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GottaDEAL 2020 Black Friday Prize Club Posting Thread

Brad

By Brad
in 2020

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cinder

cinder

Posted
Posted (edited)

The snow has finally started to melt enough that patches of grass are poking thru. Come on Spring!

 

Been working from home for 3 weeks. Not too bad but I miss my work peeps. Like most companies, mine is taking a huge hit financially. They had to lay off 1/4 of the company which makes me so sad. Hope the end of this is in sight soon.

 

Hope everyone stays well.

Edited by cinder
  • Like 1
Bopeep

Bopeep

Posted
Posted

It's April, and Oklahoma can't decide if it wants to be winter or summer.  No spring allowed (until the tornadoes start). Yesterday, it was 90°. Next week it's supposed to be in the 20s.  Maybe the 20s will encourage people to stay home.  

 

I hope you and your families are all well. Stay safe!

  • Like 3
HanShotFirst

HanShotFirst

Posted
Posted

It's April, and Oklahoma can't decide if it wants to be winter or summer.  No spring allowed (until the tornadoes start). Yesterday, it was 90°. Next week it's supposed to be in the 20s.  Maybe the 20s will encourage people to stay home.  

 

I hope you and your families are all well. Stay safe!

Precisely why I’ve never bothered to put away winter or summer clothes.  They all just stay in my closet year round, whether there is room or not.  :)

  • Like 4
len_mullen

len_mullen

Posted
Posted

I ventured into the marketplace today.  We have four grocers within ten miles of my home.  I visited all but the closest (I can walk there when the sun comes out).  

 

At the first store, they had people lined up outside and only permitted people to enter as others left.  The girl who was managing the entrance stood between the doors so that she was never more than three feet from any person entering or exiting.  She had no mask or gloves.  While I was in line, a woman (dressed like a surgeon) walked right passed this girl into the store to grab a cart then walked to the back of the line walking within a foot of every person waiting in line.  Another guy walked right past the line -- just as close and completely uncovered -- and into the store.  The line moved quickly and people were in good spirits.  Someone was cleaning carts and offering them to entering patrons.  The store was well stocked.  While there were signs limiting most things, I saw one guy leave with a cart FULL of toilet paper.  I guess the limits were more of a suggestion.  The aisles were one way and traffic moved well.  I completed my list and moved on to the second store. 

 

That store did not manage entrance.  They focused on managing separation at the registers.  They had put plexiglass sneeze shields between the customer and cashier and plastic sheets over the controls on the kiosk customers use to manage payment.  Again, very well stocked. 

 

The third store was an Aldis.  Aldis is ALWAYS different.  Aldis has a system which requires customers to pay a quarter to release a cart then returns the quarter when the cart is returned.  Today, they had a guy cleaning and disengaging carts.  The store was well stocked.  There were no controls until you got to the register.  Some of the fresh items were out of stock, but eggs were still $1.19 and milk was still $2.59.  Almost business as usual.

 

It took a LONG time to complete my shopping, but I got almost everything on my list and the experience was very pleasant.

 

A lot of people are covering up.  I had an extended conversation with a man in what appeared to be a WWI vintage gas mask.  People entertain the crap out of me.  I am very proud of the behavior of people in my community.  

  • Like 4
Gator Pam

Gator Pam

Posted
Posted (edited)

Len, the first store sounds like a Kroger affiliate. Fred Meyer and QFC, the two Kroger affiliates I am aware of here, have instituted the same entrance limitations and the one way aisles.

 

The second store sounds like what our Albertsons/Safeway affiliates are doing.

 

We don't have Aldi's here, but I know many compare Aldi's to Trader Joe's. Our Trader Joe's is also managing the number of people in the store at one time.

 

Prices are holding steady at all of the stores, so far.

 

To encourage reusable bags, many communities instituted charges for using store bags. Currently, we are not allowed to use our reusable bags. But, we are told to enter 0 grocery store bags used at self checkout, even though we are now required to use them. I even asked if I could use my canvas bags as long as I bagged my own groceries, and was told I had to return my bags to my car before entering the store.

Edited by Gator Pam
  • Like 2
len_mullen

len_mullen

Posted
Posted

The first is a local chain -- Market Basket.  The second is an Albertsons/Safeway store -- Shaws.  The fourth store (the one I can walk to) is another local chain -- Hannaford.  Trader Joe's and Aldi's are owned by separate companies,  but have an interesting connection...

 

from https://www.thekitchn.com/aldi-trader-joes-parent-company-rumor-260999

 

 

Aldi began as a single grocery store in Germany in the early 1900s. Decades later, the owner’s two sons expanded the one family owned and operated store into a chain of hundreds. As with many family companies, the brothers eventually had a business disagreement and decided to split the company geographically into Aldi Nord (north) and Aldi Süd (South). The two companies both own and operate various Aldi’s across Europe and the United States, but do so separately.

Meanwhile, Trader Joe’s began as a convenience store in California in 1958. A decade later, more locations opened across the state. In 1979 Aldi Nord acquired all Trader Joe’s in the United States, but continued to let them “operate independently.” On the other hand, Aldi Süd is the parent company of Trader Joe’s in Europe and Aldi locations in the United States. (Bear with me: I had to map this out Beautiful Mind-style on a Post-It note and am still doing mental gymnastics.)
 
In short, these two (or is it three?) grocery chains aren’t technically in cahoots. Aldi Nord owns Trader Joe’s in the States, but the Aldi stores that you see in the States are run by Aldi Süd, which is separate from Trader Joe’s. The chains are kind of like estranged cousins. Step-brothers? In-laws? We don’t know! But it doesn’t matter because the stores are run entirely independently with no joint ownership.

 

All great retailers.  I have no desire to shop at a Warehouse or Club.  I get as good prices on better products in reasonable quantities. 

  • Like 1
len_mullen

len_mullen

Posted
Posted (edited)

No gouging here either.  I did notice eggs were going up (still $1.19 at Aldi's).  

 

Reusable bags are gross  :yuck:.  In New Hampshire, there has been no effort to ban plastic bags and stores provide paper bags as an alternative -- all free.  My plastic bags are re-used to line the small trash cans in bathrooms and bedrooms.  Keeps the cans clean without the need to ship a new bag from China every time I dump the trash.  I also use them to bag kitchen waste so that I do not have to dump that can as often (more bags not shipped from China).

 

Of course the ecological impact of washing a reusable bag after each use is greater than the impact of using the (recycled) plastic bags.  

Edited by len_mullen
  • Like 1
Kanyon71

Kanyon71

Posted
Posted

It's April, and Oklahoma can't decide if it wants to be winter or summer. No spring allowed (until the tornadoes start). Yesterday, it was 90°. Next week it's supposed to be in the 20s. Maybe the 20s will encourage people to stay home.

 

I hope you and your families are all well. Stay safe!

Same here. Wednesday it was above 70 last night when I was taking the dog out it was snowing. WTH?
len_mullen

len_mullen

Posted
Posted

This article sounds like nonsense to me.  It talks about the rise in demand at a time when restaurants and cafeterias are not selling very much at all.  The article blames transportation costs when fuel prices have plunged >30%.  Certainly, hoarding has contributed to a momentary price increase, but it sounds like the Egg Cartel is gouging a bit too.

 

from https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2020-04-08/egg-prices-rising-coronavirus

 

 

On March 2, the Urner Barry wholesale benchmark for a dozen conventional California shell eggs was $1.55. By March 27, the benchmark had risen to $3.66, where it remained for several days before decreasing slightly to $3.26, as of Friday.

Agricultural experts describe the price increase as a lesson in supply and demand. There’s only a fixed number of eggs available on any given day — you can’t squeeze an unlimited number of eggs out of a chicken, and it can take months to buy more hens and build more coops for them. In the meantime, shoppers are buying extra cartons as they aim to limit grocery runs during the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
 
Some retailers have purchased double or even six times their usual orders of eggs, said Brian Moscogiuri, a director at Urner Barry and an analyst covering the egg and egg product markets. To try to keep eggs in stock, some stores posted limits on the number of egg cartons customers could buy.
 
“There’s a question there,” Papalexis said. “Why would they have to raise their rates?”

Laws prohibit price-gouging in California during a declared state of emergency, capping price increases for essential goods at 10% compared with their pre-crisis costs. Exemptions, however, exist should the cost of a product increase along the supply chain — to compensate should shipping or labor costs rise.
 
The rules are hard to enforce, said Diana Winters, assistant director of the Resnick Center for Food Law and Policy at the UCLA School of Law.
The state attorney general’s office relies on consumer complaints to ensure essential items, such as food, don’t exceed that 10% price-gain cap, she said.
Prices for eggs certainly have risen more than 10% in many markets, but it’s hard to gauge all of the factors that might contribute to that increase, Winters said. For example, restaurant closures could mean egg producers need to divert their supply to grocers, and that change in distribution and additional packaging comes with a cost.

“Eggs are naturally, very often, one of the most price variable products in the supermarket,” said Daniel Sumner, UC Davis professor of agricultural economics and director of the UC Agricultural Issues Center.

Jesse Laflamme, chief executive of New Hampshire-based Pete and Gerry’s Organic Eggs, said his freight costs have gone up since the coronavirus pandemic because there are not enough refrigerated trucks to transport all of the fresh goods now in high demand.

His company has also slowed its egg packaging equipment and spaced people out to comply with social distancing directives. The company chose to absorb the extra costs rather than increase prices. Its eggs are not priced on the wholesale egg market.

“It may take longer to get back to normal for the egg business,” he said. “We can build supply, but it takes a few months.”

 

 

At the same time, dairy farmers are dumping milk on the ground rather than suffer market rates...

 

https://vtdigger.org/2020/04/09/vermont-farms-dump-60000-gallons-of-milk-since-beginning-of-april/

https://nypost.com/2020/04/06/dairy-farms-dump-milk-as-coronavirus-crisis-spoils-demand/

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-02/farmers-are-dumping-milk-in-latest-blow-to-battered-u-s-dairy

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-breaking/2020/04/07/dairy-farms-dumping-milk-due-decrease-sales-during-coronavirus/2961876001/

https://modernfarmer.com/2020/04/dairy-farmers-are-dumping-huge-amounts-of-milk/

 

from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-dairy-insight/u-s-dairy-farmers-dump-milk-as-pandemic-upends-food-markets-idUSKBN21L1DW

 

“We need you to start dumping your milk,” said his contact from Dairy Farmers of America (DFA), the largest U.S. dairy cooperative.
  • Like 1
ilikefree

ilikefree

Posted
Posted

This article sounds like nonsense to me.  It talks about the rise in demand at a time when restaurants and cafeterias are not selling very much at all.  The article blames transportation costs when fuel prices have plunged >30%.  Certainly, hoarding has contributed to a momentary price increase, but it sounds like the Egg Cartel is gouging a bit too.

 

from https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2020-04-08/egg-prices-rising-coronavirus

 

 

 

At the same time, dairy farmers are dumping milk on the ground rather than suffer market rates...

 

https://vtdigger.org/2020/04/09/vermont-farms-dump-60000-gallons-of-milk-since-beginning-of-april/

https://nypost.com/2020/04/06/dairy-farms-dump-milk-as-coronavirus-crisis-spoils-demand/

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-02/farmers-are-dumping-milk-in-latest-blow-to-battered-u-s-dairy

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-breaking/2020/04/07/dairy-farms-dumping-milk-due-decrease-sales-during-coronavirus/2961876001/

https://modernfarmer.com/2020/04/dairy-farmers-are-dumping-huge-amounts-of-milk/

 

from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-dairy-insight/u-s-dairy-farmers-dump-milk-as-pandemic-upends-food-markets-idUSKBN21L1DW

I work in our school's cafeteria and we've been putting together breakfast and lunch bags for the students. Parents have to sign their children up by Friday mornings and pick up is Monday. Two weeks ago we had families sign up for 125 students. BUT, 20 or so didn't pick them up! We worry about the kids at this time, wonder whether they're eating or what they're eating, then we have this. It just makes me sad.

  • Like 1
len_mullen

len_mullen

Posted
Posted

I work in our school's cafeteria and we've been putting together breakfast and lunch bags for the students. Parents have to sign their children up by Friday mornings and pick up is Monday. Two weeks ago we had families sign up for 125 students. BUT, 20 or so didn't pick them up! We worry about the kids at this time, wonder whether they're eating or what they're eating, then we have this. It just makes me sad.

 

Let's hope the people who did not show up did not need the meals.  Sometimes people just sign up for all the free stuff.  I am a strong supporter of farmers, but I am also saddened by the possibility that people would spoil food rather than sell it below the asking price.  If it sounds like I am union bashing, I cannot defend myself against the charge.

  • Like 1
rockpzazz

rockpzazz

Posted
Posted

Hope everyone had a great Easter, or as least  as good of one as possible.  Mine wasn't too special, but I don't think it would have been too different otherwise.  Too bad I won't be able to get out to get some after Easter deals though.

ilikefree

ilikefree

Posted
Posted

We had close to 70 degrees last week & had windows open. Yesterday we had a few flurries. Depending on which news channel/website you look at, we could see anywhere from less than an inch to 4 inches tomorrow. Our trees and flowers are coming to life and are going to wonder what's going on.

  • Like 1
magickallight

magickallight

Posted
Posted

We actually got into the high 40's last night - but headed back for the 80's and then some. :(  I should be out tending to the garden that I didn't get to plant because of the virus coming to town. :( Oh, well - at least we are safely tucked away. :)

wittenlover

wittenlover

Posted
Posted

Celebrated another trip around the sun alone on Tuesday. Oof. Not how I was hoping to spend my birthday this year but such is life.

Ordered takeout from my favorite local BBQ place for dinner that night, tried not to dwell on the “alone” part as much.

Still healthy, though, so I am thankful for that.

  • Like 3
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