Wednesday, 25 March 2009
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Bid Now! Shop For Food At Grocery Auctions
In my perusal of the daily headlines, I came across this - Sold! Bargain-hunters buying groceries at auction.
I knew of a fairly local produce auction. It has been around for quite sometime. I have never been there, but my favorite store to buy produce from has bidders number 1. They get TONS of produce from there. Locally grown, yummy goodness!
This, however, was the first I had heard of a grocery auction. I guess it makes sense - people often go to auctions looking for good deals. I have bought several things from an auction - but never groceries. The location of the auction isn't close enough to check out, unfortunately. I was still intrigued.
Over the last several years, anyone who buys groceries has noticed the increase in prices. The initial increase was sudden. One week the normal price for cheese at the grocery store was $1.67 and the next week it was over $2. Now, it is over $3 - for a half a pound of cheese! I have always been a sale shopper - the price increases just caused me to do it even more.
Lately, the prices have been creeping up again, but not as noticeably. I have done several things to cut my grocery bills. The auction is something I might have to look into. But saving $0.50 over the normal price of a bag of cheese curls isn't all that enticing. I can do better than that at some of the local discount stores and shopping sales. And then there is always the fact that I don't really need the junk food in my house!
I was surprised, though, that some of the food is outdated. I'm not against buying outdated food, as long as I'm able to use it quickly. Are the food manufacturers not able to move all of their goods in the regular market? I do wonder how that bodes for the food industry!
Have you heard of any grocery auctions in your area? Would you consider buying food at an auction?
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Comments (2)
I haven't heard of this until now - but there are co-op around my area so I'm thinking of participating.
Grocery auctions are the hottest thing going in a lot of states. You can get HUGE discounts on some items. (I average about 65% off retail). The auctioneers get these items from several sources...salvage (like a truck accident), shelf pulls (like when a national item is sold at Christmas with Santa Claus on it, and it gets pulled off the shelf in January), and yes, some "out of date" stuff. The "sell by" date does not mean it is not safe to eat, just that the freshness or taste may not be at the top of the heap...but it is still ok to eat.
The only foods the FDA restricts from sale of outdated items are milk and baby food. Most foods are good WAY beyond the sell by date due to modern packaging and processing. I bought 3 HUGE boxes of Rice Krispies last week that sell for $5.89 at the local grocery, and only paid $1 each for them...they had Santa on the box, but the "sell by" date was 8/14/09 on the box. BIG SAVINGS really helps in this tight economy