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Shopping

When Grocery Stores Practice to Deceive…

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So while I’m galloping across the city last Thursday morning, I stop at (among other joints) a huge Fry’s superstore, appropriately Scottsdaleian, the sort of place where Mazeratis populate the parking lot. It is just a Fry’s, though, despite the addition of some fancy cheeses, a full-service sit-down sushi bar, a wealth of Target-like household goods, and a section peddling pricey loafing-around-the-estate clothes. This means I can grab a few fruits and veggies and some cleaning products at about the same price on offer at Albertson’s or Safeway.

We’re almost out of custom-made dog food here at the Funny Farm. So it crosses my mind that if by some miracle this Fry’s has chicken on sale, I could grab enough to fend off another Costco trip for a week or so.

Nope. No sale chicken. However, I do stumble across a gigantic package of pork butt — almost 10 pounds. Dang! That’s as much as you’d buy in a giant Costco package. And it’s on sale: marked down to $9.71 from $17.79.

Well…that’s a bargain! (Or so it appears…) The same or less than Costco’s price.

Grab.

This morning I go to cook up a lifetime supply of dog food from this stuff. It’s packaged, in the manner of a slab of Costco pork, squished inside a layer of tightly wrapped, melted-together plastic wrap. The package says CUT AND WRAPPED FREE!!!!

ohhhh, be still my heart!

So I think that like Costco pork, it’s chopped roughly into big chunks, which makes it pretty easy to stew up in a pot preparatory to food-processing with some veggies and some starches to make dawg food.

Not so much.

It’s one huge 10-pound chunk, and…it has a big bone running through the middle of it!

The package is not marked bone-in, and you cannot see the bone by looking at it through the plastic wrapping.

Fuckaroonies. What a hassle! I had to hack as much of the meat off the bone as I could, and was I mad! The bone weighed exactly 1 pound, meaning instead of 9.94 pounds of meat, I got 8.94 pounds. Meaning I threw $1.09 into the garbage.

Exactly one pound…

No, I do not feel up for turning a pork bone into soup. And no, there’s not enough room in one of those kettles to hold a bone on top of all that meat, which itself produces close to a quart of broth (because as we know, commercial meats are soaked in saline and a substantial part of what you’re paying for is, yes, water).

Aside: You don’t even have to add water to cook these meats for the beasties. Just drop the chicken or the pork into a pot and turn on the heat. Within minutes, enough salt water exudes to keep the meat from scorching, and by the time the meat is cooked, the pot is literally half full of liquid.

That’s convenient, I guess: you can use it to cook the rice or oatmeal for the dog food. It doesn’t taste very good, mostly because commercial factory-made chicken tastes awful and pork just tastes depressing. So I don’t use it for my own cooking. But it finishes off the dog food…the pooches seem to like it. But…they’ll eat mummified oranges. Tells you something about doggie taste.

Okay, now for the English-major math:

At the discounted price, $9.71 for 8.94 pounds of usable meat came to $1.09/pound, a dime more than Costco charges. Only the Costco product is hassle-free: open it, drop it in the pan, and turn on the burner.

At the original price, which no one was foolish enough to pay, the pork would have run $1.99 a pound: a dollar a pound more than Costco’s price.

So. The Fat Lady is not pleased this morning.

I deeply resented discovering a bone in the wad of meat, when the package was not marked “bone-in.” I probably wouldn’t have bought it, had I known: there wasn’t that much rush to make another batch of hound food, and Costco’s bone-free 99-cent pork is a much better, much lower-hassle deal.

In other gnus, however, check out the frozen wild shrimp I found the ‘tother day:

Oh, the magnificence!!!!!

I sautéed these with some garlic, herbs, bottled artichoke hearts, cut-up Campari tomatoes, a handful of frozen peas, and a splash of cheap white wine.

Now that is food. Serious food.

 

How to Survive a Consumer-Driven World and a Shopping Addiction

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by Kostas Chiotis

Credits: Pexels

While it’s okay to give in to the occasional urge to add a new pair of shoes or a pink dress to your wardrobe, a shift from impulsive to compulsive buying could be a possible sign that you have a bigger problem- a shopping addiction. In a consumer-driven world, credit cards, vouchers, and coupons all push us to a whole problem comparable to other forms of addiction like gambling and alcoholism.

An article appearing in the PubMed database revealed that nearly 7% of Americans struggle with compulsive buying, which is more than 18 million American citizens. In a society where “shop till you drop” translates to fun, the many shopping addicts continue with the shopping sprees without acknowledging that they have a problem. The problem has been worsened by the growth of online shopping and adverse marketing.

But here is the best part:

You can survive a shopping addiction, just as a gambler can recover from gambling addiction. If you recognize that you have a problem and need help, that is a starting point to the recovery process. Don’t wait till it is too late. However, if you are in doubt, here are possible signs that you have a shopping disorder:

You are easily tempted to buy things that you do not need.

Every time you go to a store, you develop an irresistible urge to buy something new, even though you already have a similar item at home. You are likely to feel vulnerable if you admitted that you are obsessed with particular items such as a watches, handbags or new phone cases.

You experience a feeling of excitement when you buy.

Shopping addicts experience an adrenaline rush when purchasing something that they desire. However, the excitement comes from the act of making a purchase rather than owning the product.

Creditors hound you.

Most shopaholics find themselves cornered by creditors, banks, and even friends, due to their poor credit rating. Usually, it is a case of poor management of debt brought about by spending more than you can afford. Even in such circumstances, they are hesitant to seek expert advice on managing debt.

You hide your spending habits.

If you find yourself hiding the shopping baskets or your newly acquired clothing, you could be having a bigger problem. Some people may even take quick loans secretly to purchase desirable products without the knowledge of their parents or partner.

Most items in your closet have their tags affixed or have never been opened.

If you find yourself buying things at a faster rate that you need them, you are most likely a shopaholic. The closet may be filled with dozens of new items that remains unopened several months since they were bought.

Anger, frustrations, and boredom spark the urge to shop.

Shopping addicts indulge in compulsive buying as a way of filling an emotional void like boredom, loneliness, arguments or frustrations. Every time you develop such feelings, the only retrieve is to go shopping as a way of healing from the emotions. If you find comfort in food every time you are angry or moody, you are more likely to go on a shopping craze as well.

Simple Ways to Ditch Shopping Addiction

Just like gambling, alcohol and smoking addiction, shopaholics result to shopping as a quick way to feel good. Overspending closes the gap between their real self and who they want to be seen as. If you are desperate to escape compulsive buying, you still have a chance to quit the addictive behavior. Here are simple ways to kick out the “shop till you drop” habit:

Pay using cash, cheque or debit cards.

These payment options limit the amount of money you spend, unlike a credit card that allows you to spend money that you don’t own. Destroy the available credit cards or leave them at home when you go shopping. If you must own credit cards, let someone else hold the cards for you.

Prepare a shopping list.

Always carry a shopping list with estimated costs and stick to it. Also, you should take cash that is enough for the items in the shopping list. This prevents buying products that you had not budgeted for.

Bring along a non-addicted friend when shopping

If you must go shopping, bring along a trusted companion who understands your spending habits. Let the person carry your shopping list so that he or she can help you stick to it. Also, if you have credit cards, let the person hold them on your behalf.

Find a new activity.

Prepare a list of inexpensive activities that you can do to substitute going to the mall. Activities such as listening to music, exercising, jogging and learning new skills will help kill boredom and manage stress levels. Keep the list handy so that when the urge strikes, you can choose an easy-to-do activity to occupy your mind.

Avoid temptations.

Avoid visiting stores or websites that may tempt you to buy something that you do not need. Destroy all shopping catalogs, stop watching shopping channels on TV and limit the number of shopping trips to discount stores and shopping malls. Only shop when you need necessities. When visiting new cities and countries, have a budget that you should not exceed.

Get help.

Seek help as soon as you realize that you have a compulsive buying disorder, instead of waiting till you hit rock bottom. Most shopaholics ask for help when they have piled too much debt, making it impossible to seek professional help. In the absence of enough resource, you should get help from self-help and self-supporting addiction groups like Debtors Anonymous.

Although some shopaholics may take an impulse buying habit as a normal behavior, it is a serious problem just like other forms of addiction such as drug addiction and alcoholism. If ignored, shopping addiction may lead to broken homes, bankruptcy and even peculiar habits such as shoplifting. If you have a shopping addiction, seek help from family, friends, self-help groups and addiction psychologists to assist you in the recovery process.

Kostas Chiotis is an economist, and he blogs at financeblogzone.com. You can follow him on Facebook and Twitter to get more tips on how to manage your financial lives.

More Money than Taste…Adventures in Scottsdale

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Taste: New Business Club Venue

So this morning it was off to a Denny’s for the weekly meeting of the Scottsdale Business Association. This greasy spoon locates itself in Darkest Scottsdale, just off the 101 on Indian Bend, almost adjacent to the Pima Reservation.

For years, we met at The Good Egg at Hilton Village, a formerly upscale strip shopping center now trending to (for Scottsdale) down-at-the-heels. All the serious Richerati have moved north, leaving their formerly fancy digs to aging middle class types who favor joints like Trader Joe’s and My Sister’s Closet.

The Good Egg was an OK place for our get-togethers: it had the advantages of a central location and a veteran waitress whom we all loved. And it had a little alcove where we could sit around a long table (cobbled together with little restaurant tables) in relative privacy. It wasn’t great — the food was mediocre and the coffee was dreadful — but it sufficed.

However, after the Egg was purchased by First Watch, things took a sharp southerly turn. They changed the menu choices, in some ways for the better, but the cooks seem not to have enjoyed any additional training. They replaced the plates with these big square (ostensibly stylish) things that take up so much room on the table it makes eating pretty clumsy, and they cheapied down the amount of food they put on the plates. The coffee went from the Egg’s “bad” to “even worse,” something that can only be described as an amazing achievement in reverse customer satisfaction. They redecorated and in doing so covered one of the walls with stupid-looking fake antique tin ceiling tiles, which not only look horrible but bounce decibels and jack up the noise level. And they honed the staff’s customer disservice skills. The manager quit and went to another restaurant. Our beloved waitress stayed but seemed to grow unhappy and distant.

We began looking for another place to meet. We tried several restaurants, one of which had wonderful food (a real rarity in an American coffee-shop type eatery) but whose seating left much to be desired.

Others seemed to offer no improvement or simply cost too much — one place wanted to gouge us extra unless everyone ordered an expensive breakfast entrée. Since two of us don’t eat much at breakfast and since none of us wanted to pay upwards of 12 bucks for a few pancakes whipped up from a mix, that outfit lost.

I personally haven’t been in a Denny’s in years, not after they served up a cup of coffee in a mug bearing some woman’s bright red lipstick. When I asked for a clean cup, the idiot waitress refused to replace it! So that was it for me, where Denny’s was concerned.

But everyone else in the group liked the place; so it was go there or quit the club. Besides, it’s in Scottsdale, not in grody mid-town Phoenix.

To my surprise, the joint is much improved over the old Denny’s on Camelback, which was pretty much a true greasy spoon. And the service was excellent: the waitress was running her feet off. The booth where they put us, not realizing we intended to descend on them en masse, was comfortable, and the ambient noise level was low enough that all 12 of us could hear ourselves talk.

And amazingly, the food was not too toxic. The coffee was OK (one helluva lot more than you can say for First Watch), and the food seemed more than adequate — and abundant. My friend Steve sat next to me; he ordered his usual bacon and scrambled egg combo: the bacon was crisp but not overcooked (last week at First Watch I noticed they served him several strips of black stuff) and neither were the eggs.

So we’ll be going back there. We now have a standing reservation for the back room.

Taste: Furniture

The Pavilions, where the Denny’s in question is housed, is a sprawling shopping center that climbs over a couple of main drags. There is a lot of commerce around there. As we were standing around after breakfast chatting, I noticed a Front Gate Outlet.

Front Gate is an upscale furniture retailer. They sell a lot through a catalogue, and the prices are in the “if you have to ask” range. But…hm? An “outlet”?

So after we broke up, I went over there to check it out.

Really. Some people really do have more money than taste. And Scottsdale is the home of the more monied than tasteful.

You never saw such ugleeee furniture in your life: big, clunky, dark, looming stuff, and not a stick of it inviting to sit down in or to eat off of or to store your tchochkes in. Uglee outdoor furniture. Uglee indoor furniture. Uglee area rugs. Uglee bedding sets. Uglee everything!

Sat down in one curious-looking chair and found it so uncomfortable I couldn’t imagine why anyone would buy it.

And the prices? Take your breath away. $3500 for a nothing-special leather sofa that you could get at Macy’s for $1800.

Tastes: Grocery stores

Well, one advantage of schlepping that far across the city is that the easiest way to get there is across Shea Boulevard. Though the trip will burn a lot of gas, ultimately it may save gas, because it takes me right by all the stores I usually shop at.

There’s a Home Depot in the Pavilions — you could walk there from the Denny’s. There’s also a Target in that shopping center.

And at Tatum and Shea there’s an Albertson’s, a Trader Joe’s, a Whole Foods, a Penzey’s, and a gigantic Fry’s mega-supermarket.

So, in theory, if one were to assiduously maintain one’s shopping lists, one could do all of one’s shopping on the way home from this weekly meeting.

That would go a very long way toward keeping me out of Costco, and it also would mean I wouldn’t have to drive from pillar to post to get all the food and household items I favor. Hell, I’d already be at pillar and post.

Images:
Denny’s in Texas: Billy Hathorn CC BY-SA 3.0
Armchair: Deposit photos: © AnatolyM

Stylish SPENDING!

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So my friend KJG and I made a run on our favorite clothing and kitsch boutique, tucked away in touristy downtown Glendale. Their clothes are awesome, and many of them are made in the USA, miracle of miracles. To tell you how much we love this place, KJG has to drive 40 minutes to get there.

I’ve been needing some  new shirts to wear with my uniform — blue jeans. And I wanted some that would come down far enough to cover my tush if I chose instead to wear a pair of stretchy yoga pants, which are much more comfortable for choir practice because they don’t bind when you try to breathe.

Woo HOO! I found not one, not two, not three, but FIVE tops, each one cuter than the other. These are casual shirts with a mildly countercultural look to them, the kind of thing no one expects an old lady to wear (yet not so much so that people wonder what you’re trying to prove). They’re the sort of tops that elicit compliments from other women, about the be-all and end-all of ego gratification.

Lately they’ve started carrying shirts by Jess & Jane. The proprietor says they fly off the racks — she can’t keep them in house very long. and they are perfect for the purpose. (And yes, you can buy them on Amazon, in limited size choices…but I prefer to try on clothing before spending. And given a choice, I’ll always buy local.)

This spending spree set me back $280.

{gasp!}

But before too much hyperventilation sets in, consider: I may go out to this place once or twice a year.  And these clothing items last. Each of these tops will stay in the active wardrobe for at least three years.

When I buy clothes in other stores, they often fall apart after a few wearings. Or they just start looking shabby. That gets old, real fast. IMHO, the new fashion of buying cheaply made clothes engineered to last about three months comes under the heading of “penny-wise and pound-foolish.”

If I replace a $40 shirt in three years, then the privilege of wearing it has cost me $13.33 a year, or a little over a dollar a month.

If I replace a $10 shirt in three months, that shirt — which may fall apart in even less than three months — will cost me $3 a month.

That’s three times the cost of a better made and prettier piece of clothing!

So…in reality, I didn’t spend money. I saved money.

 

 

 

 

Nope…not a paid ad!

 

The Palace of Impulse Buys

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So  I get downtown  to meet a friend, along about 9:30 this a.m., only to learn that our date is tomorrow, not today. Oh well.

This is good, in two ways:

First, it frees up a day in which to do a few things of my own (as well as rising to the the Newest Client’s task…later, not right this minute), and since a Costco is on my way home, it invites me to fill the gas tank and then run inside and pick up a few things you can’t get anywhere else.

Of course, I hadn’t brought the shopping list, but I could remember enough to create a little mnemonic. POTC:

pecans
olive oil
tomatoes
cheese

Sounds so simple, doesn’t it?

Well, but…no. This is, after all, Costco, the Home of the Impulse Buy.

One of the things I’ve been needing is a new memory chip for my digital camera. Or…possibly a new digital camera. Costco has a chip that a sales dude promises is the real thing, and they’ll even take a gigantic Man’s Xacto Knife and break into the damned consumer-proof package for me. Grab.

Hey. At least I didn’t buy a camera.

I didn’t even buy a new external hard drive for a mere $80, knowing I could get one on Amazon for an even merer $60.

Whilst strolling behind the grocery cart, I recall that I wish I’d had a package of those glorious scalloped potatoes to nourish the ailing body, SO good, the ultimate comfort food. Grab.

Walking toward the scalloped potato counter, I have to pass by the meat cooler. There, calling out “come to me, come to meeeee” like some Broadway fish from South Pacific is a magnificent package of eminently fresh, fantastically luxurious, wild-caught ahi tuna. Oh God! Grab.

Into the produce department. Having a hard time finding the Campari tomatoes, which they’ve hidden away on the far side of the displays. But n-o-o-o problem finding the spectacular candy-sweet seedless red grapes (grab!), the package of six breakfast-eligible golden mangoes (grab!), the double-packet of smoked wild-caught salmon (grab!).

Moving on:

Obtain the olive oil, grab; resist blandishments in that aisle.

Find the pecans; grab. Realize I’m almost out of pine nuts, which of late I’ve taken to spilling all over everything (grab!). And by the way, I ran out of pistachios (grab!).

And…and…wtf is that??? IS it what it appears to be? Oh yes: Glorias: a pair of Gloria Vanderbilt jeans in an astonishing shade of lavender. Holeeee sh!t. Costco hasn’t carried Glorias in colors for lo these many years! GRAB!

By the way, as long as we’re talking vanity and grooming, I need a bottle of Pantene shampoo. Do they have the regular white creamy Pantene? Well. No. They have a pricey-looking lifetime supply of a “Botanical” version of Pantene. It’s clear. That’s kind of cool. Stinks a bit, but Pantene has taken to overperfuming its traditional products, anyway. Pause, ever so briefly… Grab.

By the time I got out the door, I’d racked up a bill of $199 and change, thereby lending some truth to the maxim that you can’t get out of Costco for under $200.

It’s true. So, so true…

Is Costco worth its new membership fee?

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It’s official: Costco is raising its membership fee to sixty bucks. Well…they were pushing it when they jacked up their fee the last time. IMHO, $60 is a little much.

This very afternoon I went over there to buy gas and pick up some pork and chicken to make dog food. And I found myself questioning: why am I paying to shop here?

The Visa card I got to finesse Costco’s changeover to Obnoxious Citibank doesn’t give a kickback on gasoline. The new non-Costco, no-annual-fee AMEX card does — 3 percent. But you can’t use it at Costco, obviously. So I might as well buy gas at the QT up the road, instead of driving all the way down to Spectral Mall — the AMEX kickback would cut the cost to about what Costco is charging. Maybe less, even.

I’m finding that I’m spending an enormous amount less in Costco these days. Without the frequent Costco trips — and despite shopping a lot at Whole Foods, AJ’s, and Safeway — the AMEX bill was only $396. Haven’t seen the Visa bill yet, but estimate it’ll be around $400, too. That’s a total of $800, which is $200 to $400 less than I’ve been in the habit of spending per month. That is such a huge saving that it about covers the cost of the dreadful car payment.

So…why AM I paying to shop there, and is it worth it?

  1. They have a great selection of electronics and a generous return policy.
  2. Speaking of returns, except for electronics, they’ll take almost anything back and give you a full refund.
  3. They carry good quality pork and chicken in bulk, at excellent prices — well below what I can get for comparable stuff in grocery stores, and in large enough quantities that a single package will make a week’s worth of dog food.
  4. I love their blue jeans.
  5. They have the cheapest propane in town.
  6. You can’t beat their tire shop. Discount Tire used to be competitive, but it’s not anymore.
  7. It’s hard to beat their price on chlorine tablets.
  8. They sell Campari tomatoes (the only fresh tomatoes in US markets that taste like real tomatoes, IMHO), and they sell them in large quantities.
  9. Their maple syrup is cheaper than anyone else’s.
  10. Their pecans and walnuts come in giant packages, and they’re fresher than anyone else’s.
  11. It’s hard to find the “Tuscan” blend of  frozen mixed veggies that have no garlic or onion in them (dog food, again).
  12. Prices on wine, beer, and hard liquor are excellent.

Worth it? Worth it? Hmmm…

Electronics: how often do you buy electronics, really? I’ve bought one (1) printer in the past four or five years. Costco doesn’t carry Macs (though I’m exasperated enough with Wyrd for Mac just now that I probably will replace the MacBook with a PC). Moot that, then.

Dog food: that IS big. It’s virtually impossible to buy human-grade meats in bulk anywhere else in town, certainly not for the prices Costco charges. I could switch the dogs over to commercial dog food. That would relieve me of hassle and expense…and it would shorten the dogs’ lives.

Blue  jeans: you can order Gloria Vanderbilts from Amazon.

Propane: it would take you the better part of your lifetime to make up one annual $60 membership on the amount you save on refilling at Costco rather than at U-Haul. And U-Haul is right around the corner, not halfway to freaking Anthem!

Chlorine: ditto. Leslie’s doesn’t charge that much more for a gigantic pail of chlorine tabs.

Tires: that’s big. Very, very big. Their warrantee is excellent, their service can’t be beat, and their costs are…within reason. I’ve gotten some excellent deals on Costco tires over the years.

Campari tomatoes: Safeway carries them. Just buy two or three containers at once.

Pecans and walnuts: big, very big. I love nuts, and I do not enjoy them stale. The only other place you can get them in quantities as large as Costco sells is at Trader Joe’s, and Trader’s bulk pecans and walnuts are usually stale.

Tuscan-style mixed veggies: available at Fry’s and Walmart.

Maple syrup: you can’t afford to buy it anywhere else. But it is, after all, a form of sugar. Although it’s one of the best sources of calcium around, one could probably do without it. Should probably do without it.

Booze: Total Wine charges the same and has a larger selection. And they have sommeliers who will steer you to the best of all possible $9 wines.

So we have the dog meat, the delicious (fresh!!) nuts in bulk, the tires, and the maple syrup. And the fact that by and large the produce they carry is superior to many grocery stores’ offerings.

Hm.

I wonder if my son and I could split a membership, claiming that we occupy the same household. We do own the house downtown in tandem. That would cut our respective costs to $60 apiece.

He was on my membership when he was a young pup, but now apparently they’re charging him as much as they’re charging me. I’ll have to ask him if he’d like to cancel whatever he’s got and throw in with me to get a cheaper deal.

Otherwise…if not…well… It may be time to say good-bye to Costco.

How much are you willing to pay for the privilege of shopping at Costco?