Pricing Rules

I mentioned advanced techniques for the Grocery Game the other day - one of the most useful, time-savey ones is the mental price bank.

A lot of brains are really, really good at keeping track of this sort of thing. Do you drive? Think about filling up your gas tank. When you approach a gas station, do you automatically have a sense of “Hey, this is higher than I paid last week!” or “Woohoo, it’s gone down, time to fill up!”. If so, you’ve got in your head a smaller and occasionally alarmingly imprecise version of those computer algorithms that tell brokerages when to buy and sell on the stock market.

Most of this is unconscious for me. I just think “Pfft, too high,” or “Hey, now that’s a sale! Stock up!” But there are some pretty specific numbers attached to it, and here they are, dragged up fresh from under the surface of my mind.

Standard Cheese (cheddar, mozzarella, swiss)

Over $6/lb: Don’t buy

Under $3/lb: Is something wrong?

Milk:

Over $3/gallon: don’t buy regular

Over $3/half-gallon: don’t buy organic

Eggs:

Over $2/doz: don’t buy industrial

Over $3/doz: don’t buy cage-free/organic

Over $4/doz: don’t buy local

Canned Goods

Over $1/can: don’t buy

Dried Beans:

Over $1/lb: don’t buy.

Greens:

Over $1/lb: don’t buy. (This $1.29 stuff is nonsense. We are talking about collards, people.)

Onions and Potatoes

Over $1.50/3lbs: don’t buy. Check for mushiness though.

Most other veggies:

Over $2/lb: don’t buy standard

Spinach:

Over $2/unit: don’t buy (unless the unit is one of those big containers of washed baby spinach, in which case you can go up to $4)

Frozen Veggies in a Bag:

Over $2/bag: don’t buy. (Exceptions made as bags get larger. And don’t buy those little bitty bags. No one needs those.)

Apples:

Over $2/lb: don’t buy (no, not even the organic local ones, unless you are particularly in the mood to support your farmers, in which case knock yourself out!)

Under $1/lb: What’s wrong with them?

Yogurt:

Over $3/tub: don’t buy. (The little fruit on the bottom things are usually a ripoff even on their frequent sales, though if they are convenient enough that it’s worth it to you, go for it!)