Category Archives: Walmart shopping

shopping, Uncategorized, Walmart shopping

Why Has Buying Things Become So Frustrating And Confusing?

I switched my grocery shopping to Aldi some years ago and haven’t looked back.  However, Aldi doesn’t carry everything I need, so I occasionally shop elsewhere.  Those other trips have become a progressive nightmare and an exercise in exhaustion as every purchase requires an “evaluation” for price, quality, and deception.

Our town’s mid-level grocery chain is Jewel/Osco. It was a local company, but it has been sold and is now owned by Albertsons, which also owns Safeway, Vons, and Shaw’s, among many others.

I have been burned so many times at Jewel that I believe their practices border on deception.  It is one of those stores where the receipt proudly announces, “You saved 20% today!”  but I still leave the store with a lighter wallet and little to show for it.  I understand that Jewel is a full-service grocer and part of their costs include stocking multiple versions of the same product type, many specialty departments, and scads of employees.  Yet, that still doesn’t justify the fact that simple items, like Comet powdered cleanser, can be three times more expensive than the same item at Walmart. 

However, what concerns me the most is the convoluted and draconian way that their sales run. I still haven’t cracked the code. Some sale prices are available for all, others require that I tap in a phone number at checkout, and still others require that I preselect the item using their shopping app.  

I have been burned so many times by this insane system that I feel a sense of dread when I have to go there to pick up an item that I can’t get at Aldi.  I recently went to Jewel to buy a spice; since I was there, I browsed the sales.  Home Run Inn frozen pizza was on a big sale.  It was typically around $10, but on sale for around $6.  That sounded like a 40% savings!  However, Walmart and Aldi’s normal price was similar to Jewel’s sale price.  I passed on the pizza. 

I also passed on the sale-priced Milk. When I read the small print, I had to buy two gallons of milk, way too much for our needs. I wondered how many didn’t read the fine print, believing that their single gallon was on sale, only to be disappointed when they got home and checked their receipt. That is, if they checked their receipt, as most probably don’t. 

My eye caught some fruit on sale.  Strawberries and blueberries were being sold at a good price.  I picked up both.  I went to the meat counter and found several “buy one and get one free” items.  I have been burned on these in the past, as it seems that Jewel will often place a similar item next to the sale item, making it very easy to pick up the wrong item.  Additionally, I have discounted items that would ring up at self-checkout at the regular price, and the attendant had to enter a code to get me the discount.

On this trip, I spied some BOGO pork chops.  I read the sign carefully, noting that another pork product was next to the sale items.  I matched the pork chops with the sale sign, feeling good that I had selected the correct item. I also ensured I went to a cashier to avoid other issues.  When I got home I realized that I screwed up.  I did get the strawberries on sale, but the blueberries were at full price.  I was supposed to use the Jewel app and click on an electronic coupon for the blueberries.  I also got charged for both packs of pork chops, and I honestly have no idea why.  Yes, I could have been more vigilant during checkout, but I was in a hurry and thought I had done everything correctly, only to find that the system was so convoluted that I had done many things wrong. Grocery shopping should be a straightforward experience, not a master class in proofreading. 

I have had different problems at Walmart, where it isn’t unusual for the price stickers in the aisles to differ from what I am charged at checkout. And don’t even get me started on my extreme displeasure of having to use Walmart’s self-checkout and 18” of counter space to ring up an entire cart of groceries. 

I have shopped at Aldi as my main grocery store for years. There are typically only one or two product versions, making purchasing easy. There is no drive to impulse buy, and the stores are small, so I don’t feel that I have run a marathon. Plus, their cashiers are fast and friendly. My overall grocery bills are always lower at Aldi than at Jewel and Walmart.

Shopping insanity extends to the online world, which is now dominated by Amazon and Walmart. Lately, there has been a lot of press coverage on Amazon’s practice of controlling its Marketplace sellers. For instance, sellers cannot sell their items on a different web platform for a lower price. They are given preferential treatment if they use other Amazon services, which adds to Amazon’s profits and increases consumer prices. Marketplace sellers can also use deceptive practices, such as flooding a product type by listing the same product multiple ways or using false reviews to push a product higher in Amazon’s listing. 

Over 60% of Amazon’s sales are via Marketplace sellers. It doesn’t seem that Amazon vets Marketplace products, so you never know if your product is genuine or a knockoff. I tested several battery banks I ordered from Amazon; some were legitimate, and others had less than 15% of their stated capacity. 

Searching for something on Amazon can be a frustrating experience, as you are assaulted by page after page of products.  Many products seem identical or may vary only by a different brand name.  Significant price differences can exist between the items, requiring an exhaustive search even for simple products.  Some consumable products list price per ounce, others price per product, and others have a nonsensical price. All of this requires an unnecessary amount of vigilance. 

Sometimes, you need to be a chemist to determine the best value. I use a deodorant product called deodorant crystals, which is simply the compound Alum. No matter what brand you use, it is identical. However, depending on the label, there can be tremendous differences in the price.

These are exactly the same compounds, but one is $9.41 an ounce and the other is only $2.02 an ounce.

Most people believe buying a larger quantity will yield the best price. However, I have repeatedly found that this is not the case when shopping on Amazon, as buying a larger amount of something can be significantly more expensive than buying multiples of the same product. That is crazy.

Talk about confusing. The first product is the cheapest, but the unit price is listed as “price per load.” You might think buying two would save you money, but the second listing is almost twice the price. The third listing is even more expensive than the second!
Here we have two products that differ only in the scent, which will fade as soon as the clothes are worn. The lavender scent is 50% more expensive!
Here you have a product directly from Amazon. If you buy the twin pack, expect to pay 30% more! Buy two of the “pack of one” for $7.12 instead of $9.55. That is a substantial difference, but you must carefully read the product description.

I have heard Amazon’s and Walmart’s online prices are dependent on zip codes, and there are reports that you can get better prices by searching at a different location or using incognito mode. I have not confirmed this, but if true, that means you are being upcharge based on where you live. 

Online sellers will often offer the same product in different colors at drastically different prices.  Also, a shopper may have to deal with the same products with one offering a discount coupon and another not.  

The only difference among these three coffee makers is the color. Talk about price confusion. It would seem that the red coffee maker is significantly more expensive than the black one ($49.00 vs. $36.00). However, if you use the coupon and do the math, it is only slightly more expensive, and now the orange coffee maker is the most expensive. Why???
I know that these two radios are exactly the same except for the branding. However, one is over $10 more than the other. If you were not a radio nut like me, you may think that the more expensive radio offered more.

I have checked on the same item over the course of a few days to find that its price can vary dramatically in 24 hours.  I have seen price shifts of 25% and more. A product may go up, then down, then up again over the course of a week. All of the above makes shopping exhausting and confusing.  

When it comes to grocery shopping I consistently save overall by shopping at Aldi and I don’t have to deal with math calculations, product decisions, and confusing “deals” and coupons. I’m also starting to feel the same with online shopping. A while back I had to replace our toaster oven and was faced with what looked like a hundred different choices.  Some were the same item, others were variations on a theme, still others were rebrands of what looked like an identical product.  In the end I went to a local store where they had 4 different toaster oven models.  I picked the one that would hold the pans that we normally use in a toaster oven and was done in about 5 minutes. Could there have been a better toaster oven in my life?  I don’t know, but the one that I got works well enough and the shopping experience was not confusing, frustrating, and exhausting.

You can’t even trust apps that promise that they search the internet for the best deal for you.  The Honey app was very popular and promoted by many influences.  So, what was the real deal?  This Reddit poster gives you the details:

One: if you click on an affiliate link from a creator to buy something, they will sometimes get credit or a commission for you purchasing that Item. However, if you scan it with honey, honey will reload the web page so they get the commission.

Two: Honey will say “We scoured the internet and found you 5 codes” well, they don’t actually search the internet, what is actually happening is the seller of the item chooses what coupon codes honey can use. So you may actually be able to find a better coupon code if not using honey.

Our lives are becoming progressively more complicated as we become ever more electronically connected.  Is that email from a bank real?  Who is texting me just to say “hello?”  Is the FBI of the CIA really calling me to tell me that I just won the lottery and all I have to do is to give them my credit card information?  How about that YouTube video that says that everything that I’m eating is going to kill me, but I can be healthy if I drink their “click the link below”  green goop three times a day? Is that too good to be true advertisement on Facebook real, or is it too good to be true?  How about all of those political videos and articles that feel like these are either the best of times or the worst of times?  Those make me feel like I’m reading a Dickens novel.   

I don’t want to vet every purchase I make or do a math calculation to determine if I’m getting a good deal. All of these things add to stress and are mostly unnecessary. My plan is to simplify whenever possible. I’ll continue grocery shopping at Aldi, and I’m moving toward buying less stuff online while choosing options that give me clear and less confusing choices.

This unnecessary decision fatigue cumulatively adds to stress and promotes fear and distrust. I know some love the sport of shopping; I’m not one of them. 

Peace

Mike

#COVID-19, 1950s kitchen, personal growth, Walmart shopping

Dr. Mike Goes To Walmart

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I arrived back in Chicago from a trip to New Mexico in early March. I was met by escalating panic around COVID-19. I had heard stories of shortages, and so I checked our pantry and freezer. I found a reasonable amount of food, but many items were things that we didn’t eat. Yes, we had stuff, just not the right stuff. I decided to go to the store and stock up.

Over the last few years, I had been doing more grocery shopping, and I had narrowed down my purchase locations. If I needed to pick up something quick, I would go to the Fresh Thyme Market, a small grocer around the corner from my house. However, if I needed to buy a significant haul, I would head over to my local Walmart Supercenter.  

I can’t say that I enjoy shopping at Walmart. It is big, crowded, and it always seems to need a little tidying up. However, despite my complaints, Walmart has some positive attributes. The grocery store is part of a Walmart, making it easy to buy anything from camping supplies to printer paper. Walmart’s house brand, “Great Value,” is decent, and I know the store’s layout well enough to make my trips efficient.

However, that early March stock-up trip was different. The store was significantly more crowded, and its shelves were bare. No toilet paper, no paper towels, no rice, no flour, no pasta, no tomato sauce, no oatmeal. The list went on.

That week I also “hit” a few other stores, including Aldi and Jewel. I wanted to have food in case the world was about to shut down. Different stores had different stock items, so I was able to buy enough essential foods to secure my family’s immediate future. Although I felt good about “providing,” I experienced a less than enthusiastic reception from Julie. She saw my stockpiling in a more negative light.

Based on this, I turned the job of grocery shopper over to her and settled into other tasks. Shortly afterward, Governor Pritzker ordered that Illinois shut down; I spent the next few weeks isolating in my house, only venturing to leave for a daily walk.

Julie did assume shopping duties, but her own busy life hampered her ability to take on these tasks fully. At the same time, our adult kids were complaining that we lacked food items again. It became clear that I had to shoulder some of the shopping burden, a task that I was not looking forward to.

I felt that shopping at Walmart held a higher than acceptable risk, as it was huge and always crowded. The sheer numbers of individuals made me concerned that the place was a cesspool of viral particles. I could order groceries online, but most of those services have an upcharge, and feeding five adults is already an expensive proposition. I thought about returning to Aldi, which is the least costly grocery in our area. However, Aldi isn’t a full-service store, which would mandate that I would have to shop at least two different stores every week, and I didn’t want to do that. The most reasonable plan would be to buy at a regular grocer, like Jewel. Jewel is a full-service grocery store that also houses a drug store. Also, it appeared that their sanitizing standards were high, and their shopper density was low.  

Once a week, I would drive to Jewel, shopping list in hand. I organized my list into food zones and shopped as quickly as possible. I didn’t hunt for the best prices, and I bought what was available. If they only had designer tomato sauce, that is what I purchased. The idea was to balance viral exposure with economy and convenience.

Overall, the strategy worked. I was able to get in and out relatively quickly. Naturally, I took all the necessary precautions along the way. However, this was not a total “win” strategy as my grocery bills were extraordinarily high. It wasn’t uncommon for me to spend over $400 in a given week, without buying a lot of meat. However, it still was the most reasonable option at that time.

One month dragged on to two, two months dragged to three, and three dragged to four. Along the way, I found myself assessing and reassessing what I could do. I expanded my “social circle” to include my friend, Tom. I visited my sisters “from a distance.” I traveled to “safe spots” to take photographs. I started to live again but in a more cautious way.  

My grocery bill was out of control, and I needed to evaluate if there were more cost-effective options. I was aware that Walmart was making efforts to keep its stores as safe as possible, including requiring face masks. It also seemed reasonable to assume that the first hoards of COVID panicked shoppers had subsided, and that food stocks had been replenished. It was time to return to Walmart.

One of the tricks that I do to make a tedious task more palatable is to include family members. Before the pandemic, I would often take one of my kids on my grocery shopping trips. This addition turned a chore into an adventure. We would joke, laugh, and explore as we shopped. Also, my co-participant received special status. If they wanted to buy a frivolous or special item, I almost always capitulated. I know that CDC experts suggest solo shopping, but I’m more efficient in having a helper. Both Grace and Kathryn agreed to assist me on my return Walmart trip.

With masks on our faces and a small bottle of hand sanitizer in my pocket, we arrived at Walmart. I was happy to see that they were limiting entrance to a single monitored door. As we entered the store’s vestibule, we were handed a shopping cart by an employee who had just wiped it down with a sanitizing solution. It did seem like they were making efforts to keep things as safe as possible.

We approached our job with purpose as we divided and conquered each grocery section. The store was stocked, but there were still areas that were showing shortages. Toilet paper was available, but only one brand and in limited quantity. Flour was present, but only a few bags were on the shelves. Cleaning products were there, but any brand that claimed that it was antibacterial was missing.

Although I bought quite a few groceries, my card was not overflowing. I purchased very few “high ticket” items like steak, and I stocked up mostly with the “Great Value” house brand. All in all, my grocery bill was just over $260. I would have spent more with a comparable Jewel haul, but it was clear that Walmart’s prices had increased significantly since my last trip there. With that said, I’ll likely return as I estimate that I saved anywhere from $50-$75 over a similar Jewel shopping trip. 

So, where am I going with all of this? During a short crisis, it is easy to make a radical change because you know that things will soon be back to normal. However, as a crisis continues, it transforms into a way of life. In past posts, I wrote about how I moved from trying to replicate my previous experience to living in my current one. Part of that process involved returning to Walmart. Before the pandemic, such a trip would be routine. Still, I had to think carefully if the risks of going into a crowded big-box store were reasonable. I had to think about how I would make such a task as safe as possible.

I believe that this is a reasonable way to approach life in our brave new world. I have no intention of going to a crowded restaurant or a packed church service. However, I know that I have to continue to expand my horizons as this pandemic continues. Naturally, I will uphold whatever laws dictate. I understand that I am not only doing this for my health but also the greater good. 

I feel that this is a balanced approach that avoids politics and ideologies. How are you making life decisions during this crisis time? How will your actions change if this way of living becomes the new normal?

After we got home from Walmart we washed our hands. The kids and I put away our food. I divided and sealed up the hamburger that I bought, but reserved some for meatloaf that I made last night. Since I have been sharing recipes, I thought I would share this one too. It is a classic that originated from the Quaker Oats company. It is super easy to make and pretty tasty.

Walmart was less crowded than I expected.
I like to portion out large quantities into meal-sized packages.

Basic Meatloaf

Ingredients

  • 1-1/2 Pound(s) lean ground beef or turkey
  • 3/4 Cup(s) oatmeal
  • 3/4 Cup(s) finely chopped onion
  • 1/2 Cup(s) catsup
  • 1 Egg, lightly beaten
  • 1 Tablespoon(s) Worcestershire sauce or soy sauce
  • 2 Clove(s) Garlic, minced
  • 1/2 Teaspoon(s) Salt
  • 1/4 Teaspoon(s) Black pepper

Cooking Instructions

Heat oven to 350°F. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl; mix lightly but thoroughly. Shape meatloaf mixture into 10×6-inch loaf on the rack of broiler pan. Bake 50 to 55 minutes or until the meatloaf is to medium doneness (160°F for beef, 170°F for turkey), until not pink in center and juices show no pink color. Let stand 5 minutes before slicing. Cover and refrigerate leftovers promptly and use within two days, or wrap airtight and freeze up to 3 months.

(a little substitution never hurt anyone)

I only had 1 pound of ground beef in the spirit of substitution, so I added a little more oatmeal. I also upped the garlic a bit, chopped a medium onion that I didn’t measure, and reduced the catsup a little. I baked it in a loaf pan instead of on a rack. It turned out just great, and the kids ate it up.

Basic meatloaf with mixed vegetables, country-style potatoes, and a roll.