Test of the d’Ollarbills
March 27, 2008 by Scott Lahti
[alt: Chef of the d'Ollarbills]
This inveterate bargain shopper, whose closest analogs to Cheers over the decades have been his local branches of Big Lots, Family Dollar, Dollar Tree, Ocean State Job Lot (New England), and Reny’s (Maine), was hardened (i.e., steeled in optimism) to find the following much-emailed stories after his own thin wallet, while blackening his virtual thumbs browsing yesterday’s number of the great Gray Lady of Newsprint Record and Sulzberger Family Newsletter; for those of us penny-less of a dollar, there’s proof of more for dinner, and of higher falutin’, than yet another grueling variant on bought-in-bulk oat cuisine (all meals are not created equine):
How to Survive in New York on 99 Cents
Stand back, Gourmet Garage. There’s a new chef in town, and he’s a skinflint, a penny pincher, a cheapskate and then some.
Looked for a 99-cent store in Chicago, found only one, but it was in a Hispanic neighborhood, which is promising, at least to this Latina. I’ll report back next week. Who knows, maybe I can stop my endless quest for canned casca de guayaba?
As of today, I must add to my list of favorite thrifty venues my too-long-overlooked Target, whose Clearance shelves in the food section alone are to swoon over - Asian Simmer Sauce, and Blueberry Honey, each marked down from $3.99 to $1.04. Among the deals in the well-stocked regular-grocery aisles, International Delight creamer at only $1.52, not to mention tons of chocolate, wine, and international foods…looks like Mal-Wart and even Trader Joe’s are getting some real competition…and that’s not even factoring in the SuperTargets at large, for which my area is too small.
Speaking of Mal-Wart, the reason its pricing policy is so aptly represented by its trademark jaundiced SFSF is that it involves the cutting edge “virtual” or “consumer driven” “Rollback Pricing”, that is, the price on the shelves is exactly what the consumer desires it to be, though not infrequently noticeably lower than the market price that rings up at the register.