OK, I woke up early today feeling rather icky. Bad head, swollen and cramped fingers, bad stomach, stuffy head and nose and aching back and arm ... nice.
Still, the day waits for no woman. After a rather painful and slow warm-up, I managed to waddle up to the computer. And lo and surprise! Cold Storage is working! At 8.22am, they have already updated their weekly promotions AND 3-day promotions pages. This is a watershed for them. Never (since I started monitoring them) have they updated so early! NTUC Fairprice did theirs by 11am yesterday so they are still ahead of the game and earlier than usual too. Well done, both.
Wow, NTUC Fairprice and Cold Storage are really fighting the battle of who's more efficient in Internet updates. Their marketing departments must have gotten some new mandates or are under review. I pity them if their store management has not stepped up to the plates because what's the point of being timely if your store inventory and display is going to let your side down?
Still, I commend their E-Commerce departments. Good luck.
Since Giant is so behind the times, I do not know what they have in store (pun intended ... drum roll of shame), I am just gonna wing it there.
But here's the list I have already set up and I shall become my own mystery shopper today to see if they literally live up to their hype today. It's on.
NTUC Fairprice
Benishan Mangoes @S$3.50 for 2 OR
Thai Rainbow Mangoes @S$3.24 for 4
Fresh rump steak @S$1.99/100g
Unicurd tofu square puffs @S$1.50 each
Unicurd egg tofu tube @S$1.65 for 2
Pasar corn on the cob @S$1.25 for a packet of 2 (UP: S$1.50)
3-day special - Iceberg lettuce @S$0.99 each
Cold Storage
Ben & Jerry's @S$19.85 for 2
Fresh Pork Mince @S$10.90/kg (UP: S$18.60)
Fresh Pork Spareribs @S$15.90/kg (UP: S$23.20)
Fresh boneless pork loin @S$14.90/kg (UP: S$21.40)
Starfruit @S$1.59/ packet
Beef chuck tender @S$34.90/kg (UP: S$35.90)
Oxtail @S$33.90/kg (UP: S$38.90)
Meltique ribeye/sirloin @S$6.45/packet
3-day special - BBQ chicken @S$4.99 each
Post Banana Nut Crunch @S$8.70 for 2 (UP: S$6.25 each)
Meiji milk @S$9.95 for 2
There is no way I am buying all these but I just took note of what I think are good deals. Notice that Cold Storage always seems to do rather good promotions for meat but they seem to cater only to large families with their 2of anything deals. That's all well and good but for a half-crippled, single person like me, there is no way I can lug two of anything home and what more food storage? It will take me forever to finish them and in this humid environment (which seems to be getting worse), you have to be ruthless about discarding stuff before they go stale.
Which leads me to the big chain marketing tactic here. It's very common in America where they encourage bulk purchase. The offers are cheap for bulk. So lots of people buy them on that penny wise, pound foolish principle. Never has that saying been so justified. almost half or more of that bulk purchase is discarded because they go stale. So essentially, you paid for half of what you purchase. Think about it.
Let's take the last two items on my Cold Storage list. I put them there for people with large families and larder or fridge space. I know of no one who has enough space in their fridge for 2 2 litre Meiji bottles of milk. Well, a few but they would still grumble. And you will get sick of all the banana nut crunch cereal you will have to eat for a month. However, they are good deals. But let's say I buy the Meiji milk. I will not be able to finish it in a month before the expiry date. I promise you. Which means I will probably discard 3/4 of a bottle. Which means I actually paid about S$7.50 for 1 1/4 bottle of milk. Way more than the usual S$6.25 per bottle.
Does that even make sense?
OK, I have to give poor Sheng Siong a mention since they seem to work so hard and get no press from me. This month they seem to have some rather exciting promotions. I say seem since I never check them out so it's unfair to state if their promotions live up to their hype. They are just too far away and inconvenient for me to visit and truly, they never seem to have anything I need enough to venture forth.
But if you love barramundi and have missed it, they have them this month.
Sheng Siong
Live barramundi @S$1.09/100g (UP: S$1.86)
Pomfret @S$6.90 for 2 (UP: 19.80 for 2)
Shinmeiji mushrooms @S$0.65 each
They seem to have very good promotions for fish but I can only say I have been to a Sheng Siong once a long time ago when they have whole salmon on unbelievable offer and those fish looked sick. I mean sick in a bad way. No one bought them in the end and I remember I ended up at Carrefour for their blue light special on salmon. I just happened to be there at the right time willy nilly and scored superb salmon. Happy day.
Anyway, I am now going to make my intrepid way to the supermarkets armed with my shopping bag and a notebook. I am half dead but my fridge is looking scarily sparse (because of last week's fiasco) so this is a mission of some import. If it sucks like last week, I am actually gonna have to write to them and scold them. LOL.
Will update when I crawl my way back.
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