Bargain Shopping

Forgive me if I use most of the space in this column for one subject – being duped by the big supermarkets – one & all.

All those full-page adverts "1+1, 2+1, the second item for NIS 10" but nowhere is it written how much one costs? Well for that you have to get to the supermarket itself.

How often at the bottom of the page or even only at the side of the page is written in the tiniest of letters "with a purchase of NIS 100 - or NIS 50" or some other sum. I now keep my magnifying glass out of the box all the time.  Oh yes, and all those very nice coupons that you can cut out of the daily paper or the brochure that you receive with your newspaper or via the post – how many of you can go into the store and ONLY purchase what appears to be a real bargain.  

I recently went to Super-Pharm and asked if they had my particular food supplement on a discount and to my surprise they did – which, by the way, was not advertised anywhere in their current Super-Pharm brochure. In reply to the pharmacist's remark that I could pay for this at the main cash desk, I said I wanted to pay for this at the pharmacy counter so that I could walk straight out of the store without looking at all the other bargain items!

At one store that also had the 1+1 goods advertised in their brochure, I asked why they did not put the prices in their advert and I was told that they did this because all the other stores were doing the same.

I wonder if the supermarkets were to sell these 2+1 items at the price of one third of the sum for three, whether they would not earn far more. I rarely buy such items because I just do not need three nor do I have space to store them and there must be many people who cannot afford three but would certainly buy just one.

How often, despite the demands of the law, do you find that there is no price either on the shelf or on the item itself, and usually these are the goods that are the furthest from the check-out desk, so you put them in your cart and when you get to the cashier you are either too tired to return them, or too embarrassed not to take them. I read recently that the supermarkets have a habit of putting on the highest or lowest shelves in the store the merchandise they are not too interested in selling but have no choice because of their agreement with the supplier.

Some time ago I was told by the Ministry of Commerce that where a notice in a shop shows a previous higher price crossed out and a lower discount price, the higher price has to have been the price shown by the shop before the item was put on sale.

Parsley

Next time you buy fresh parsley, try putting it unwashed in a tightly closed glass container, keep it in the refrigerator and remove just the quantity you need each time. The parsley will keep green and fresh for many weeks. Don't pack it in too tightly.  Dill, unfortunately, only keeps fresh for a week or so.

Bananas

If you need to slow down the ripening process of bananas, don’t keep them in a bunch, but split them up singly, and certainly do not put them in the refrigerator.

Leg & other cramps

For very bad cramps that catch you in the middle of the night, try using your hair dryer on the area. Be careful to have the heat at its lowest and not too close to your skin. Apparently, cramps react best to heat. If you suffer from this often, keep the hair dryer next to your bed if you can.