Sunday, November 21, 2010

Grocery Sales Flyers and Egg Sizes

Do you read sales flyers for the grocery store, circle deals you like and then leave the flyer in the cart when you're done shopping? If so, I'm grateful, because someone like you tipped me off to excellent prices on sugar and berries at the Loblaws last week.

As a thank you, here's a tip for you.

For years, I've been buying extra large eggs on the theory that bigger must mean cheaper per amount of egg.

Guess what.

I was wrong.

Here in Canada, large eggs weigh 56 to 62 grams and extra-large eggs weigh 63 to 69 grams. So an extra-large egg is about 12% heavier than a large egg. This means extra-large eggs will be worth buying if they're less than 12% more expensive. So if a dozen large eggs are $2.17, extra-large eggs are worth buying if they are less than $2.43.

Where I've been shopping, a dozen extra-large eggs are priced much higher than $2.43.

So now I'm buying large eggs.

And I'm eating about 12% less on weekend mornings, which is an added bonus.

5 comments:

zoom said...

I've recently started caring about the kind of life the chickens who lay my eggs are living. This adds a whole new layer of complexity to egg-buying. I don't want eggs from chickens who have had their beaks ground off by a machine, or who live in cages the same size as them. I'm willing to pay more if the chickens were happy.

Do you have any suggestions for someone like me?

David Scrimshaw said...

If price is no object, you could move somewhere that you're allowed to raise chickens and have a few hens.

I tried it when I lived in Ghana and I'm now entirely happy to buy a dozen eggs for $2.17.

Raising chickens is not compatible with sleeping past 5am.

gordon said...

Of course, this assumes that chickens produce extra-large eggs at the same rate they produce large eggs. Presumably, extra-large eggs are rarer, which, of course, makes them more valuable than run of the mill large eggs.

Personally, I buy brown eggs by the half dozen so I've given up trying to get "a deal" when buying eggs.

David Scrimshaw said...

Gordon, I never really thought of eggs as collectibles, but I suppose if you did think of them that way, you might prefer the less common extra-large ones.

Are you one of the people who prefer brown eggs so you can more easily spot bits of shell that make it into your food?

Chelle said...

And thank YOU for sharing, because I'm going to Loblaws right now.