Gone Shopping

 

Short and sweet: 

If you are not smart, you get ripped off. If you are lazy, you get ripped off. It's as simple as that. 9 out of 10 times you save money (often lots of them) by doing things yourself, and if you want quality, you simply don't  have a choice. But  it all starts with your shopping habits, so let me give you a little nudge, just to help your on your way, and then a few word of inspiration to get you going:

Dear customer!

We'd like to sell you our rotten fruits and vegetables. We used to give you  50% off, but in the name corporate greed and hunt for ever increasing profits, we'll now be happy to offer you a 30% discount on our rotten fruits and vegetables. We'll piss on you and laugh at you when you throw everything in the garbage, and then we'll pocket 70% of regular profits...on our rotten fruits and vegetables. Then we'll go on national TV, proclaim our innocense and explain how we are "giving consumers a choice".

Sincerely: Real Canadian Superstore.

Ok, it's 2025 and because the U.S. chose a clinical psychopath (and convicted criminal) to represent their country, it's more important than ever to stand up of Canada, so let me make it easier for you to understand how you can best support Canada:

"Product of Canada" means your product is 98% (or more) Canadian. Your money stays in Canada and support "all things Canadian". In this particular case, my rye flour comes from Canadian grains, grown by a Canadian farmer, in Canadian soil. When harvested, the grains go to a Canadian mill, owned by a Canadian entity, where it's processed by Canadian labour before it ends up being purchased by (in this case) a very, very proudly Canadian baker. The last 2%? The farmer's combine was probably made in Japan or South Korea (hopefully not in the U.S.)

Make sure it says "Product of Canada" (98%). That's twice as good as "made in Canada" (51%)

Yummy-y-y! Commercial orange juice. Added all kinds of crap to kill any "accidents" like this one. Get a juicer, make your own, live longer, live happier. Do you want to make your own juice...which is juice, healthy and pure...or do you want 95% water, 3% concentrate & 2% "carcinogens"? Water...or juice? Your choice.  

Ok, this one should probably have been under the tricks of the trade tab, but I wanted you to know just one way you get ripped off: 

They "aerate" your butter (whip it, so it gets fluffy and contains lots of air) and sell it by volume rather than weight. That way, you get more air - which you of course pay for - and less butter and they get more profit for less price. 

Here's another one: Your baker will "wash" (he calls it "clean")  the raisins and other dried fruits, under the pretext of "cleaning" them for you. Well, the raisins and other dried fruits are already cleaned and laser scanned for impurities but here is what is really going on: Soak them, so they absorb a lot of water. That way he only need 70 grams of raisins to make the 100 grams the recipe calls for. And you, my dear friend, are paying for 100 grams but get 1/3 water. You are being ripped of...again.

So, I'm not sure about you, but personally, I'm quite confident that 6 doesn't equal 12. Never has, never will. It's all about advertising and anyone with half a brain knows that advertising is 98% bullshit. Still, unfortunately, a lot of dumb people out there really believe in this shit. They really "buy it". Literally!

12 sheets stacked in two layers doesn't make it any longer that six, no matter how you twist and turn it. Fold it in the middle, you only get 3. But hey, dumb people fall for the higher number and without firing up your neurons, you end up getting sucked in.

Caveat emptor! Buyer beware. Educate yourself and start thinking critically, in a constructive way. Do that, and soon there will be one sucker less on this planet.

Pineapple! Pure, fresh, ripe. Why on earth would you buy the canned, tasteless shit from last season and pay exuberant prices for it?

Fresh pineapple (Superstore): 1.310 kg. $ 5.00 ($ 4.95 to be exact)

530 gr of waste (top and sides) leaves me with 780 gr of fresh, ripe, pure and delicious pineapple. 

My price/kg ( the only price you want to look at when you go shopping, a.k.a "unit price") ends up being (1000 gr/780 gr = 1.28 x $ 5.00) $ 6.41/kg

When I buy a 398 ml (398??? Not 400?) can of pineapple in the same store ($ 2.29), I end up getting 290 gr of pineapple (and a bunch of water and pineapple concentrate they use to get up to 398 ml) which gives me a unit price of (1000 gr/290 gr = 3.45 x 2.29) $ 7.90/kg

So, not only do I save money, I get a better product, cut my carbon footprint and give my money to a local farmer (in this case, somewhere in Thailand) instead of to a huge global monster corporate vampire greed machine. So please tell me, why would anyone buy last seasons' tasteless canned pineapple?

Footnote: 

Superstore like to indicate their unit/kg price in "per 100 gr", which is perfectly legal, but the only reason you do that is to get a lower number. Just advertising BS but dumb consumers really fall for that shit (lower number). Bottom line is, the unit price is the only price you want to look at.  You, as a consumer, just have to learn to think smart.

Call it "no-name", call it store brand, call it anything you  like. We all know what were talking about.

No-name is the proof you are paying extra for the name. Proof that you are being ripped off (when buying the brand names). Simply because you have not educated yourself on the matter.

No-name is from from the regular "branded" suppliers and producers but those suppliers and producers are not allowed to put their name on the product and hence the stores can sell it to you at a cheaper price.

I.e. Heinz sell one ketchup in a nice bottle with their name on for $ 4.00 and the exact same ketchup (and same amount) in a different (cheaper) bottle without their name...for $ 3.00

Don't scuff at people who buy "no name". They are smarter than you are.

"No tax on food in Canada", they say. "Bullshit!", Brian says...and then he provides the proof. 

"Well, the tax is not on the milk. The tax is on the container". 

"Oh, so there is a tax on essential foods.  You admit that much. Then I can bring my own, say, plastic bag, pour the milk into the bag and only pay for the milk"?

 

"No, you will have to pay the recycling fee". 

"Recycling fee? On a container that nobody will recycle? There's a legal term for that: Theft".

"Oh, and by the way...there is also a deposit you have to pay". And then the GST, PST, HST or whatever other surplus tax you have. And you pay that one even on the recycling fee on the container you can't recycle. Complete scam and rip-off! 

"Deposit fee? Does that mean I get refunded when I bring back the container to  you? I assume it's the container there is a deposit on, not the milk. And deposit 1? What does that mean? How many deposits do you have?  You know what? I think you are full of shit. A tax is a tax is a tax, and as usual, it hurts the poor a lot more than it hurts the rich. You can call it whatever you like...but there is plenty of tax on your food in Canada".

So, I don't think I really need to say much about this one, do I? We talked about it up above, in green. It's "quite likely" that the yellow one comes from either one of the two branded ones. They're just not allowed to put their name on it. Are you willing to pay triple ( 300%) price for the one with a name on it? I'm not...and have you ever heard of the "placebo" effect?

The placebo effect is all about tricking your brain into believeing you are getting something you are actually not getting, and when your brain believes you are getting A instead of B, it will respond accordingly. You will be able to "taste the difference". For triple the price.