Upset about the rising cost of food? Here are some things we do that directly impact the prices:

- leave behind perishable foods all over the store (pork in the soap aisle, fresh peaches in the freezer). These products get thrown out!

Nobody tries to guess if those oysters, dumped in the chip rack, are still safe to sell.

- Using services improperly. IE: Asking the pharmacist to ring thru your groceries! Expensive staff costs mean expensive food. A highly paid university educated professional versus a minimum wage cashier (hired to ring in your stuff) - you do the math.

-If you waste a staff member's time you are also requiring paying another employee to take care of duties for them.

You're now paying for two employees for something you could have done yourself.

Also staff take care of a lot of behind the scenes things that keep a store running smoothly. Don't assume that staff are soley there to serve you and nothing else. The more interuptions to orders/pricing/stock/tillcounts etc. the less smoothly the store runs and the higher the operational costs.



-Letting your kids run amok;

Damaging products and wrecking displays (that a paid employee has to fix). Teach them at an early age the value of food, and that a place of business is not a playground.

The grocery industry has a term for these examples called "shrink". It's not just loss from stealing but all the damage/lost time/lost product that has to factored into the cost of the food you buy.

We've realized individual actions can make a difference collectively in the environment, yet few of us have come to understand our actions inpact us economically as well.

Shink-E-dink