I am not the world's best bargain shopper, by any stretch of the imagination. I pay attention to prices to a certain extent, but I don't have time to clip coupons (and have found that they don't save me money because they aren't for things I normally buy). I don't take time to look at sale papers, design my menus around what is on sale, or shop multiple stores to get the best deal.In my life, all this is simply too much effort for not enough reward.
I also do not complain much about my grocery shopping experiences to stores. I know some people make big deals about every little thing -- I've heard them. I prefer to get in, get out, and get back to living. (Why is it that no matter how long or short my shopping list, it always take at least an hour to do the shopping?)
Yesterday, however, I encountered something that I can only describe as obscene. I was shopping for ingredients for a ladies' luncheon I'm cooking for on Saturday. I needed one red onion, so I picked one up. Down the island a ways were the bags of onions, 3lb and 5lb bags. That's what I usually buy for our family, and I know that they are usually $3-4 per 3lb bag.
When I got to the checkout, I used the self-checkout lane. I was watching the prices as they rang up, since I'm shopping within a budget.
When I rang up the onion, the checkout computer identified it as a peeled red onion, weighing 1.3 lbs (and that was a small one!), and charged me $2.69 a pound for a total of over $3!
THREE DOLLARS FOR ONE RED ONION????
I raised a ruckus.
I grow vegetables. I have grown onions before. They are nothing special -- the starts are cheap and they take no special care. Red onions are like red grapes - slightly different taste than their yellow counterparts, but not worth paying 3 times more for! I just hope that farmer is getting at least half of the major profit they are making charging that kind of price for something that took pennies to grow.
One of the guys there asked me how much I'd pay for the onion, and I said 60 cents or so. I told him that I could get a 3lb bag of onions for three bucks.
They finally asked me if I would be willing to pay $1.50 for it. I agreed, since even if a 3lb bag was $4, this 1-lb+ onion would cost me more than a dollar.
So ladies, savour that red onion in your salad. I went to the mat for it!
