Prices

[SueDonim]

I did the shopping yesterday.

For fuel prices, on the way I passed Z at about $2.90 and over $3.00 if you don't subscribe to whatever their deal is (I don't, so I don't know), Gull was $2.847, Waitomo was $2.759 and I filled the car at PaknSave at $2.691 with their shopping voucher. Gull is still the cheapest option in town, but if you have any need to drive the 15kms to the real shopping centre, then fuel is far cheaper.

I had a reason to go to the Warehouse and made a point of checking out grocery prices while there. The 2 litre milk ($3.00) and 500gm butter ($4.30) were good deals but they were the only ones. More than half of what was on offer were products that I would simply never buy at any price (eg biscuits, chips, etc) and for those categories that I do purchase, the items were all 50c to $2 too much. OK if you would have to travel elsewhere to buy them cheaper, but in this case I was on my way to PnS anyway. One thing I noted was odd sizing - the 1.8 litre of laundry liquid was $16, the same as the same-branded product at PnS where $16 buys 2 litres.

So I bought milk and butter then went off to PnS as planned for the rest, before making good use of the fuel discount. So far the Warehouse is not looking promising for competition in the grocery trade.

On another subject, I'm frustrrated by the fact that I would like to buy pastry rather than spend time making it. I don't buy preservative (for health reasons) nor palm oil (for environmental reasons) and those two factors leave me back to having to make it. Pure laziness I know but it seems ridiculous that straight unadulterated pastry seems to be difficult to find.

[zqwerty]

Yes the supermarket rip-off places should be regulated because the nonsense competition theory is not working at keeping prices down.

The corporates need reigning in and emasculation. They need to be forced to be good citizens because they won't do it on their own.

I can't be bothered with all the silly shopping around to find the cheapest prices, I just want to buy products from wherever at a price that gives them the ability to run the business and carry on, and pay their costs and wages to staff, after all retailing products such as they do is not rocket science, it is a mundane enterprise and should be paid accordingly, at the moment these essential goods suppliers are holding us consumers to ransom.

Whatever happened to cost plus 30%?

Ah, that's right we are following the silly American way of running businesses, maximise profits at all costs and believe that competition will keep prices down. LOL what nonsense.

[Olive]

Pastry: unadulterated convenience foods of any kind are rare. The big food manufacturers don't care about the health of their consumers, only about the profit they make by selling ultra-processed rubbish. I don't eat wheat these days, but I used to make short pastry using a food processor and it was very easy to make, probably no more trouble than buying a block, thawing it and disposing of the packaging.

(Don't get me started on food additives...)

I've had a look around our small local Warehouse and I agree, the groceries are largely junk foods that I would never buy, plus cheap milk that I also don't buy. We did buy some "Finish" dishwasher tabs there a while ago and they were either fakes or some kind of parallel import, we ended up throwing most of them away because they didn't get the dishes properly clean.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

But hey, we don't have kids, and junk food is very much their territory...

[Olive]

Not in my local supermarket! Lots of oldies with trolleys full of extruded "snacks", soft drinks, cakes from the in-house bakery with three dozen ingredients, "meal bars" full of sugar and additives. I often hear old people boasting that they don't cook any more.

[Lilith7]

I'd love to not cook any more - if it wasn't for all that stuff in processed foods.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

I go through periods of not cooking. But I have a freezer full of yummies to cover those periods. And now summer is here, cold meat and salad is heaven. And easy.

[Lilith7]

I go through periods of not cooking. But I have a freezer full of yummies to cover those periods. And now summer is here, cold meat and salad is heaven. And easy.

Yep, some evenings if I've been busy or just can't be bothered I really like a tomato sandwich (on rye bread) & fruit & ice cream for dessert. Yum. Wish those tomatoes would hurry up.