To date I have never pre-ordered a grocery order. I enjoy looking for clearance items to stretch the family budget.
Recently, I checked the meat counter for ground beef. I did not find any. I only found three packages with two thick steaks in each package. I glanced at the price remembering the time I found steak at 75 percent off. I bought and stored those steaks in the large freezer we purchased years ago when we gardened and preserved fruits and vegetables. After I lost interest in doing all that work, I began bargain hunting. So finding three packages of steaks (about 14 pounds total) caught my eye. I quickly checked to see if it was a good price.
It was not a good price.
The original price was about $40 per package. Because it was a sale item that week, it cost about $18 the previous day. In the clearance section the discount is typically 50% off. Sounds good, except the price the day before, at $18, it had been more than 50% off.
So now it cost $20 instead of $18? Also, the clearance sticker price, clearly stated “$2 per pound.” That’s a fantastic price reduction from the original price of over $8 a pound. The final clearance price should have been less than $10, not $20.
This did not make sense. Why put something in the clearance section and make it cost more than today’s freshly just-cut packages four feet down the counter?
I called a staff member over. “Look, it says $2 a pound. It weighs 4.5 pounds. That multiplies out to $9. So why is it labeled for $20?”
She went to ask the meat manager. He came out and said, “I can’t change it. That is the way the program is set up at headquarters. We cut, label and re-label but we cannot change the pricing.”
I shrugged and put the tray of meat back in the cooler. “That’s okay. I just thought I would point it out. I won’t buy it at that price, but I am sure there is someone who does not read that labels who will buy it and never notice that it cost more on clearance than it did yesterday.”
I pushed my cart away and picked up another item or two.
It bugged me. I turned around, went back and picked up one package that I carried to a manger. I went through the same conversation. “This is supposed to be $2 a pound, and yet it reads more than twice that at $20 for the package. I am not planning on buying it at that price. I just thought I would point out to management that the computerized system has a glitch.”
She talked it over with the meat manager. He repeated the company’s restrictions. After he left, she turned to me and said, “I will sell it for $2 a pound.”
‘“Oh. In that case, I will buy all three packages” I said, picked up the remaining two and went to check out.
I had only brought in one cloth bag. The man asked, “should I put rest in plastic bags?”
“Sure. I did not plan to buy this much.”
It took a bit for the clerk to manipulate the cash register, but I left that day with about 14 pounds of steak. At home, hubby and I repackaged the meat and slid them into the freezer. We are set for winter. From previous discounted finds, the deep freeze already has a bountiful catch of fish, stacks of packaged ham slices and heaps of frozen fruits and vegetables that cost less than a summer in the garden. I am ready to be snowed in for at least a week, if not for a month.