Day 195 -- grocery shopping dilemma

It is Monday and I had to do some grocery shopping for the week. This was a medium sized trip, but might actually fit into 'making big groceries' in New Orleans <smile>.  I had a list carefully made from the flyers for the two stores we have in town. I went to the one with the most items on the list, trying to be somewhat efficient. Asparagus was in the flyer for a decent price and the shelf said that croutons were on sale for a wicked reduction. That said, both shelves were empty. A few of the regular items that I don't put on the weekly list were not anywhere to be found either. I did come away with most items, though. Sadly, no rain cheques available since we could not find items in the flyer at Customer Service. There is a truck coming in tonight, so I could return tomorrow and gamble that the trip would be a fruitful one (pun intended).

So -- why in a little town with two medium sized stores, do I find myself often in need of visiting both of them to get the basics? Granted, I could have purchased a couple other items today at the one store, but the items are 30-45% less at the other store. Given the cost of gas, it makes me wonder if I'm actually saving anything at all -- definitely losing my patience at times.  I've asked why shelves are sometime empty and why regular products that are store brands seem to disappear once many of us have decided the product was wonderful. It seems that the marketing gurus at head office decide what will sell in our little town based on some misguided notion of what small town people actually choose to eat. It is clear that none of these individuals have ever been to this town, or they'd understand that with a university present, we have a diverse cultural makeup -- not the standard backwater town. There is nothing that managers at this end can do except put things on the shelves exactly where the marketers want items placed, and then shift them all around next week. Apparently, all this keeps the customer wandering the aisles and likely to pick up more things. For me, it has the opposite effect -- I stop wandering and head to the cash early or just plain head elsewhere. I do call the toll free number to share my consumer point of view -- they are always polite and promise to pass things along to the marketing teams. Perhaps, though these teams are really the admen or the wolves of Bay street so won't likely hear anything other than cha-ching <sigh>.

Today's song was a phrase that came to mind while standing in line waiting for the privilege of paying for two-thirds of my expected purchases. Only half of the aisles were open, and that was after pulling in extra people because today was busier than usual. I had lots of time to ponder. <smile>  There are many covers of this song, but I have settled with this one by a duo. Enjoy!

Shop Around -- The Captain and Tenille