There’s a new grocery store in town. I can’t tell you the name, but it rhymes with Publix. Oh heck, it is Publix. You forced the name out of me. Happy now?
I went to the store two days after it opened. The parking lot, which provides parking not just for Publix but for about a dozen other businesses, was slammed full of cars. I had to park in the next town and hitchhike back to the store. Metaphorically speaking.
When I got inside the store, there was a mob scene. I could hardly navigate my cart though the noisy horde of customers. I had read on the store’s website that Wednesdays were “senior discount day.” So I found a manager and asked how I would go about getting a senior discount. Do I get a card to swipe, or what?
“We don’t have senior discounts in Virginia,” he replied bluntly. That was that.
I picked up 4 items and decided I’d had enough of the mob. I took my items to a checkout line. As I stood in line, a female manager walked up and pointed to another line. “Move to that line — it’s an express line,” she told me. “It will be faster than this line.”
I did as she suggested and moved to the express line. Guess which line turned out to be faster. The line I had moved from proved to be the faster-moving line. That didn’t surprise me at all. I learned long ago that the slowest line will always be the line that I am in.
A young man who looked like a teenager was bagging groceries. I asked him, “Does Publix offer any kind of discount card?”
“No,” he answered. “You don’t need a card because all of our shelf prices have a discount built-in. Anytime you buy something you get a discount.”
“That’s interesting,” I replied, “but if I have to pay the price listed on the shelf, I don’t consider that a discount.”
The young man refused to give up. He walked around me and pointed to a price tag on a shelf. “That price contains your discount. Everybody gets a discount. When you buy a product in the store, your discount is built in.”
When I was handed the cash register tape, I examined it. According to the tape, my total was $11.32 and my “special price savings” was $1.32. Gosh, the kid was right. The prices on the shelf do have built-in discounts. I imagined a conversation between a Publix employee and a customer.
Customer: “Is there a way to get a discount off this price?”
Employee: “You’re saving a dollar just by buying it.”
Customer: “How am I saving a dollar? The price is two dollars and I’m paying two dollars.”
Employee: “True. But we could have charged you three dollars. So you’re saving a dollar.”
I decided to compare what I paid at Publix with prices at my local Walmart. (Be aware that prices at my local Walmart may differ significantly from prices at your local Walmart. The same is probably true of Publix prices.)
The 12 oz. package of bacon I bought at Publix was $4.99. A 16 oz. package of Walmart-brand bacon is $3.94.
The 2-liter bottle of Coke I bought at Publix was $1.67. The same size bottle of Walmart-brand cola is 44¢.
A dozen large eggs at Publix was 99¢. A dozen large eggs at my Walmart is 38¢.
A jar of peanut butter at Publix was $3.39. The same jar, same brand, of peanut butter at my Walmart is $2.88.
The prices at Publix do seem a bit high — at least the prices I checked. But they have a nice salad bar and you can buy hot meals, and I think I saw a deli counter — though I was too busy dodging shoppers to look closely. By contrast, Walmart is a little more bare-bones, though my Walmart does have a deli that sells various hot foods including meals. They also sell salads and sandwiches and lots of snack items.
But there may be an upside to high prices. You probably won’t encounter many slow-moving seniors shopping there. And high prices will definitely keep out the riff-raff.
Like me.
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