When you can buy something for half price, why wouldn't you?
We have two Walmarts in our town - a "supercenter" and a "neighborhood market" - or as we call it, "The Ghetto Gourmet" as it is on the corner of MLK and "Community" boulevards, right across the street from the check-cashing stores, the payday loan places, the rent-to-own furniture shop, the rent-to-own bling rim store, and the buy-here-pay-here used car dealer.
Odd, isn't it? The best prices in town on food are across the street from the most horrendous deals imaginable. Poor people shop aggressively on food and gasoline - but basically drop the ball on big-ticket items.
But I digress.
We also have a Sam's club, which is an interesting place and took some getting used to, coming from BJ's Wholesale and Costco. It is a distinctly different vibe. All three places have a gas station, too. Sam's club sells enormous hot dogs with a soft drink for $1.32 - the best bargain in terms of price (but not health, of course) in town. At least take a pass on the HFCS and go for the "unsweetened" tea.
I have friends who refuse to set forth in Walmart because of politics. "The Walton family is a bunch of Republicans!" they say - as if that alone is a damning condemnation. Very few grocery chains are owned by liberal Democrats. Don't even ask about the founders of Publix!
"They don't pay their employees fairly!" they also argue - but for some reason, Walmart has no trouble attracting scores of employees (indeed, by some counts, one of, if not the, world's largest private employer). If the pay was so lousy, wouldn't people work elsewhere, particularly in a time of "labor shortage?" Or is that over already?
I try to explain to my friends that the prices at these places are a lot less, but they will hear none of it. Maybe they drive by and see that the "Murphy" gasoline is only a few pennies less than the Texaco across the street, and assume that is the extent of the bargains inside as well. But the reality is, you are easily paying double or more, for groceries and other goods, at other retail outlets.
A recent trip to Winn-Dixie drove home this point. I had to go to the storage shed to show the trailer to the RV repair guy to get an estimate on some repairs after the sideswiping incident. Since the Winn-Dixie is nearby, Mark asked me to stop by to "get a few things" like half-and-half, hamburger buns (which we use for our breakfast sandwiches). I was appalled at the prices.
To begin with, Winn Dixie uses these BOGO deals as well as customer loyalty programs, so you never really know the price of something until you check out. And most people don't keep prices in their heads. If you go to Sam's Club, they have a huge selection of fruits and berries. A whole big box of strawberries is like $5. For a tiny container at Winn-Dixie, it is four bucks - at least double the cost-per-pound than at Sam's club.
And so on down the line. A huge bag of spinach (which you can and should put in everything fomr pizza to scrambled eggs to soup to salad to whatever!) at Sam's Club is four bucks. A bag 1/4 the size at Winn-Dixie is.... four bucks. Hamburger buns at Walmart were 88 cents for eight for the longest time. Now they are $1.11 or more. At Winn-Dixie? $1.99 - nearly double the cost at Walmart or Sam's Club.
So why do people shop at these places? For some, it is convenience. You live nearby, you can walk to the store or take a short drive. Going to the wholesale club or the Supercenter is a big outing for a lot of people (and the highlight of the week for many of the poor). I went to the Winn-Dixie only because it was nearby. So the prices are higher because it is convenient - just like 7-11 charges obscene prices because you just want to "drop in and grab something" and not make a big deal shopping trip out of it.
But over time, doubling your grocery bill is going to cost you a lot of money. I noted before that we spend several hundred a month on groceries as it is - imagine doubling that to over a thousand dollars!
And yet, there are other stores that cost even more - Mark used to run one! Whole Foods, Harris Teeter, and so on and so forth, cater to wealthier clientele (or people who think they are wealthy or want others to think that). I kid you not about the latter - When Mark managed the Sutton Place Gourmet in Old Town, people would come in and ask for their logo bags (heavy white paper bags with the little string handles, with the Sutton Place Gourmet logo and artichoke plastered across the front) even if they didn't buy anything there. And like with a Starbucks cup, people always - always - carried the bag with the logo facing out. Who's going to be impressed if they don't know you spend money like you don't care?
So, once again, status rears its ugly head. And people use the canard that they won't shop at Walmart because of political issues or because of "the workers" or whatever, when the real reason is status, not politics. If these Karens really cared about "the workers" they wouldn't scream at them all the time - right? I mean, you can't have it both ways.
Funny thing, I try to be nice to Walmart employees, simply because it isn't the greatest job in the world, and no one is paying them to take shit from customers. Maybe that is the ultimate reason people shop at "upscale" grocery stores - they feel since they paid more, they have the privilege of abusing the staff.
And I kid you not about this. I have a friend who regularly causes trouble in stores and restaurants (to the point of being banned from more than one). Their argument is that "since I'm the customer and I'm paying, everything should be just the way I like it." But life doesn't work that way. And being mean to lowly staff (who can't fight back for fear of losing their jobs) is just being mean.
But I digress.
The title of the blog is "Living Stingy" not "showing off to impress people you don't know" or "making stupid decisions with your money." When one merchant offers goods at half the price or less than another merchant, well, it certainly bears checking it out, at least.
The savings are not trivial.
As for the politics? For some reason, even though liberals have "boycotted" Walmart, it remains in business to this very day. For the most part, boycotts don't work (take note, former Bud Light drinkers!). Unless you can put a serious dent in their sales, it simply doesn't work. I am not sure anyone is saving the planet or changing the political landscape by paying too much for groceries or changing lite beer brands (particularly to Coors Light, which has been very vocal about supporting Gay Pride events for decades now). You might as well leave politics out of it.
Funny thing, though, our local Michael's had a huge display of "Gay Pride" merchandise, which was on sale for over 50% off, as rural Georgia isn't exactly the place for a Gay Pride parade. But Michael's didn't seem to think there would be a backlash if they sold such merchandise - they go where the money is, no doubt. And Michael's is still in business, too.
Funny how that works - most people shop on price and quality, not on politics.
