Pays to Shop Around…

Yesterday I needed to buy some new dog food for the Ruby-Doo, she suffering from allergies and now needing foods whose contents can be verified. I’d discovered that the exceptionally fancy stuff peddled at Whole Foods and PetSmart could be had for much cheaper at the Fry’s Supermarket in Richistan, and had thought after the doctor’s appointment I’d traipse up to Paradise Valley and restock that stuff.

In fact, since the next surgery takes place in a week and we’re running low on dog food in general, what I really wanted to do was buy enough to carry the dogs through to surgery day and about a week beyond it, since I know very well I’m not going to feel like driving around and I’m not going to feel like cooking, grinding, and mixing real food for the dogs. But yesterday I had a lot of errands to run and work to do, and after spending close to two hours chatting with a high-powered oncologist, I really truly did NOT want to drive way to hell and gone to Paradise Valley. There’s a mid-range Fry’s and a PetSmart near the mid-town Whole Foods & Trader Joe’s I frequent, and so I figured I’d run into that Fry’s and see if it carried the coveted dog food. Failing that, I’d check the PetSmart, and failing that, I’d pick up the stuff at the Whole Foods along with the human food items I coveted.

So after bouncing to the three other places I had to go, along about 1:30 or 2:00 p.m. I surfaced in the Fry’s at 20th Street and Camelback.

No. They did not have the fancy rolls of fresh unadulterated dog food.

So I walked across the parking lot to the PetSmart.

They wanted $27.99 per five-pound roll. TWENTY-EIGHT DOLLARS for the same damn thing I’d paid $12.99 for the day before!

Out the door and across the street to the Whole Foods.

Yes, I remember correctly: Whole Foods charges $19.99 for the product. Bought one roll to tide us over, since we were about out.

So today it was out to Tatum and Shea, thereinat to run several more errands. While there, I went into the now-famous Whole Foods on Steroids, where yea verily! We find exactly the same product for $12.99.

Heh. Think of that. We’re looking at prices for the same product, same brand, same amount, that range from $13/package to $20/package to $28/package.

And Petsmart charges $8.00 more than Whole Foods (!!!!!!!) and TWICE AS MUCH as a local grocery store! A pretentious grocery store that gives itself airs and locates itself in Scottsdale, a place where men are millionaires and women think they own the roads.

Petsmart. What a freaking rip-off agency. I will never buy anything there again.

My son buys a fancy kibble for Charley the Golden Retriever. He’s taken to buying it at a tack & feed store, because he gets it for a better price there. But one day when he and I were driving back from the Mayo, we spotted a tony-looking upscale pet boutique in the depths of darkest Richistan. For some reason we decided to stop in — as I recall, there was some exotic item he hoped to find there.

What he found was his fancy kibble: for significantly less than even the tack and feed shop was charging.

So. Look around. And don’t be afraid to look in unlikely spots — the best price may not be had at the most obvious retailers.

Speaking of places that cost your whole paycheck, yesterday at Costco I got gasoline for $2.79 a gallon!!!

A fill-up cost $25 and change.

Haven’t filled up the gas tank for under forty bucks in years.

🙂