Showing posts with label decoding. Show all posts
Showing posts with label decoding. Show all posts
Saturday Throwback The Circular Game Decoding Your Supermarket Weekly
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Each and every Saturday, CHG posts something from our archives. Todays piece is an oldie-but-goodie from way back in July 2007. Remember then? I dont.
Tuesday evening’s rolled around, and it’s time for some spur-of-the-moment food shopping. You saunter through the sticky sliding glass doors of your local grocery store, pondering what to purchase with the $15.09 you’ve budgeted until Friday. Then you spot it, lying prostrate and unused in a misshapen stack by the shopping carts: the Supermarket Circular.
Cackling like a maniac, you scuttle over to snatch the half-soaked, seven-page spreadsheet. You’re hunched and focused, madly scanning the deli section when it hits you: you have no blessed clue how to read this thing. Sure, there are pretty pictures, and yes, the numbers look tantalizingly low, but do you have to buy seven freakin’ jars of jelly to get the 7-for-$7 discount?
The answer, my friends, is blowing in the wind.
Just kidding. The answer is actually “no.” More often than not, that jelly is priced individually. Since this isn’t intuitive knowledge, like breathing or using a pit bull from a man with missing fingers, here are a few decoding tips for the Supermarket Circular, the mightiest of cash-saving weapons.
AT THE STORE:
If you don’t need it, don’t buy it. Lots of circulars advertise sales like “Tuna: 5 cans, 3 bucks” or “10 boxes of Ronzoni pasta for $10.” The majority of the time, each item is individually priced, meaning you don’t have to dogpile ten cartons of penne to get the deal. Buy three and it’ll be $3. Buy six and it’ll be $6. Buy one, it’ll be $1, and you won’t have 144 extra ounces of pasta hanging around your cupboards.
Read the small print. Oftentimes, stores will list purchasing requirements in Lilliputian typeface at the bottom of an ad. You don’t see it until it’s too late, and then you’re stuck paying regular price at the register. Criminals here include caveats like: “With minimum purchase of $25,” “With club card only,” and “Limit one per customer.”
Look out for loss leaders. Normally depicted in giant photos on the front or back covers, loss leaders are priced at rock bottom to lure in shoppers. Frequently they’re perishables, daily menu foods, or other stuff you buy with some regularity - meat, fruit, vegetables, etc. Hands down the best values in the market, according to Womans Day, “if you make those two pages … the base of what you’re going to eat all week, you’ll save about 30 percent.”
Keep in mind not everything in the circular is on sale. As Consumer Reports informs us, “A mere mention of a product in a circular can boost sales by as much as 500 percent, even without a price reduction.” In fact, SmartMoney.com says, “Some stores raise prices on advertised specials.” If those on sale hot dogs still seem pretty expensive to you, they probably are. Keep moving.
Do the math. On smarter blogs, this is called “comparing unit prices,” but either way, it goes for all shopping everywhere. Just because a product is sold in bulk doesn’t mean it’s a better deal, even if it appears in the circular. In other words, if a 32-oz. olive oil is listed in the weekly at $10, and the 16-oz. version of that same item regularly sells for $4, the 32-oz. bottle is a rip-off. They’re tricking you into buying more product for more money. Tricksters.
Use your judgment. When you finally arrive at that bin of $0.01/lb chicken breast, take a good, long look at the quality of the meat. Is it gray? Does it stink? Is it housing a maggot colony? There’s a reason it’s on sale. Chalk it up in the loss column and move on. (Same goes for fruits and veggies.) However, if it’s pinkish, and still a day or two away from going bad? Stellar. Take it home and freeze what you don’t use immediately.
Bring the circular with you as you shop. Last week, I saw a 2-for-$1 deal on Goya beans in the circular at my local Key Food. When I got to the shelf, there was no indication anywhere they were on sale. Still, I picked up six cans, brought ‘em to Checkout, and sure enough, got the discount. I don’t know if a lot of supermarkets purposely obscure sales, but man, what a villainous ploy if they do.
Bring the circular with you to Checkout. Whether the machines register a wrong promotion code, or simple humans make simple errors, you will inevitably pay extra for an item on sale. If you’re using a circular to shop and suspect you’ve been overcharged, show the cashier. Are you correct? Sweet! You can bask in the glorious victory of the righteous. (Are you wrong? Boo! Apologize, smile sheepishly, and back away slowly.)
If you’ve got a coupon for an item in a circular, go ahead and try it. Waffles are on sale for ½ off. You have an additional $0.50 coupon. It’s worth a shot, right?
Try a raincheck. Not all supermarkets do this, but if a circular item’s sold out, you can try obtaining a raincheck for later. Those $0.88/lb green bell peppers will come in handy in September, you know.
OH - AND NEXT TIME, BEFORE YOU GO:
Look online. Circulars are increasingly accessible via la web, and chains are including all sorts of extras to entice you. Instant shopping lists, recipe suggestions, back massagers – whatever. The internet availability makes it much, much easier to compare prices between grocery stores, too.
Check to see if your market will match competitors’ circular prices. Rumor has it that some stores have a lowest-price guarantee, as long as you can prove it using another market’s circular. Print it up and bring it with you on your next shopping trip.
Start a pricebook. Are there products you buy with some regularity? Do they go on sale often? Using the online circular and your last receipt, start keeping track of sale prices. This way, you’ll know when something’s just a nickel off, or 75%. Snazzy!
Plan meals around what’s on sale. See: Loss leaders; Look out for. That $0.79/lb pork shoulder could feed you and/or the Marine Corps for a whole week.
Prepare to shop at the start of a new sales cycle. Lots of circulars go into effect on Fridays, and end the following Thursdays. Generally, the better-quality stuff will be made available at the beginning. Don’t wait.
And that’s our ballgame, folks. I specifically didn’t go into coupons or the Sunday newspaper supplement, since they’ll provide plenty of fodder for a future column. If you’re interested in examining either, I highly suggest CouponMom.com. Stephanie knows the score.
Sources:
- Green, Geoffrey M. and John L Park. “New Insights Into Supermarket Promotions via Scanner Data Analysis: The Case of Milk.” Journal of Food Distribution Research. Volume 29, Number 3. November 1998.
- Kadet, Anne. “10 Things Your Supermarket Won’t Tell You.” SmartMoney.com. August 2001.
- Moran, Gwen. “Hide and Seek Savings.” Womans Day. p. 98. April 2005.
- Nelson, Stephanie. “Grocery Store Savings Secrets.” Couponmom.com. 2006.
- Nelson, Stephanie. “Savings Programs Keep Money in Pocket.” The Augusta Chronicle. P. D02. January 2006.
- “Winning at the Grocery Game: How to Shop Smarter, Cheaper, Faster.” Consumer Reports. October 2006.
Decoding Mens Oddball Love Signals
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
His gifts are terrible. He talks when you want him to listen. His idea of a date is take-out pizza on the couch. Is this your guys notion of affection and romance? Well, actually, yes.
Fifteen years ago, I found myself in a romantic pickle: Cheryl, a woman I had been dating for about three months, was nearing her 25th birthday. The birthday gift in any three-month-old relationship is a dicey one, and I deliberated over it for weeks. Too big too soon and it could look like I was trying too hard. Too little and I might appear indifferent. Too romantic and Id run the risk of setting the bar too high.
And so it was with great enthusiasm that I finally unveiled the gift. It was heavy — about 8 pounds. And big — the size of a bowling ball. In fact, as Cheryl discovered after excitedly tearing off the wrapping paper, it was a bowling ball. And not just any bowling ball, but a blue, personalized bowling ball ("The Spanker," the twin to the 12-pounder I had bought myself: "The Wanker"). And the pièce de résistance: Both balls came in matching brown leather bags.
Hoisting the ball onto her lap, Cheryl turned to me. I saw several emotions pass across her face: shock, confusion, profound disappointment, then her dawning realization that how she responded to this present — this idiotic present — might well determine the fate of our relationship. She looked down, collected her thoughts, and raised her eyes to mine. "I love it!" she lied. "Lets go bowling tonight!"
Four years later, despite the bowling ball, Cheryl consented to marry me — and we have lived happily ever after. (And, yes, we still have the balls, and the pleather bags, and we bowl about as much as we did in the first three months of our relationship, which was almost never.) In fact, it could be argued that the success of our marriage owes, in part, to that very moment. Because on that day (and many, many days thereafter) my wife made a conscious choice: to see my hapless effort at romance not as a personal affront but as a love note written by a man in his own foreign language.
"Men do affection in ways that are not easily recognizable to women," explains couples coach Warren Farrell, Ph.D., author of Why Men Are the Way They Are. "The fundamental difference is that men tend to do, and women tend to talk — and much gets lost in translation. He feels frustrated, misunderstood; she feels like he just doesnt care. If you can learn to read the signals hes trying to send, however, hes going to feel like his method of loving is being appreciated. Hell probably feel like a good person. And then hell be more open to hearing something else — like how he could be even better." The point is, once you recognize your guys less-than-smooth gestures as the clumsy signs of affection they are, youll probably realize that he is grateful for you in more ways than you ever knew.
So how, exactly, do we big dunderheads express our love for you? Let us count the ways.
This action-oriented impulse also leads to the all-time most exasperating expression of male affection: Lets call it the quicker fixer-upper. You know how every time you start telling your man about your problems, he keeps jumping in with advice... solutions... surefire fixes? And you know how it makes you feel like the solution to your problem might actually come from shoving his helpful little head through a plate-glass window? Well, take a deep, cleansing breath and consider taking it easy on him.
"Women express affection by listening, but men express affection by giving advice," Farrell notes. "And women need to know that when a man loves her and shes hurting, not helping her directly is, for him, like letting someone he loves bleed to death and just sitting there watching. Giving advice is his way of getting her to the hospital, getting bandages on her, and stopping the bleeding. Its his way of saying, Im going to do absolutely everything I can to save you."
Dramatic? Perhaps, but not to Don, a 55-year-old CFO in Portland, OR. "When a man asks a question like, for instance, What was the problem at work? there is a legitimate desire for an outcome that will lead to some sort of action," he says. "But — and this has taken me a lifetime to figure out — when women begin ruminating about something, such as, My boss is really mean to me or, I just dont have anything to wear, there is, apparently, a fine line between actually wanting our input and simply wanting us to look interested. This runs counter to my every male instinct; right or wrong, I feel that I must find a solution."
In other words, when we say to you, "Hey, Im just trying to help," we really are just trying to help.
HIS TAKE:
"I always want to be able to provide for my wife, and actions are a lot easier than words for me. When I try to put my love into words, it often comes off as cheesy and awkward, whereas when I do things for her, it feels better to me." —Rob Myers, 36 Marion, MS REDBOOKs 2009 Americas Hottest Husband winner
And Yes, Sex Does Equal Love
A friend of mine, a 41-year-old restaurant owner in Rehoboth Beach, DE, is the father of two and the husband of a nurse. "I honestly believe she is the most beautiful woman in the world, and I frequently let her know that," he says. "The problem is, sometimes she gets home after a 14-hour hospital shift and an hour commute in each direction — you know, just your typical 16-hour day of death, drama, and trauma. So when she walks in the door and I greet her with a, Honey, youre beautiful, its often met with a growl. The problem, if you asked her, is that no guy ever says or does anything nice for any woman unless theyre trying to get laid — and shes probably right about that. But I still dont see why that renders the compliment moot."
Actually, a compliment can simply be a compliment; were not always just trying to get you into bed. And even if we are just trying to get you into bed, in case you hadnt noticed, we guys... well, we sure do like our sex. One survey found that 70 percent of men think about sex every day (versus 34 percent of women), while 83 percent of men say they enjoy sex "a great deal" (compared with 59 percent of women). So the idea that we might want to share our favorite pastime with you is very much a good thing.
As Pat, a 36-year-old artist in Philadelphia, says, "Yeah, Ive fielded the suggestion from my wife that, It might be nice to just cuddle for a long time. And while my mouth said, Sure, my head, my heart, and my other parts never receive that particular memo. No guy ever gets enough sex; until they install another 24 hours in each day and fill it entirely with sex, it just isnt possible."
Look, we men are perfectly willing to accept that women are content to express affection by cooing, hugging, and all that gooey stuff. But the fact that we ourselves want none of these things does not mean that we dont love you. The honest truth is that by having sex with you, we are expressing our love. You can blame countless millennia of evolution, which have encoded us as such: I like her; I will have sex with her. (Reproduce, rinse, repeat.) That impulse is the driving force of life, so mock it all you want, but its not going anywhere. Besides, as we guys are deep in the throes of passion — all sweaty and grunty and making our silly man-sex faces — we do really love you. (Or at least it sure feels like love. Or maybe we just love how youre making us feel.) Whatever, somewhere between all that and the mumbly postcoitus before we drop off to sleep, we do feel an undeniable closeness, an intimacy the likes of which men never otherwise experience.
Except, of course, if were bowling.
Fifteen years ago, I found myself in a romantic pickle: Cheryl, a woman I had been dating for about three months, was nearing her 25th birthday. The birthday gift in any three-month-old relationship is a dicey one, and I deliberated over it for weeks. Too big too soon and it could look like I was trying too hard. Too little and I might appear indifferent. Too romantic and Id run the risk of setting the bar too high.
And so it was with great enthusiasm that I finally unveiled the gift. It was heavy — about 8 pounds. And big — the size of a bowling ball. In fact, as Cheryl discovered after excitedly tearing off the wrapping paper, it was a bowling ball. And not just any bowling ball, but a blue, personalized bowling ball ("The Spanker," the twin to the 12-pounder I had bought myself: "The Wanker"). And the pièce de résistance: Both balls came in matching brown leather bags.
Hoisting the ball onto her lap, Cheryl turned to me. I saw several emotions pass across her face: shock, confusion, profound disappointment, then her dawning realization that how she responded to this present — this idiotic present — might well determine the fate of our relationship. She looked down, collected her thoughts, and raised her eyes to mine. "I love it!" she lied. "Lets go bowling tonight!"
Four years later, despite the bowling ball, Cheryl consented to marry me — and we have lived happily ever after. (And, yes, we still have the balls, and the pleather bags, and we bowl about as much as we did in the first three months of our relationship, which was almost never.) In fact, it could be argued that the success of our marriage owes, in part, to that very moment. Because on that day (and many, many days thereafter) my wife made a conscious choice: to see my hapless effort at romance not as a personal affront but as a love note written by a man in his own foreign language.
"Men do affection in ways that are not easily recognizable to women," explains couples coach Warren Farrell, Ph.D., author of Why Men Are the Way They Are. "The fundamental difference is that men tend to do, and women tend to talk — and much gets lost in translation. He feels frustrated, misunderstood; she feels like he just doesnt care. If you can learn to read the signals hes trying to send, however, hes going to feel like his method of loving is being appreciated. Hell probably feel like a good person. And then hell be more open to hearing something else — like how he could be even better." The point is, once you recognize your guys less-than-smooth gestures as the clumsy signs of affection they are, youll probably realize that he is grateful for you in more ways than you ever knew.
So how, exactly, do we big dunderheads express our love for you? Let us count the ways.
This action-oriented impulse also leads to the all-time most exasperating expression of male affection: Lets call it the quicker fixer-upper. You know how every time you start telling your man about your problems, he keeps jumping in with advice... solutions... surefire fixes? And you know how it makes you feel like the solution to your problem might actually come from shoving his helpful little head through a plate-glass window? Well, take a deep, cleansing breath and consider taking it easy on him.
"Women express affection by listening, but men express affection by giving advice," Farrell notes. "And women need to know that when a man loves her and shes hurting, not helping her directly is, for him, like letting someone he loves bleed to death and just sitting there watching. Giving advice is his way of getting her to the hospital, getting bandages on her, and stopping the bleeding. Its his way of saying, Im going to do absolutely everything I can to save you."
Dramatic? Perhaps, but not to Don, a 55-year-old CFO in Portland, OR. "When a man asks a question like, for instance, What was the problem at work? there is a legitimate desire for an outcome that will lead to some sort of action," he says. "But — and this has taken me a lifetime to figure out — when women begin ruminating about something, such as, My boss is really mean to me or, I just dont have anything to wear, there is, apparently, a fine line between actually wanting our input and simply wanting us to look interested. This runs counter to my every male instinct; right or wrong, I feel that I must find a solution."
In other words, when we say to you, "Hey, Im just trying to help," we really are just trying to help.
HIS TAKE:
"I always want to be able to provide for my wife, and actions are a lot easier than words for me. When I try to put my love into words, it often comes off as cheesy and awkward, whereas when I do things for her, it feels better to me." —Rob Myers, 36 Marion, MS REDBOOKs 2009 Americas Hottest Husband winner
And Yes, Sex Does Equal Love
A friend of mine, a 41-year-old restaurant owner in Rehoboth Beach, DE, is the father of two and the husband of a nurse. "I honestly believe she is the most beautiful woman in the world, and I frequently let her know that," he says. "The problem is, sometimes she gets home after a 14-hour hospital shift and an hour commute in each direction — you know, just your typical 16-hour day of death, drama, and trauma. So when she walks in the door and I greet her with a, Honey, youre beautiful, its often met with a growl. The problem, if you asked her, is that no guy ever says or does anything nice for any woman unless theyre trying to get laid — and shes probably right about that. But I still dont see why that renders the compliment moot."
Actually, a compliment can simply be a compliment; were not always just trying to get you into bed. And even if we are just trying to get you into bed, in case you hadnt noticed, we guys... well, we sure do like our sex. One survey found that 70 percent of men think about sex every day (versus 34 percent of women), while 83 percent of men say they enjoy sex "a great deal" (compared with 59 percent of women). So the idea that we might want to share our favorite pastime with you is very much a good thing.
As Pat, a 36-year-old artist in Philadelphia, says, "Yeah, Ive fielded the suggestion from my wife that, It might be nice to just cuddle for a long time. And while my mouth said, Sure, my head, my heart, and my other parts never receive that particular memo. No guy ever gets enough sex; until they install another 24 hours in each day and fill it entirely with sex, it just isnt possible."
Look, we men are perfectly willing to accept that women are content to express affection by cooing, hugging, and all that gooey stuff. But the fact that we ourselves want none of these things does not mean that we dont love you. The honest truth is that by having sex with you, we are expressing our love. You can blame countless millennia of evolution, which have encoded us as such: I like her; I will have sex with her. (Reproduce, rinse, repeat.) That impulse is the driving force of life, so mock it all you want, but its not going anywhere. Besides, as we guys are deep in the throes of passion — all sweaty and grunty and making our silly man-sex faces — we do really love you. (Or at least it sure feels like love. Or maybe we just love how youre making us feel.) Whatever, somewhere between all that and the mumbly postcoitus before we drop off to sleep, we do feel an undeniable closeness, an intimacy the likes of which men never otherwise experience.
Except, of course, if were bowling.
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