Nothing's Changed
Groceries were fun last week? If you followed our list, you spent $500, got $600 worth of stuff and got back 100K in points. That's 33% right across the board. Walmart is not beating that. Giant Tiger is not beating that. As most of us know, you do have to jump through some hoops to get that level of savings. We are about forty episodes in and have some new members this week, so perhaps it is time for a quick review? Let us start with some Old West analogies.
Ever since a second general store opened down the street from the first general store, in a small town ... the owners have employed loss leaders (see picture above). A couple of items are aggressively priced (at cost or even below cost) to get you into their store. They put a sign out front. They advertise. It's sort of like the old timey version of a flyer? They hope that when you come in ... you will buy more than that one item. Sneaky right? A regular customer might get a line of credit or slightly better pricing. Remember, there is nothing new in the zoo. Today, we call those loyalty programs.
I am teasing a bit, but after the war, when we were moving off the farms, we knew collectively that some basics skills were being lost. School curriculums were modified. Boys were sent off to shop class. Girls were segregated and introduced to an ancient and arcane school program called Home Economics. My very first post had a picture of a "Home Ec" class from the 70s because it is so integral to these processes. Every time I see some Birkenstock shorn snowflake bleating about the price of a tomato, I wonder, "Did no one teach you teach what the word shop means?"
Pioneers in the Old West had a rhythm to their lives. In a few lines, this rhythm started in the fall when the weather really cooled off. Freezing mornings. You slaughtered a hog because without electricity, you need free refrigeration. You starting chopping wood for the winter because it wasn't a humid eighty degrees at nine in the morning. When the snow flies, you hunkered down, made babies, ate your preserves, sewed, knit and healed up. You fed your livestock, sharpened your tools and got your farm gear ready. In the spring, you plant. In the summer, you have babies (both in the barn and in the house). When the leaves start changing, you put in your preserves for next winter and have a bunch of social events (we call them fall fairs now). The primary purpose of those was to marry off your horny teenage children outside their immediate genetic footprint before they got locked in the house for another winter. It's where the term PumpKin comes from.
We live in a next day, free delivery, Uber, Skip The Dishes world. I want what I want, when I want it, which is usually right frigging now. This turns out to be a terrible strategy for grocery shopping! We hope to make these impulse purchases a tiny percentage of your weekly total. Fruits & vegetables (in season and on sale) plus dairy. Add to that, everyday day grocery items that your grocer has made loss leaders or put high loyalty points against. That's it. I call it your Prime List. It gets combined with running list of things that you simply must have this week. I call it your Fridge List because I have dinosaur DNA in my bones. You see, before fridges were built out of recycled pop cans they used to be made of m-e-t-a-l? A magnet would stick to it and that where the cave women kept their grocery list. I digress. Maybe you need ingredients for a recipe you saw on FB shorts? You have no tea bags? There is always something unplanned that you must have. So, your Fridge List and our Prime List will become the basis for what you purchase each week. You will not see watermelon on my Prime List in February. We want to start purchasing only items that are on sale, in season and incentivized through loyalty programs. Next week, we will review the Soon List and the Someday List.
My Optimum Week
Zehr's and Food Basics are is up to their old tricks this week. They have strawberries and raspberries in the flyer and state that they are going to be a Product of Mexico or perhaps America. They are just not too sure? There is a big difference which one it is ... to any Canadian shopper who is not kneeling down before the Great Leader. My guess, there will be one container somewhere in Canada from Mexico and forty-three thousand containers from (eg.) California. I am going to write them and express my displeasure. The NN olive oil is great price. Bring it home. Put it in the Bertolli bottle. No one will know. BTW, I see an new acronym when down this particular rabbit hole. EVOO's I guess they have arrived? Like Prince or Cher? I'm going to try that Angus Sirloin Beef Pot Pie for $14.99. It is your list. What is not on your list is 2 litre basket of nectarines for eight dollars! Wow!
It's Time
Bonus Redemption at Shoppers. 250K for $400 off. Bonus Redemption Event at Zehr's. 250K in points for for $300 off. It's the rare case where I might suggest you use points for food. You could buy pork chops and whole chickens to do you until next spring? A pantry full of canned goods? And don't forget, you can do this more than once. If you have 750,000 just ring out three times. Tell the sales clerk what you doing before you start? Watch the before tax total and when you just go over, tell her to stop, redeem 250,000 and pay. Then start the next order. You could potentially get $900 (or $1200) off. Last year, I was watching while this old battle axe was checking me out. She was not, even though I told here what I was doing. She put through a twelve dollar something after I had gone over the $300. I asked her to take it back off. She "sighed" at me. "Manager please?" When he arrived I asked if I left that item in this order, would he authorize her to give me the $4.80 that I would lose in Bonus Redemption value in cash out of the till? I'm not a fanatic. Two bucks here or there, fine, but no store is going to forgive me five dollars? Here is an old BR chart for Shoppers.
What I'm Reading
Jack McDevitt
What We're Watching
We are still working through The Americans and The Morning Show.
Wire In The Blood on Britbox - Really likeable leads in this 2002 series based on novels by Scottish writer Val McDermid. The first two Seasons were just added and there could be four more coming. It's not up to Happy Valley standards for a comedic element, but there is some pretty snappy dialogue.
Never Mind
After launching into an uninformed minute-long rant on SNL, the news anchor would fact-check Gilda Radner. The segment always ended with the immortal words above. Trump now has the press so cowed, when he goes off on an uninformed rant, they simply generate one long blink like "walker dolls" and let him ramble. The latest is that no country other than the United States allows mail-in voting. Putin told him that this is why American elections are so corrupt! Putin!! The press stands there quietly. People without ten seconds to spare and no access to Google, are probably going to believe him. I took the ten seconds on your behalf. 34 countries including several key US allies allow voting by mail in some capacity. In 12 countries it is universal.
Refer to last weeks Title. Drop one "O"
In Case You Care
I will keep talking about this. Last weekend in the New York Times. "The share of people who reported reading for pleasure on any given day fell from 28 percent in 2004 to 16 percent in 2023. That's down 40 percent. Here is the link: