That’s how they get you

Or in more appropriate lingo, “that’s how they gitcha.”

This morning after going to feed and visit the stray at the church we headed for the grocery store. While we were there and I was taking a bit longer than usual with some of my choices the children (yes, all six were with me - I am woman, hear me roar)¹ EVOO was on the list. Now I have my favorite brand/s that when I can I do splurge and buy, but I also know which brands tend to be the least expensive and which brands are there to “gitcha.”

As we have been needing to buy more organics and naturals to avoid trips to the ER I have had to learn more and more about labels and ingredients than the average shopper. Just because something it all natural does not mean it is safe for my boy or anyone else in particular. A product can have All Natural printed on it and it still have ingredients that are not top notch. Now if you click through that link and read what natural ingredients are you would wonder What is wrong with that list? It all looks good. Well sure it does, until you realize there is no way to regulate the individual products and here is an article about natural ingredients and how the bad stuff gets hidden under the premise of All Natural (this article is just one of many).

Back to the “gitcha” of today. I was reading labels of some new organic/all natural products I saw today and then checking the prices to see which was the better money decision. I pointed to two products and asked the children to tell me which one was the better purchase (which would give us more for our money). Remember we were looking at EVOO. Our local grocers “store brand” for their organic line is Full Circle. As far as our local grocery goes and the brands available for EVOO I usually go with Bertolli Organic (price/size and taste). So I had my children look at the price labels first. (sorry for the blurry photos. my phone and had were constantly shaking with the assistance I was getting from another pair of small hands)

First the larger bottle. Note the price per bottle (25 ounce bottle) was $11.44 which came to $.45 per ounce.

Then the smaller bottle. Note the price per bottle (16.75 ounce bottle) was $6.87 which came to $.41 per ounce.

That’s the first “that’s how they gitcha.” One would assume, thanks to the discount club phenomenon of the 80’s², that the better purchase would be to buy the larger amount.

WRONG! (insert obnoxiously loud buzzer sound here)

The better deal is to buy the smaller bottle and just buy two if necessary to get the amount one would go through before the next shopping date.

So now we compare the smaller bottle of Bertolli EVOO (since we have narrowed that down) to the store brand organic EVOO, Full Circle EVOO. There is only one size, but we have already learned that size does not necessarily matter (or maybe it does, but not in this case *ahem* continue). A bottle of F. C. EVOO (16 pounce bottle) costs $6.99 which came to $.42 per ounce.

That’s the second “that’s how they gitcha.” The store brand is NOT the better deal. So what did we buy? If you guessed the smaller bottle of Bertolli EVOO then you would be correct. (insert obnoxiously loud bells and whistles here)

Lesson taught. Lesson learned. We are so gonna count this for school credit today.

So on to the next item. (Disclaimer: for some reason I lost one of the photos in upload and it was deleted before I realized it. sorry) Maple syrup. YUM! There are only two choices of this at our store the large bottle of Full Circle Maple syrup or the smaller bottle of Spring Tree Maple syrup.

F. C. large bottle (12 ounce bottle) for $8.99 at $.75 an ounce. The Spring Tree Maple Syrup bottle (8.5 ounce bottle) sells for $5.35 at $.63 an ounce.

So, Children, tell me please which is the better purchase? They all answer the Spring Tree smaller bottle, except one child. I asked him why the larger FC bottle was a better purchase and he replied with, “It’s bigger so it’s more FOOD!”

I don’t blame him, that’s all he thinks about - FOOD!³