Smith's NE NV yesterday. More prices up, quality and quantity down, shelves looking thin. Frozen potato products very thin, and as someone noted, these are the potatoes from last year's harvest. Guessing this year will be worse. Pasta looking better than it has in months, but prices still high and shelves are still not full. Ramen thin. Dairy shelves very thin and cheap eggs are always sold out. I think these are the things everyone is seeing.
Because we have stored the basics, most of what I buy is the perishables that we don't produce ourselves and then the discount/clearance shelves. I time my visit to hit exactly when those shelves are being filled. The lady that normally fills them wasn't there yesterday; some 20's-ish kid about 6'5" and 300 lbs was filling the shelves instead. He still had a whole cart to go and let me in to take a look. I only picked up a few things at that point, far less than normal. I didn't want to be in his way, so I decided to return when he was done. Well, the shelves were pretty neat, except for a really banged-up box of cereal. I decided to pull it down and see if it was discounted better because of its condition. Lo and behold. A treasure trove of discounted Snicker's, Twix, Milky Way, and Kit Kats. Yes, those babies came home for Christmas stocking stuffers.
I continue to see some short-dated items on discount, but a lot of what is coming up are closeouts, and it bears paying close attention to those, as well as knowing that the vast majority of food that is past date is still perfectly acceptable to eat. I can't believe how many people continue to be suckered by those dates.
Home Depot had leather work gloves on clearance for $1.73, so DH bought two dozen pairs. The thrift store continues to have a few good scores as well. They're getting so much stuff in that everything in the store is 1/2 off. Unfortunately, the clothing store, in a separate building, was closed yesterday due to lack of staff.
