Monday, February 15, 2010

Beware of salt

We’ve all been told how bad salt is for us. It raises blood pressure, it causes water retention…and it can also be bad for your wallet too!

This isn’t a diet post – it’s a snow storm post. Like most residents of the wintry North East US, my husband and I live in various stages of weather preparedness. Sometimes we run out of salt for the driveway, sometimes we don’t have all the ingredients to make French toast should we be snowed in [if you live in this area of the country, you know, the moment the weather forecasters start predicting snow, everyone over the age of 35 runs out to get bread, eggs, milk and coffee – to assuage the fear of being stuck for a day unable to make French toast for breakfast.]

The other day, before the big snowstorm hit here, I decide to get a jump on things and I stopped by the local convenience store on my way home from work to pick up a loaf of bread. [Yes, we did make French toast while we were snowed in]. Later, my husband stopped home for lunch and asked if I’d noticed if same convenience store had any road salt since we were running low. I said I thought they had stacks of it right in the front of the store.

After lunch he went back to the store to pick some up – which he did, but thanks to a little careful thinking on his part, he didn’t grab one of the small bags piled near the entrance which were running about $8.00 a bag.

He took a few minutes and trekked into the back of the store where they had larger bags of salt, at $2.00 a bag.

Ultimately he spent around $6.00 for three times as much salt as he would have gotten if he’d done what the store marketing team wanted him to do and run in, see the first product available and grab it.

In essence, they want customers to pay extra for the convenience of not having to walk to the back of the store.

So next time you’re in a hurry and need something the rest of the population probably also needs in a hurry, take a longer walk. You might find increasing your salt purchasing could be good for you.

2 comments:

  1. Ah, but now here's the question: Could YOU have carried the larger bag of salt?

    At my local hardware store they have bags that are 5 pounds or 35 pounds...there's no middle weight available.

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  2. Well, no. But there you go. You have to pay more for less because you can't lift more. That's discrimination - which leads me to my next post...;)

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