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Can I help you?
Can I help you?
Can I help you?
Can I help you?
(C) (I assume) World Entertainment War / Rob Brezsny
I Know How to Shop
Since I moved first to New Jersey and then to Arizona, both many years ago, I have developed important shopping skills. I recognize common fruits and vegetables and can almost always identify the best price-per-ounce despite the manic obfuscation of the packaging. I even know how to get the purchased items home with a minimum of damage and meltage. Yesterday I shopped at Costco and Walmart. The song quoted above was a dream—it says so in the song itself—which relates a store experience in South Africa. Given my most recent petulant blogitem, one might expect me to describe the irritations and unpleasantries attendant upon this shopping experience. But NO! What a difference two hemispheres make!
I don't love Walmart, but there are a handful of specific items for which it is indispensable. Walmart-suppplied caramel, peanut butter, and milk chocolate fill the M jar to the brim, with the help of interstices occupied by chocolate chips. Twizzlers satisfy Carin's sweet tooth. Not to mention the occasional, forgettable and disposable holiday gewgaws. Oh yes, bottled Dasani water.
I do love Costco! And yesterday it reciprocated. I had a list and was shopping at an unfamiliar Costco location. Although there was an uncharacteristic lack of potato chips and they seemed to have abandoned sales of their Kirkland brand chocolate chips in favor of Nestle, I otherwise exhausted my list, paid, and went out to the car.
Perhaps I appeared to be struggling; the car trunk was pre-burdened with cases of Dasani water and contained a very large cardboard box that was partially filled. As I was putting the proceeds of my expedition in the trunk, four people stopped and inquired: CAN I HELP YOU? After issuing my potted response—"it's not at all clear that I can be helped" or some variation—I declined their assistance. But I had to put to them: "You must be what we call 'young people' and it's very kind of you to offer to help." They demurred with the declaration that they were "good people." (My observation: They were also young people.)
When I got to my destination and was bringing my booty inside, yet another young person put me to the question: CAN I HELP YOU? Five people had offered to help me! And this doesn't include the sales help I found inside the Costco, the provider of which told me the butter is to be found in a separate room!
Do I emit a "Yikes" as my (hopefully) robust self appears increasingly superannuated? Do I have to appreciate "young people" for new reasons? There are so many surprises as one ages, some of them good!
The Mystery of Ice Cream Pricing Fluctuations at Retail Stores
Q: Richard, it almost sounds as you've written a heading that reflects the subject matter to which it refers!
A: Was that a question? If so, you're correct!
Given my penchant for things electrical, e.g., solar power, large batteries, and generators, you might guess that one of my goals is to prevent my ice cream from melting. (I've also written those very words, so it's not much of a guess.) Given my ability to shop (see above), it would be reasonable to assume I have and keep ice cream in my 'fridge. And, yes, it gets consumed a a regular if not prodigious rate, which requires its replacement. Consider the refrigerator as an ice cream buffer. It gets replenished episodically, and depleted more frequently in much smaller quantities. "Streamed" if you will. Which brings me to the issue of the cost of ice cream replenishment, and a plea for help.
Consider "products." Companies make them, companies sell them. Essentially all products have two major aspects that affect their selling price.
- Development: It's all the research, software writing, endless meetings, testing, etc.
- Manufacturing: Buying parts or ingredients, assembly, packaging, shipping, etc.
The first category applies largely to "software" and the second to "hardware." When you buy a software product, it can be priced almost anywhere, from "what the traffic will bear" to "free." But when you buy a thing (or, collectively, stuff), there are real costs associated with each individual item. If you price that product too cheaply, you'll lose a fortune; if too high, people will scrutinize its parts, ingredients, etc., and decide it's too expensive, and you'll lose a fortune.
The Ice Cream Conundrum
Ice cream, which falls in the second category, seems to defy rationality in pricing! Using the two brands I usually purchase as examples, Ben & Jerry's and Häagen-Dazs, we find that the price varies substantially with location, vendor, and time:
- Random small grocery in New York City: $8.99/pint
- Almost weekly sale at either Basha's or Shoprite in Sedona: sometimes as low as $1.99/pint
- Routine price at various supermarkets, Walmart, and other vendors: $3.99 to $6.99/pint
Ice cream is a product made of matter, not of software bits. Each pint container must be delivered to its place of purveyance in a refrigerated vehicle. In other words, it is produced by manufacturing, which means the price is constrained by reality.
But Wait! There's More and Less!
When ice cream is on sale, you can't just walk into the store and buy a pint. The freezer cases usually bear signs:
- Must buy 2
- Must buy 4
- Must buy multiples of 2
- Limit of 4
- Limit of 2
If I were of a conspiratorial mind, I might think that the cashier's register is programmed to charge full price unless the stricture-of-the-day is obeyed. I've never tested it just in case I'm right. But still, after the above preamble, I'm left with two questions. I solicit the help of anyone who can make sense of this to answer the following questions:
- How can stores either afford to sell a $9 product for $2, or, conversely, how can they get away with selling a $2 product for $9?
- What's the point of the quantity requirements and/or limitations? Why, for example, can't I buy three pints at the discounted price?
Thanks! Please send me an email if you think you know the answer!
* This is one of my rare, almost asterisk-free blogitems. |
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