The never ending rise in prices is an inevitable fact of life. We seem to especially notice this at the grocery store because unlike fancy new clothes and stuff we don’t need from Amazon, we need to eat every day. We need food. If you are like me, I probably go to the store twice a week, so when that box of 6 energy bars goes from $5.69 to $8.99 in less than 2 years, that’s something we tend to notice.
And usually grocery stores do a pretty good job of at least trying to fool us and make us feel better about spending $9 for 6 energy bars because they psychologically price them at $8.99 instead of just a flat $9. That makes us feel like we really aren’t spending $9, we’re thinking it’s more like $8. Well, things have taken a turn and there are indications grocers aren’t playing that game anymore.
To set the stage, there was a time in the not too distant past where a local latino produce market in Palm Bay, Florida had the best prices, by far, for produce anywhere in town. You could get 15 limes or 10 lemons for just $1. Today, you can’t even buy 2 limes for a dollar or even a single lemon for under a dollar. And to make a marketing statement, the local Publix has priced lemons at $1.01 each. Nope, they aren’t 99 cents each, they are 1 dollar and 1 cent each.
What the heck is going on here? Why the abandonment of the psychological trick that makes me think I’m spending less than a dollar for a lemon? I could really care less about that penny I’m getting back in change. At 99 cents each I just feel better that it’s not 1 dollar yet, but yep, it’s really a dollar.
Everything changes when the grocery store prices that lemon at 1 dollar and 1 cent. They have abandoned one psychological trick for just straight up saying, “Fuck you, we’re going to price things where we want and you’d better get used to it, sucker.” Food prices have just gotten so ridiculously high lately that grocers are now trying to make us feel comfortable with prices in a range that we have no idea where they are going.
Oh, they still do play tricks though. There is the half gallon of Tropicana Pure Premium orange juice that used to be $2 for a half gallon, that is now $5, and the carton is really 52 ounces now, not 64 ounces. And then there’s the frozen, chocolate covered bananas introduced to me by a dear friend, that made me feel good because they haven’t raised their prices in over a year, but then I discovered there are now only 4 bananas in the box, and not 5.
I went through an entire box and a half of those banana treats before I realized there were only 4 in the package instead of 5. I was at the local Publix and saw them, started reading the box and said, wait, what, there used to be 5 per pack, what the hell is this 4 stuff? And when I got home and looked in the freezer, sure enough, I had previously purchased 2 boxes of 4 treats each, thinking it was 5, and didn’t even realize it.
The bottom line is, food is so expensive now and going up so fast, grocers are psychologically conditioning us to just throw up our hands in exasperation and say, “Okay, I have to eat, I’ll pay the price.” Well, sometimes I don’t pay the price. There are some things I’m just not going to buy. I refuse to buy strawberries over $4.99. I’ve gone to the Publix generic brand of spinach, in the flimsy cellophane packaging, for my smoothies instead of the name brands that are now at $7.99 for 10 ounces. Yes, I know, it’s really $8 for 10 ounces. Beyond that, I can see one day just eating rice and beans 5 days a week and PB and J the other 2 days.
Somehow though, I have to keep finding a way to finance my chocolate chip habit. Even though a 10 ounce bag of Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips have gone from $2, 3 years ago, to $4.49 today, I still need my fix and will for a long time. I will pay that price.
Since a half gallon is now 52 ounces, and today’s special deal is to pay the price for 5 chocolate covered bananas, and get 4, and lemons are $1.01 a piece, we now have 2 options: grow your own food, or just deal with it.
Make a choice and live with it.
Well, I guess another option is, you could shop at Walmart. Ugh.