Pretty much all of us end up going to the supermarket or grocery store on a regular basis.

For those of us whose lives revolve around maintaining a pretty tight and narrow budget, "pricewatching" is a pretty essential part of life... especially in this day and age of growing inflation.

In our area — somewhat out-in-the-middle-of-nowhere, Washington state — grocery choices as somewhat limited, in the sense that our local markets are essentially owned by two chains, regardless of what their storefront might say.

The supermarkets — either part of Kroger or Albertsons — have previously gotten into some trouble with our state attorney general for "playing games" with their pricing, in a deceptive way.

In fact, earlier this year we got a $120 refund check from the state attorney general in settlement of a class action suit brought over the pricing of meats... and particularly chicken.

Even though they have been "caught with their hand in the cookie jar," deceptive practices continue.

Safeway (part of Albertsons) have a gimmick going where you can allegedly save by purchasing four packages of meats/prepared dinners from a special section of the cooler... and get them for "just $20."

On the surface, it looks pretty good... and like you can actually save $15-20 over the individual prices.

But the sketchy bit is that you can often find the identical items away from the special deal section, market with a lower base price. So the $9 package of chicken breasts that you get for $5 if you buy four of them, is actually $5, somewhere else in the store!

Of course, their "defense" is that it's not the same thing, because there's a pat of herb butter in one package and not the other, or maybe a couple of green beans. But you don't need a degree in rocket science to be able to tell that it's basically the same thing.

In the last week alone, I have become aware of something more nefarious.

While at Safeway before the weekend, there was one of those "special displays" made of cardboard at the end of one of the aisles, offering flavored pretzel chips at "2 bags for $7.00," or so it would seem, according to the signage on the display.

But when I got to the checkout, they were $8.95 each.

Rather than going through a lot of hassles during a busy time of the day, I just told the checker to void the sale.

It happened again yesterday, with a different item, but the same type of display. The big boxes of "goldfish" snacks, for $3.50 each. In a display, with a sign reading $3.50.

But when I checked out, they rung up at $11.99, "on sale" for $9.99. This time, I pointed out that they "didn't match" the display so a runner was sent to do a price check... which took about 400 years because he couldn't find his way around the store... and he came back, saying the price was $9.99... because he had finally found the package on the shelf by the crackers, not the special end display.

As the clock had already ticked off a bunch of time, I asked for the sale to be voided again, and moved on in a state of annoyance.

Next time, I'm going to take a picture!

Now, what is likely the case here is that those displays have the pricing sign for a much smaller package of the same product, but much larger packages... and the store is counting on 50+% of people not paying attention/noticing the higher price, or not noticing the price till they are home again... at which point it becomes "too much trouble" to return to the store and complain.

And the store's "defense" — if actually caught by someone who refuses to give up making a point — will be that "OMG, someone put the wrong ones on the display! We're so sorry!"

We've all heard of "greedflation," and "shrinkflation," but I'm not sure what kind of flation we're dealing with, here!

Regardless, it's important to keep your eyes open... and "paranoid" as it sounds, when I state this: Trust Noone!"

Which is really kind of a shameful reflection on our world, that even daily menial things like grocery shopping have become subject to active consumer deception schemes!

I'm not going to argue with store, if this comes up again... I'm simply going to document each case, and then submit that documentation to the Attorney General's office and let them deal with it. Or not.

Till the next time, thanks for reading!

=^..=