Supermarkets are profit-making enterprises and near thieves. They are not there for your convenience they are in existence only for the owners’ profit.
Witness how it is done.
In the flower section, prices are set by what the buyer will pay, not by the value of the bunch. Thus, children will find themselves paying $2 or $3 a rose stem on the days before mother’s day whereas a bunch of roses in any other period can’t merit more than $12.99 for a dozen. Children don’t buy flowers on other days so they don’t know how much they are being cheated. It is criminal.
In the vegetable section, the advent of organic’ produce has given the super-market a chance to harvest extra profit from gullible buyers who believe that the word organic’ is somehow a mark of value or health. Supermarkets place organic’ goods where they first meet the eye. The banana stand in our super-market is a mountain with organic’ bananas visibly in front and 49-cents-a-pound quality bananas out of sight behind. The same applies to soft fruits and all manner of vegetables. One has to penetrate beyond the word organic’ to reach reasonably priced produce and one has to dispose of the large amounts of useless greens attached to leeks and carrots before weighing them at check out to avoid buying garbage.
In the cheese section, you should read the price-per-pound very carefully. A good Danish blue, for example, costs $9 a pound but if you buy the blue cheeses up front you will be paying $19 to $27 dollars a pound. You can imagine what your user-friendly supermarket is making on those prices.
In the bread and pastry section, take care to read the sell-by dates. Bread should never be bought two days after it was baked. That is sheer one-hundred-percent profit to the store because the prices are based on selling fresh. A stale item is worthless in the accounting system.
In all the other food aisles, cosmetic aisles, packaging aisles, confectionary aisles, you will find the super-market’s own brand placed among quality brands in look-alike packaging, cans and bottles, so that an unperceptive shopper will not see the difference. If you buy a supermarket unqualified brand you are putting money directly into the owners’ pockets without getting value for your money.
Then, beware the sales gimmicks. High-priced articles are placed low on the shelves, within view of small children, to persuade children to add items to their mother’s cart. It’s difficult to refuse your four-year-old when he has found an item.
If you want to avoid being taken, treat your friendly super-market as a potential thief and watch for the tricks the store will play.