As I prepared to write this (while eating oatmeal), I was thinking about how miniscule my immediate world concerns have become.
Oatmeal, and the price-gouging thereof.
Well, I’ve found my de-gouged oatmeal. But first I went through a lot of mathematical possibilities (using my calculator; I don’t do things like this in my head), with the number 2.625 (pounds in a 42 ounce cylinder of oatmeal), and a simple division process which somehow became complicated.
I learned that 2.625 pounds of oatmeal at the long-held price for Quaker Oats ($6.99) got me a price per pound of $2.6628.
And so on, until I reached the outrageous figure of $3.80 per pound, the last price I noticed for Quaker Oats at Pioneer Supermarket. Outrageous, right? Even for those yummy sugar free cookies, I don’t think I’ll be going back to Pioneer soon.
But I’d forgotten the second-and-a-half floor at Fairway where there are huge bins of many different kinds of oats, all selling at $1.49 a pound. You fill a plastic bag via a provided scoop and there you are. In the oats.
I’m content.
(But the paper products price gouging has gotten worse. Good grief. I’ve serendipitously located a place which I will not name that does not gouge on paper products. I’m looking at it as my secret stash. I’m planning to sneak over there this afternoon and load up.)