Grocery stores are essentially structured like lab rat mazes. First, there’s the intoxicating whiff of the bakery section as you walk in. Then there’s the fact that the staple foods (milk, cheese, etc.) are scattered in the far back corner of the store. Or what about those ‘end of aisle’ deals? Everything in a grocery store is scrutinized and researched, with the main intent to keep the customer in the store as long as possible.
(The longer you are there, the more you buy, or so the theory goes…)
Irrational, huh? ;)
In other news, I’ll be doing a book signing at Sacred Grounds Coffeehouse in Tampa on Friday, December 11th from 6:30 – 8:30PM. It’ll be an informal meet-up, where I’ll be on hand to answer questions about the book and characters, and this whole “webcomic” thing. Oh, and I’ll have copies of “Rebootus Maximus” for sale (with plenty of high fives and free book sketches to go around!). Stop by if you can!
Lastly, there are just a few more strips left to run before I leave for Mumbai, India. Don’t worry, though. I’ve got some “blasts from the pasts” to share with you while I’m on vacation.
Enjoy!
-Krishna
Update: You’re not seeing things. I’ve revised the comic’s dialogue. I think the new dialogue works much better than what I originally had in place.
When I was working in Hong Kong, I found that they had the rice and cooking oil – staples of the Chinese diet – located in the far back corner of the supermarkets. Same idea as in the US where the milk and breadare usually in the back, but adjusted for the cultural differences.
Wait a sec… Does the sign in the last panel mean that there’s a sale for pie? And what kind of pie?
mmmmm.. pie…….
I know that’s totally not what you intended, but now it’s on everyone’s minds. PIE. I want pie. dammit.
I went through about 5 or 6 versions of today’s strip before I arrived at this final version. I liked it when I created it, but those doubts are starting to eat at me. Sometimes I think my humor is too *out there*…
Every retail store does a similar thing, it is simply good marketing to place the staple items in a location where the customer needs to travel through the store to get. Oh, and don’t forget the impulse items near the checkout.
Oh and if you want clever exploitation of the customer take a look at a modern casino. You NEVER see the light of day in a casino, they don’t want you to realize how long you have been sitting there pumping money into a slot machine.
That reminds me of something interesting I learned from an episode of CSI; all the music/sounds of the slot machines are in C Major, no accidentals (sharps or flats), therefore no dischord when you have hundreds or thousands of them blaring at the same time.
Here’s the real kicker.
At my local Safeway, items are often marked “2 for $3.99″ or somesuch.
At first thought, you think “I’ll get a better deal if I buy 2!”.
On second glance, the fine print says that buying two to get the discount is not really necessary, and they’re $1.99 each.
Then you need the Safeway Club Card, so you can get a members discount from the insanely overpriced items, and pay around average.
On top of that, I only shop there on the first Tuesday of every month, during “Customer Appreciation Day”, which is an additional 10% off.
I feel bad for people who haven’t figured out these things yet.
Safeway is really freaking expensive otherwise.
I just came back from the grocery store, and yes, being a math genius is definitely recommended. I stand there looking at the various things thinking “ok, this one’s 12 oz for $4.99, this one’s 16 oz for $6.49, and this one’s 8 oz for $3.99 but it’s buy one get one free…” and you’re trying to do the math in your head, figuring out the cost per ounce and such. Some days I’m tired from work and can’t think straight, and actually pull out my iPhone to use as a calculator for that purpose.
The Ralph’s supermarket here was doing the same thing as K3vin’s Safeway store, they were doing a big “10 for $10″ promotion. It took me a while to catch on that I didn’t actually have to buy the 10, that a single item would ring at $1 at the register with my club card. During that time, I stocked up on a ton of Rice-A-Roni and tuna fish (solid white albacore, of course).
Worse than the grocery stores, though, are the warehouse discount stores, like Costco and Sam’s Club. You can save $0.30 a head of lettuce… but you have to buy 4 at a time. So you buy it and end up forcefeeding salad to everyone at home for the next few days so you use it all before it starts to turn brown and nasty. And, of course, the commodities like food are at the back, you have to walk through all the guy-tech-drool items like the plasma TVs, video games, and movies to get there. Inevitably, you pick up something, whether it’s a 500 pack of blank CD-Rs or some DVD movie.
Bottom line, have to hate grocery shopping. I’m glad my local pizza delivery is cheap, and bonus, the delivery girl has nice legs. I wish nice legged pizza delivery girls upon all who sympathize. May the Force be with you.
You should try going into a real wholesale supply store sometime… there’s one right by my town’s high school. They sell supplies (food, supplies, paper towels, kitchen utensils) to restaurants [and, I have no doubt, the high school], but they will also gladly sell to anyone who comes in the door. Prices are amazingly cheap there— on the other hand, you won’t find many brands you know, just equivalents/generics… they don’t advertise either, so you’ll only really find out about them if you own a food business (or something), or someone tells you. Someone told me.If there’s one in your town (you may have to do some searching; the one in my city goes by the unenlightening name of “Cash n’ Carry”), you should pay it a visit– it’ll be worth it.
i was under the impression that grocery stores were required to put the unit price on the shelf label, but maybe it’s just at the stores i shop at…
Hi, Krishna, lovely comic and great art. Just wondering what tools you use to create the comic: do you draw on paper or on a computer, what software do you use, how do you create speech bubbles, etc.
Thanks.
Thank you for your kind words, Etrigan. I really appreciate it. I create the comic entirely digital these days. I use Corel Painter to digitally pencil and ink, and Photoshop for coloring and text.