Grocery Prices

 Recently while doing my grocery shopping at a Kroger store here in Virginia, I noticed that there were hardly any red onions, and we enjoy the flavor of these onions on our summertime salads, as well as how they add great color to a salad.

I brushed off the fact that there were so few onions to select from and chalked it up to probably being a problem with a producer.  But then yesterday when I tried again to buy a couple of red onions at Kroger, once again there were only two onions in the bin.  

Hmmmm, I said, while rubbing my hairy sixty something year old, chinny chin chin.  What is going on??

And as I stood there contemplating the shortage a young man arrived with a large cart filled with fresh produce, so I asked him if there were any red onions on his cart.... and he said, 'no'.  

'Was there a bad onion crop this year?', I asked. 

The young man told me that they have had plenty of red onions, but that they sell out VERY fast since they keep lowering their prices which means people are buying more. 

I asked why they were lowering their prices so drastically and if it had something to do with a competitor's prices.

Once again he said, 'no', and then looked at me a bit sheepishly.

He said that since their corporate office had made the decision to discontinue the discount for the elderly, that they are instead lowering their prices on many items, at least here, in Virginia Kroger stores.

I related to him some of the concerns I have heard from retired people in our area and how unhappy there are to have lost the elderly discount that they enjoyed for a long time.

He said that their store had had one woman SCREAMING about it out in the parking lot and making a total scene.

I told him that my husband and I had not used the discount since our Kroger card gives us a nice discount already, so we have no complaints, in fact in the past month we have received two very nice $5.00 off coupons from Kroger that we have used.  AND, we get a good discount on our gas when using our Kroger card at their station.  Today I paid only $1.63 per gallon.

I'm really not sure where all of this will end up for Kroger and their elderly shoppers, and I assured him that our household is happy with their products and their prices....

but still.... I'd like to have more than just two red onions in the bin to choose from.