An Open Letter to Bottom Dollar Foods

The Shinbone: The Frontier of the Free Press ^ | June 14, 2012 | Daniel Clark

[I see my hands]

Buy your regular super market items then when at the register remove all extraneous packaging and leave it on the belt. Tell them next time you're going to charge them.

[Bullish]

I decided on option number three, which was to put back all my groceries and walk away.

Yeah, well THEY would have been putting back all the groceries as I would have just walked away. The more they try to control our actions the more those of us who still believe in freedom should be exercising our liberties.

[JerseyanExile]

Uh, Bottom Dollar is an ultra-low end supermarket. They don't even have plastic bags in my area. They have bins of repurposed cardboard packing boxes by the front - you can use those, or just brings bags with you. There isn't some great conspiracy here - BJ's has used recycled shipping boxes instead of plastic bags for years in order to save money. The profit margin in food stores is razor thin as is - for low-end budget stores like Bottom Dollar, it's even tighter, and thus they have to think of unconventional ways to cut expenses. What's wrong with just using the cardboard boxes?

[Balding_Eagle]

He was willing to BUY the bags as he always has in the past. You’re fine to use the cardboard. Which, BTW, means it won’t be recycled as it always is by the store.

I think he’s right to resist the ‘nudge’.

[basil]

I have a supply of several thousands of plastic bags. I started hanging onto them when I heard talk about the government outlawing them......At least I will have a supply to take with me to the grocery store for a while-—LOL!

[Eaker]

Because I don’t want to. How’s that grab ya?

I suppose you ride your bicycle to the store and if not why not?

If I have to save bags you have to save gas.

How do like them apples?

[JerseyanExile]

Why assume that it is a “nudge”, caused by some vast green conspiracy? If they were making money off of the bags, I very much doubt that they would stop selling them. If they stopped carrying them in his store, chances are that they weren’t selling enough for the practice to be cost effective. You have to accept that by going to budget stores like this instead of regular ones, there will be tradeoffs, like a lack of rainchecks and minimal weekly sales. Or a lack of plastic bags.

[Freddd]

Excellent article.

What Obama is doing isn’t a nudge.

It’s not a push.

It’s shoving.
While telling us to shove it.

[Freddd]

Excellent article.

What Obama is doing isn’t a nudge.

It’s not a push.

It’s shoving.
While telling u.s. citizens to shove it.

[richardtavor]

I like I see my hands suggestion. I sure as hell wouldn’t put their groceries back. If I did, they would all be misfiled. However, I would hate to create additional work for the clerks.

[Carriage Hill]

Big downside to reusable bags: http://uanews.org/node/32521

[libertarian27]

They probably ran out of the 5 cent bags.

I go to a store like that - rock bottom cheap - you bag/box your own groceries - bring a bag, find a box on the shelf, buy one or load loose groceries into a clothes basket and cooler in the car (I see a lot of people do that)

These guys work on low margins - no meat cutters, deli, no baggers...no extra expense of giving out free bags (they cost money)

I went there the other day and everything went up 20 cents or more - ugh.(they held the prices as long as they could)

[discostu]

I wouldn’t eat food from a place called Bottom Dollar. You get what you paid for, and that’s a pay that says “not fit for human consumption”. They very well might have just run out of the bags. Our dollar stores (where I like to buy DVDs, such a fun random selection) do weird unprofessional stuff like that all the time, I’ve seen them with only 1 door unlocked, no manned registers, they’re very easily confused.

[Conscience of a Conservative]

I agree with those who think this is a cost-cutting move, rather than some sort of a green conspiracy. I also think it’s hilarious to complain about a supermarket trying to “nudge”/manipulate consumer choices. EVERYTHING about any supermarket is designed to manipulate your choices - from overall layout to product placement to lighting to signage, and so on.

[CodeToad]

Vitamin Cottage has been doing that: No bags. Their attitude is condescending and rude. If you don’t have a bag or box they snap at a bin of their boxes and scoff. I haven’t been back in several years now but their parking lot is never busy. Liberal bulsh*t never sells.

[libertarian27]

I wouldn’t eat food from a place called Bottom Dollar.

Why not? All the packaged foods are the same as in the regular full service markets. A Perdue chicken is the same chicken as in the more expensive ones - just $1.00/lb cheaper. I just checked the 'Bottom Dollar' flyer - they have Hellman's mayonnaise for $3.77 - the other guys are $4.99 - I know where I would shop.

[discostu]

I doubt that highly. Probably the stuff at the discount store has been in storage longer and is closer to code, or is even from a different batch and recipe, possibly even less product. We know from stuff that’s come out about WalMart that those are all favorite ways of meeting WalMart’s price demands, including in their grocery section. You don’t make 25% of the price disappear by magic, that means 25% of the cost had to go away too.

[hinckley buzzard]

Deep discount stores make money by buying large lots from wholesalers, closeouts and such. They get the same merchandise but pay a lot less. We have a chain in Ohio, Marc's, where a bag of pistachios costs 4.99. In the standard grocery store down the block it costs 11.99. No they're not rotten either.

Packaged meat and canned goods, petfood etc are all brand name, slightly to greatly cheaper, and in case you didn't know, they have sell-by dates, so you know they are current stock. Vegetables are fresh--no way to hide overaged veggies.

The only downside is they don't pay credit card companies--cash or check only. And longer lines and less elaborate checkout areas. If you have the time to spend an extra ten minutes in line, you can save a bundle. They even have free plastic bags.

[Ellendra]

Never in my life had I been in a supermarket that ran out of plastic bags

I worked as a cashier in a grocery store back in college, and once in a while we did run out of one type of bag or another. Usually it was because somebody in management had been slow ordering more, or because the trucks got delayed for some reason. Once they got shipped to the wrong address. I don't think it occurred to anyone to warn people as they came in, we just improvised and apologized as best we could, with the cashiers and baggers taking the brunt of it if and when people got upset about it.

Just giving the perspective from the other side of things.