The same goes for the hamburger price, with a world living on Burgers today, square, round, or triangle shaped, we’re living in a new world of hamburger holics. This keeps the price of hamburger at a very healthy level for the meat processors.

We bought pork sausage last year in one pound packages, then they went to 14 oz., then down to 12 ounces, now your sausage comes in a 8 ounce package and the price is just slightly less than it was when it was a pound package. I’m no wizard in math, but that doesn’t quite look right to me.

The price of good beef steak has been out of reach for our shopping budget for several years now. Policies and programs in Washington D.C are often changed overnight, buy flawed surveys, done by groups seeking to make changes in the budgets. I can just imagine if our reigning president is told by one of his brilliant advisers, “The high cost of beef steak is due to the huge consumption of steak by food stamp recipients.” Our president will first have a conniption fit, in his rage, He then will suffer from an immediate aortic explosion! Leaving the vice president to start making changes in the food stamp program.

I just received a news flash from National Public Radio, “For the first time in history, in the United States, people spent more money in restaurants than they did at the supermarkets.” I guess that answers part of my questions about the high cost of buying groceries.

This post really got me to pondering, even ruminating a little bit, since it already has a gastric twinge to it. Who really thinks were the dumbest, is that the politicians or the supermarket owners?

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