At Any Price
Recently grocery-prices have been rising sharply - locally already very high to begin with at giants of high-volume turnover like Safeway and Save-On: particularly noticeable in produce. And we are told they will continue to rise.
Expert theories abound - but all only based on helpless grocers run by forces beyond their control. To Bob Canuck - who will pay no matter what - they could be confusing, even contradictory. If he thought about it all.
And if consumer-groups became more pro-active in exploring the wonderful, whacky world of creative pricing.
Supposedly the low price of oil doesn't help us - surely the weak Canadian dollar doesn't. And there was the California drought. The ever-paraded three-prong bugaboo. But even putting all three together: a 100% price-increase for cauliflower? While there probably are some valid reasons for price-increases - there probably are some which aren't: advantages taken within the generally distracting and well-maintained fug.
Food Dependency
Aside from California as prime-source - grocery-giants in BC have alternative sources on contract in Arizona and Mexico, where produce is plentiful - as seems to be water. Where is Canada in all this? Supermarket chains deal with Big Agros, these totally run with the most egregious agribusiness models. Corporate farming. Factory farming. You want organic? We give you organic!
Any shortage in supply - frequently created artificially - raises prices for Bob. The grocer will not lower his profit-margin, no matter what. And once Bob has got used to a higher price it probably won't come down again - even if/when supply is (allowed to go) back to "normal". At least not to levels previous to whatever hoopla.
Cauliflowers
Cauliflower - including that grown in Canada(!?!) - has been the 7-to-8-bucks-a-head bad-boy veg of recent price-increases. Suddenly it's on everybody's mind, an absolutely essential part of everybody's diet.
What is this???
What else could it be but this single-focus-thing so outrageously manufactured by the big ones: that other not-quite-so-high-over-the-top-while-over-the-top-nonetheless increases get less attention. A diversion.
After all - the flow of produce to Save-On anyway has remained uninterrupted: all their organic and most of their commercially-grown veg is/has been from California. So it's not the water!
Currently:
Save-On
Medium-size head, commercial - $3.99ea (4.00 really) Special for More Rewards card-holders this week; regular price $5.99 (6.00 really)
Safeway
Medium-size head, commercial - $4.99ea (5.00 really), California/Arizona
Kootenay Country Store Co-op (The Co-op)
Smallish head, organic - $6.99 (7.00 really), all fatigued - thus 20% off
So Save-On in a show of solidarity with Bob and his culinary quirks - while clearly having no shortage of the stuff surprise, surprise! - puts it on Special last weekend. For you cheap! You see - this (rather simplistically coincidental) move by Vancouver suits is to convince Bob that Save-On understands him, is totally on his side: We are not like the others!
And then sticks it to him elsewhere. What with pricing store-wide interconnected: a declared decrease here - creates an undeclared increase there. Always a balancing-act!
Weekly specials announced in newspaper-inserts are not necessarily bargains: usually just the more reasonable price for something usually overpriced.
Demand should determine prices of non-essential food items. What Bob might consider: if you think the price is too high - don't buy it! I mean: cauliflower? And tell the manager in proverbial no uncertain terms! If enough people don't buy and tell him - meaning he ends-up sitting on loads of whatever stuff - prices will come down real quick like! Particularly those of perishables!
Simple!
More Arbitrary Pricing
or
The-Less-Than-One-Mile Diet
The Kootenay Bakery Cafe Coop has been selling a Mediterranean Vegetarian Pate. They buy ingredients, produce the pate, package it, print the wrapper and sell it for $4.45. A good product for a good price. And - seemingly - a satisfactory profit.
The Co-op - half a block away - is currently running the same pate as a monthly members-only special for $4.49 (4.50 really); the price for non-members and all customers after the month is $4.99 (5.00 really). They have nothing to do with production; there are no transportation-costs. What with probably getting a wholesale price: their minimal-effort profit-margin is substantial.
Save-On used to sell the same pate for $4.45 - but recently raises it to $5.99 (6.00 really). The distance between the Bakery Cafe and Save-On is no more than a mile.
When I bring-up the discrepancy: they stick to $5.99 but add a tag announcing this pate as an In-Store Special at $4.45, with a saving of $1.54. A bargain!
When I find this even more appalling - deliberately misleading - than the initial increase: they maintain the $5.99, while now selling the pate to More Rewards card-holders for - $4.45.
And just one more example of arbitrary pricing in this supermarket selling about 30.000 items (a supermarket average) - you're following the bouncing ball? - is
Nescafe Taster's Choice Instant Coffee, 250g, at $16.99 (17.00 really) - while Walmart - down the mall - sells it for $12.17; the local Safeway sells it for $17.89 (18.00 really), and London Drugs - Vancouver, Granville/Georgia very high rent - sells it for under $10.00.
You may be quick to say that Walmart - after all - buys in uber-super-volume-bulk: therefore they can. But! Some of their food-stuffs are more expensive than at Save-On/Safeway, and what about London Drugs - much smaller than Walmart!
Supermarket pricing in one locale usually is more-or-less competitive - though Nelson's Safeway - the much bigger - overall is rather more expensive for basically the same stuff than Save-On. So here the Walmart principle of "the bigger - the cheaper" clearly doesn't apply either. Oddly - even for Safeway business is great. Bob likes it!
Go figure - and do pull back from oil/dollar/water-reasoning just a bit!
You'll be surprised
what is to be found;
when you go beyond "Z"
and start poking around.
Dr. Seuss
Food Independence
When I first become acquainted with seemingly very poor and primitive Northern-Chinese village-life in the early '90s: I am often astonished at the villagers' ingenuity. Making do together. Creating from need in days before money.
They grow all their food and make noodles - the staple.
Winters are harsh: all is frozen over, covered in deep snow.
Often they have collectively maintained greenhouses: long strips of bamboo bent into arches are stuck in the ground. Connected with horizontal strips to form skeletons with stability/flexibility.
In summer they are open: regular fields of produce inside.
In winter they are covered securely with heavy sheets of clear plastic - edges buried in the ground. On top of them large, thick carpet-like mats of straw. These mats are handled with a Venetian-blinds system: raised and lowered from the ground. Up during the day to allow for light/sun - down at night to keep warmth in; additional warmth put out by a small basic wood-burner. This is fed at regular intervals - day-and-night. Snow closer to the ground insulates. Watering is done by hand - plant-by-plant - with water carried in pails from sources often not close.
Survival is their job - done collectively.
Why not set-up large-scale year-round! collaborative farming in this area. Integrity Farming: respect for earth, water, sky; best-possible product-quality; high volume guaranteeing mutually satisfactory price/profit ratio.
Maybe instant coffee not so much - but what about cauliflower (hua cai in China)!
Chinese market-gardeners - earth people, coming from the same mindset - kept Nelson healthy for years: selling their fresh, reasonably priced veg from house to house in baskets they carried.
Now - also directly - contracts with grocers, restaurants, schools, hospitals eliminate intermediary profit-stacking - while guaranteeing price-stability, produce-availability, quality: a laboratory for province-wide and national food-sustainability, health-education - and a tourist-draw!
Bob? Eh, Bob!
theguardian.com
katehoban.com
nutrawiki.org
mariobatali.com
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