Monday, April 28, 2014

X ~ eXtapris = Extra Price #atozchallenge


All Aboard! "It's Very Swedish..." a train on a cultural journey through Sweden, exploring the differences big and small between American and Swedish culture.

***
Yes, I admit that I'm totally cheating. We all know how hard X is, and I will freely admit that I've had the advantage of using either a Swedish or an English word the entire Challenge. However, that does not make X any easier, in either language.

I probably didn't need to translate my title for you, since it looks and sounds about the same in both languages.  (In Swedish, the "price" part is pronounced as in "priest", just forget the "t".)  It does though sound like you'll be paying an extra price.

Not so.  In Sweden, the extrapris is what you are looking for the.  The price was "extra special", as in the sale.  I remember shopping with Farmor in everything from those small, neighborhood grocery stores, to what is similar to a Safeway or King Soopers, (or whatever THE big chain is called in your town), to the mega-store in downtown Göteborg where it was pretty much a day long commitment to finish the major trip.

Those trips to Saga (which literally means "story") were an adventure of epic proportion.  Long lists. Markers to check off items.  Multiple carts and two cars: ours and Farmor and Farfar's.

I looked up extrapris in Swedish on Wiki, and they freely admitted that these are below cost items designed to lure you into the store. Here is America, those of us who are, shall we say, rather, um, organized about our grocery shopping, know that the front and back page items on the "weekly specials" inserts in the newspaper are the "loss leaders."

These are the items to get you in the store, and if you're like most people, you really don't want to go to another store for the rest of the non-sale price items on your list, so you just buy them there.  That's what they count on, and of course some of those prices are raised to make up for the other "loss".

It's all a game.  There's even a website, The Grocery Game, dedicated to helping you outsmart the system.  I don't go the extremes of some, but I do try to be a smart shopper.  It's rare that something on my receipt is full price.  I've had to have the manager come over to override the transaction because the amount I saved was more than my total owed.  Love winning like that.  (It's that insatiable competitive streak in me...)

Are you the grocery shopper in your family? Or do you not cook at all? There are many nights when all I want is a double cheeseburger, STAT, and man, you can get one cheaply at McDonald's, and they hit the spot at the end of a long day of A-Z wrangling ;-)

Two more days!  You CAN do it!

~Tina, totally tired but I AM going to finish this thing...and then finish visiting you all...thanks for all the wonderful comments and new followers.  You are much appreciated!


16 comments:

Andrea said...

So kind of like the dollar spot at Target?

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

You sound like blogging friend the Happy Whisk. She's always using coupons and getting paid to take stuff from stores.
If I buy something on sale, it's usually because I just happened upon it in the store.

Hilary Melton-Butcher said...

Hi Tina - me I'm going to finish ... PC decided it really didn't want to finish .. So being cosseted and repaired - before y comes around. I hope.

I'll be doing lots of v for Vikings soon - so stuck with my coasts!!

Re shoppong ... I buy as is, but then only me so I make sure I'm careful - my ma was a good cook .. So had a good background and don't waste - cheers Hilary

Mason Canyon said...

I never seem to run up on good bargains when shopping. If I have coupons, they usually expire before I get to the store with them. Fun post and you can make it to the end of the challenge.

A Beer for the Shower said...

Oh yes, I've been grocery shopping since I was 16. The moment I got a license and a car my mom said you're going to be the shopper now. It's paid off. Everything I get is always on sale, and I've got pages and pages of coupons. I also make sure and shop at the store that gives me stackable gas rewards so I can pay $1.00 per gallon less for gas when I fill up.

I may not make a lot of money as a writer, but I can make up for that by shopping smart and buying cheap groceries. Which also kinda helps offset the expensive craft beer my palate prefers...

Kathe W. said...

eXcellent! I try to only shop the loss leaders at the local stores.

http://katheworsley.blogspot.com/2014/04/a-to-z-2014-challenge-x-is-for-dos-equis_28.html

Anonymous said...

I try hard not to pay full price for anything, but I’m not the pro my mom was. As a dedicated coupon shopper, she used to love to brag—erm, I mean, tell stories--about how little she paid for whole cartsful of groceries. Still, I can’t recall ever hearing about a store actually paying her to shop there. Impressive!

Anonymous said...

Don't cook; Hub does most grocery shopping (he stirs THAT oatmeal) and we're not active bargain hunters. Half the time forget to ask for senior discount. But we DO love a bargaind when we stumble across one. Hub bought a new car last year - i told him to check with Costco to see if they have a buying program. Turns out he got a whopping $2,500 price reduction because Costco does have discount arrangement with certain dealers. That savings was on top of the usual rebates, so we hit the jackpot on that one!

Unknown said...

I had no idea sites like The Grocery Game existed! I don't think it's possible in South Africa to go grocery shopping and safe a HUGE amount. Some things will be on sale, but not much. There's NO WAY you could end up saving more than what you owe at the end of the transaction! (I wish that was possible here!)

xx Rachel
Favorite Book Covers: XVI vs X Isle

Jo said...

Well you know I cook Tina, but we are not good shoppers exactly. Make a list and generally stick to it although now we get bonus points which one collects and eventually can use to buy groceries with. Used $70 worth recently and starting to build them again. Also use our Visa and get money back on it, 2% for groceries and gas, not a lot, but better than nothing at all.

Nicole said...

The grocery gaming tricks that you just explained makes sense. It's that ol' bait and switch which gets us every time.

I'm starting to find it odd that when I visit your blog these days, you're writing about something that I've been involved in. First it was the talk about Swedish coffee, which led to cake, which reminded me of those sticky buns. Now, it's groceries...

How about I just came home from the grocery store, maybe two hours ago, and yes...I went to get an some fruit that was on sale despite the fact that the tuna that I REALLY want is on sale at another supermarket. Of course, I didn't want to spend my day traveling around the city to piece together what was on my grocery list...so I got everything from the same supermarket, even though most of the items were regular price this week and not on sale. Ah well. Whatcha gonna do when you're hungry and running low on food at home?! Gotta suck it up and dance with the grocery devil! LOL.

A part of me is itching at the bit to mess with the employees next week, asking them questions about the sale items using my newly learned Swedish terms and horrible Swedish accent. Oh that would be tooooo much fun ;)

~Nicole
A-to-Z Co-Host
The Madlab Post

A Tarkabarka Hölgy said...

X was definitely not easy on either of my blogs either! But I managed to pull it off :)
Grocery shopping in America is stressful for me, more than anything else. So. Many. Choices!!!

@TarkabarkaHolgy from
Multicolored Diary - Tales of colors
MopDog - The crazy thing about Hungarians...

JoJo said...

I grocery shop but I hate it and try to get it done as quickly as possible. Prices are outrageous but I dont have time for couponing and reading the flyer. Russell, on the other hand, LOVES grocery shopping and plods along slowly...I end up 4 aisles ahead of him with my arms laden with stuff to bring back to the basket.

Brian Miller said...

there used to be a tv show that came on when we were young called supermarket sweep...we used to watch it like every afternoon...ha...my mom was def a bargain shopper and when we went we were there for a long time...we helped and then we found a hole to hide in...and occassionally got in a little trouble...lol

CA Heaven said...

X is hard. I considered writing some math stuff, with some equation involving x, but I changed my mind when I saw the news yesterday.

If you're in Sweden and want a burger, don't go to McDonald's or Burger King, go to Max. That's my advice. They have free WiFi too >:)

Cold As Heaven

Yvonne Ventresca said...

Interesting! And a good use of X in either language.

Yvonne