Posted on 04/12/2009 4:18:16 PM PDT by topher
The Wal-Mart I visited had Louisiana Sweet Potatoes on sale for 15 cents per pound.
It is a reminder of the days when Senator Jay Rockefeller's grandpappy drove competitors from the oil market with one penny a barrel of oil in East Texas.
I am referring to the infamous anti-trust case against Standard Oil, and how the company was broken up by the Governement into Standard of California, Standard of Indiana, etc.
Louisiana law does prevent the dumping of milk -- one cannot sale milk below the cost of the milk.
Apparently, Wal-Mart must feel there are too many sweet potato farmers in Louisiana, and will help put some of them out of business...
You know what else?
Grocery chains (not only Walmart, but ALL of them) sometimes sell a 10-pound sack of potatoes for less than they sell the 5-pound sack for?
We need a law about this! Barack Obama should determine the price of potatoes, not the guy actually selling them!
Fortunately not everyone shops at wal mart.
It won’t last.
I wonder if sweet potatoes are just not selling. I mean if they are sitting on the storeshelves going bad perhaps the business sense would be not to sell them anymore. I don’t know there real reason so I am just guessng. It does not make one bit of sense to me that they would get rid of a product that flies off the shelves so it must be the opposite.
How is that dumping?
Didn’t Walmart have to buy them from farmers? If they’re selling them for less than they paid the farmers, the sweet potatoes are an Easter loss leader. If the farmer sold them to Walmart for less than the cost of production, then it’s the farmer that’s dumping.
La. has a minimum selling price on gasoline. Sell below that and you’re in trouble with Johnny Leuw.
Fine, but how much are the farmers being paid? Are the potatoes worth the 15 cents? What was the production? Are the potatoes close to their expiration date? So many questions, a simple “15 cents per pound” isn’t explaining much.
Not much background in economics or retail huh?
Its far more likely that your local WalMart accidentally got a substantially larger shipment of sweet tators than it could normally unload and did the practical thing, i.e. sold them at a loss vice taking a loss on them going south.
Could be a marketing scheme (although I can’t imagine sweet potatoes would bring in that much business.) A lot of stores use “loss leaders” to get you in the door knowing you’ll spend money on other things.
It’s called a loss leader in the business. It gets customers in to buy 15 cent a pound sweet taters and then the customer pays 3 times what it cost wal-mart or any other retailer for Karo syrup or brown sugar or marshmallows to go on the taters. Trust me, the sweet potato farmers in the Carolinas got their due.
How can anybody from Louisiana get upset by WallyWorld selling LOUISIANA SWEET POTATOES? I thought they just sold Chinese stuff. How is that "undercutting" the local farmers? Maybe I am just reading it wrong, or it may be just another union dig at Walmart!
Walmart Helps Families Enjoy Easter With Dinner For Eight For Under $35
To help Americans keep their holiday traditions alive while staying within their budgets, Walmart is serving up more savings on meal items likely to be in shopping carts in the days leading up to Easter. Walmart shoppers can feed a family of eight a turkey or ham dinner with all the fixings for under $35, including two bottles of wine:
Turkey Dinner – $34.56
1 – 14-16 lb. hen turkey ($0.88/lb.) — $14.08
2 lbs. fresh asparagus ($1.77/lb.) — $3.54
4 lbs. sweet potatoes ($0.50/lb.) — $2
2 cans Delmonte corn (14.5 oz each) — $1.50
Dinner rolls (24 ct.) — $2.50
2 bottles Oak Leaf wine (750 ml) — $5.94
Edwards pie (25.5 to 36 oz.) — $5
Ham Dinner – $34.40
1 – 7-8 lb. half spiral slice ham ($1.58/lb.) — $12.64
Green Bean Casserole:
2 cans Delmonte green beans (14.5 oz. each) — $1.50
1 can Great Value mushroom soup (10.75 oz. each) — $0.94
1 container Great Value french fried onion rings (6 oz.) — $2.50
Betty Crocker scalloped potatoes twin pack (9.8 oz.) — $2
Dinner rolls (24 ct.) — $2.50
2 bottles Oak Leaf wine (750 ml) — $5.94
Bakery angel food cake (15 oz.) — $4
Strawberries (16 oz.) — $1.50
Great Value whipped topping — $0.88
http://preview.tinyurl.com/dmegco
Grocery chains (not only Walmart, but ALL of them) sometimes sell a 10-pound sack of potatoes for less than they sell the 5-pound sack for?
A nearby supermarket is selling 10 pounds of baking potatoes for $2.99 -- or 30 cents a pound. The five pound bag goes for $3.49.
In the case of Wal-Mart, they only sell the "bulk" sweet potatoes...
Some people will prefer to buy the 5 pound bag of potatoes because "they do not want to waste what they cannot eat".
God save us from cheap sweet potatoes.
I wonder if sweet potatoes are just not selling. I mean if they are sitting on the storeshelves going bad perhaps the business sense would be not to sell them anymore. I don’t know there real reason so I am just guessng. It does not make one bit of sense to me that they would get rid of a product that flies off the shelves so it must be the opposite.
I doubt that is the case.
Local grocery stores and produce distributors are hurt by such actions -- especially the "little guy".
That was true in the days of John D. Rockefeller and other Robber Barons.
Where do you think the Robber Barons were able to get the money and power to establish the Federal Reserve System and steal the money from the United States...
How dare Wal-Mart sell things cheap? As a consumer, I want to pay top dollar for my goods. No bargains for me. I could go on and on about paying more for gasoline, pharmaceuticals, electricity, essentials but you get my drift. Buying cheap only . . . . . okay I get a guilty pleasure out of it. You beat it out of me.
This sounds more like a “loss-leader” item that many retailers use...and not anything sinister
Though, with Wal-Mart, you can never be sure. The Free Trader Globalist crowd just loves Wal Mart, but their practices have driven many smaller businesses under....many smaller businesses who were quite competitive and actually contributed more to their local economies than Wal Mart ever did....but could not handle being price-busted by Wal Mart and the Communist Chinese
Wal Mart has cheap prices, but it has led to a lot of our taxes being raised. And, it has put more people on taxpayer funded assistance due to low non-American free market based wages
Unfortunately too many are more in love with Communist China than the United States of America...which is why you get the “Wal Mart is so good” foolishness
I paid 19 cents a pound for sweet potatoes yesterday, and not in WalMart..............
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.