I am volunteering to be their advocate (photo courtesy visitfortwayne.com and Kuehnert Dairy)
So, am I tiring of this story? Even a little? Wouldn’t I rather be cooking/baking/posting recipes for Thanksgiving??? Yes, I would, but this story has drawn me in even deeper!
I am pretty sure that the biggest grocery-spending week of the year is coming up next week. If you add this to the quagmire, perhaps deliberately constructed, to make sure absolutely no one can understand the metrics and the process, things surely get um, interesting. As I have tried to piece together even the basics of the pricing process of dairy here in the “metropolitan area”, the dynamics of “holiday-pricing” have emerged to further complicate the model. Whew!
Yesterday, I heard from the State of New Jersey yesterday who referred me to the USDA Market Administrators Office in Boston, MA. I will follow with them.
And so, I continued my little tour-around yesterday to a few stores. It would have seemed that people may have begun their shopping already for next Thursday’s meal. I know first hand that grocery shopping next week can be a hair-raising experience. It surely is a fascinating social phenomenon! It feels like some mixture of celebration, anxiety, and hoarding instincts are all kicking in! I bet the grocers just love it!
To continue my story that is now a full-blown bona fide mystery to me, here are prices from Kings, Gilette on Sunday, 11/16/14:
that’s $7.99 and $6.99
As I got my reconnaissance continuing to come in yesterday, I could see that the price setting is one very complex puzzle. Here are prices from Amherst, MA:
Whole Foods:
Organic butter – Whole Foods 365 brand, $4.79; Horizon Org, $5.99
Non-organic butter – 365 Brand, $3.69
Stop and Shop:
Org butter – Horizon Org same price as WF, $5.99; Nature’s Promise Org (store brand), $5.69
Non-org butter – Land O Lakes (still around!), $5.39 but on sale this week for $3.00; Cabot, $5.29
Coincidentally, just as I went out in earnest to verify in photos the varying price of butter all over my area of NJ, something fascinating happened. I began to get reports in from other states and to travel around to take pictures of butter prices in my local stores. Simultaneously, I began asking lots of questions of supermarkets, producers, the government and newspapers. I’m not saying my efforts had anything to do with the rocketing fall in prices here in some stores – between $3.00 and $4.00 per pound, I am just saying this is just one crazy pricing puzzle.
At Wegman’s 11/18/14:
Could it possibly be that all of a sudden grocery stores and wholesalers are feeling particularly benevolent? Wow, that’s really nice! I found some very miraculous results out there yesterday!
At Shop Rite in Bernardsville, I spied Land O Lakes Butter on sale for $2.99/lb – on price plus. Butter has fallen to $5.49/lb there at regular prices.
At Whole Foods-Madison – 11/18/14:
I received a report from Lexington, MA – the price of Cabot’s butter is $1.99/lb on sale at Stop and Shop. Too bad I can’t find any at all here any longer since the distributor dropped it. Ok, so that’s Cabot’s butter is $5.29 in Amherst, MA and $1.99 in Lexington, MA.
Today, I will re-visit Kings and Stop and Shop to see what is happening there.
To broaden out the story a little to include some two legged friends, here is the price of an organic turkey at Wegman’s yesterday. That must be some bird!
$95. for a 19 lb organic turkey at Wegman’s – YIKES
and veggies are no bargain either!
As you begin to settle on your menu for next week, try to observe the variations in prices in your area. Elizabeth Warren has begun to take on Walmart on the minimum wage front. Perhaps all shoppers should begin at least asking some questions of their local retailers?
Perhaps I will never figure this out – it’s looking very likely actually. Bottom line – what is the moral of the story? Be careful where you shop!
Have a great (cold) day!