Remote Living - Grocery Analysis

[ChrisGreaves]

Since my first day of grocery shopping in Bonavista (February 6th 2019) I have been told that groceries are cheaper in Bonavista Clarenville. I grew up in Southern Cross where the nearest town to the west was a ninety-minute drive away, to the east 140 miles, so I have memories of prices.

For four and a half years I have been so in love with this town, represented by its people, that I have no urge to leave town. Indeed, I love my little house lot so much that I am reluctant to leave home, preferring that friends and friends-to-be drop in at any time. My door is always Open during the day time. I made a twelve-hour trip to Clarenville in June 2019 to be photographed for a Newfoundland driving license (ten minutes tops) and a trip to the Clarenville library in July 2021 for fifty cartons of books from the Clarenville library, but in theory I didn’t need to be on either of those trips.
Yesterdays trip was for ME. I wanted to visit the site of my other nursery and meet with the managers, and I thought, “Why not check out grocery prices while I am near Clarenville?”

Grocery Analysis

No-Frills	Act	Min	Qty	Tact	Tmin			Rank
Bleach 3.57L	7.99	8.29	1	7.99	8.29		104%	7
Flour Bread 2.5K	5.99	8.99	1	5.99	8.99		150%	1
Tom paste 370ml	1.50	1.99	6	9.00	11.94		133%	4
Oats 1K	2.99	3.99	1	2.99	3.99		133%	3
Coffee 900g	9.99	12.99	1	9.99	12.99		130%	5
Sardines 106g	1.99	2.29	6	11.94	13.74		115%	6
Corned Beef 640g	4.49	6.49	6	26.94	38.94		145%	2
Onions 2 lb	3.49	3.49	1	3.49	3.49		100%	8
Eggs 12	4.99	5.29	1	4.99	5.29		106%
Cheese			1	0.00	0.00
Popcorn 1K	2.29	3.79	1	2.29	3.79		166%
Pasta 910g	2.29	2.50	1	2.29	2.50		109%

No-Frills was my prediction for cheapest, as well it opened at 9am (not 8am as the web site says) and I made it my entry point. I ran out of time, but had I been concerned with saving money instead of data analysis I would have returned to No-Frills and stocked up on bread flour, corned beef, and oats or if only non-perishables, corned beef, tomato paste and coffee.
Note that popcorn and pasta are equal in rate, but that a bag of popcorn provides a longer consumption than pasta. At NoFrills I did not buy eggs, cheese, popcorn or pasta.

Wal-Mart	Act	Min	Qty	Tact	Tmin			Rank
Pasta 750g	1.57	2.50	2	3.14	5.00		159%	1
Raisins 750g	8.48	4.49	3	25.44	13.47		53%	3
Corned Beef 640g	4.37	6.49	6	26.22	38.94		149%	2
				54.80	57.41	2.61

Wal-Mart caters to ready-made food; as an example, Wal-Mart’s range of bakery goods is less than that of No-Frills. (We save most money not by where we shop as by what we shop. Buying raw ingredients and cooking is always cheaper than buying prepared or processed food).
Wal-Mart was the only store where I found raisins - unavailable these past seven weeks at Swyers in Bonavista. The price of raisins is about double what I last paid in Bonavista! I had thought to put the argument to Kelly that Swyers should ask the next staff member traveling to Clarenville to stock up on raisins; but maybe not!

Sobeys	Act	Min	Qty	Tact	Tmin			Rank
Pasta 750g	2.50	2.50	2	5.00	5.00		100%
				5.00	5.00	0.00

By the time I reached Sobeys, traditionally the most expensive supermarket, I was growing fatigued. I had already spent 45 minutes in Canadian Tyre, and in Wal-Mart tracking down a non-existent Moka Pot.
I hunted kidneys in Sobeys, and found packets of cuts of Moose meat, but no kidneys. Had I found kidneys I planned to corral twelve packs and freeze them.

Time sped and I failed several comparisons. For example I priced smoke detectors in Canadian Tyre but not in Wal-Mart. There again, Canadian Tyre delivers while Wal-Mart does not. The clerk in Canadian Tyre pointed out that staff love online delivery, because the stock-search alerts them to items they’d not heard of. Interesting!

Car: I filled up $41.62 before leaving, and used $29.38 on gasoline for the trip. Rental and total gas is 50+71=$121 all up. The round trip was 282 Km of which 125 Km to Clarenville, and 152 back via Bunyan’s Cove,

1,485,454

1,485,736

282

71.00

$0.25

14.81

4.0

I ended up with 17 tins of some things, 5 Kg of other things, but all staples which I consume regularly. The trip cost me $121 and I saved about $30 without really trying. A repeat trip, solely for grocery shopping, would pay for itself in rental and gas, but not in travel time.

Cheers, Chris

[ChrisGreaves]

If you have glanced at the Bonavista Peninsula you will have the feeling that my town of Bonavista is at the northern tip of the peninsula, so that the drive from Clarenville to Bonavista is essentially northwards.

The rented car was a Chevy Impala, where you push pedals and buttons at random until the engine starts, then you go on pushing buttons at random until (i) the air conditioning goes off (ii) the fan stops blowing and (iii) the racket from the radio stops. After which you pull up at the gas pump, exit the vehicle and realize that you should have checked which side the filler cap was on before you first strapped yourself in. One of the 73 icons on the graphic display tells you this much later.

The instrument panel lacked only an altimeter, but it did have a compass which showed up in graphic display with a 144-point readout of one of the eight compass directions: SE, S, SW and so on. I pride myself on my innate navigational skills, and enjoyed the twisty-windy-roundabout swinging of the dial as the brave little car sped me on my way to check grocery prices in Clarenville.

After dropping in for lunch at my other nursery in Bunyan’s Cove I headed home through Lethbridge back to highway 230 and Home.

20230813a.jpg

To refresh my memory here is the day’s trip, 282 Km in all. South from Bonavista to Clarenville, then back northwards to Bonavista via Bunyan’s Cove.

And here I found a mental anomaly.
For four and a half years now I have thought about “Heading south to Clarenville” and “Heading home northwards”. I think of the Bonavista lighthouse of being six kilometres to the north of my house.

So when on my way back from Bunyan’s Cove to Bonavista I glanced at the compass to see it indicating South East I was intrigued (at my mental state!). South East suggests to me the direction of St John’s, which is another two hours drive the other side of Clarenville, which I think of as "to the south of me”.

20230813b.jpg

A close inspection shows three regions of the trip back from Bunyan’s Cove where the highway is closer to SE than to S or E. There are many more sections of the highway where E predominates over SE, and of course I think of E as Splash! Into Trinity Bay. We are surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, right?

20230813c.jpg

I had previously overcome my feeling that a drive from St John’s to Port aux Basques was westwards. The Trans-Canada Highway arches half-way across the island North, and then South again.

Back on Tuesday, October 03, 2017 I wrote “The drive swings through all points of the compass between due south to due north, so the sun is zigzagging all over the place.”. My first three hours in Newfoundland I had to accommodate roads that swing around bogs and swamps, avoid mountains, and are nothing at all like the roads across the desserts of Western Australia ...

In short, I am still learning about this beautiful island.

Cheers, Chris

[robertocm]

Thanks!
Very interesting

Thinking about other "benefits" in traveling to these modern consumer cathedrals.

[ChrisGreaves]

Thanks! Very interesting

Hi Roberto, but go easy on the compliments or we'll never be able to shut Chris up

Thinking about other "benefits" in traveling to these modern consumer cathedrals.

... and your thoughts on other "benefits' are ...?
Cheers, Chris

[BobH]

Chris, in your 3rd map above it appears that you live on an island. Is that the case? Is it accessible by road or only by ferry or airplane?

[HansV]

That's correct. Newfoundland is an island, without bridges to other parts of Canada.
There's a ferry between North Sydney, Nova Scotia and Port aux Basques, Newfoundland, and another one between North Sydney, Nova Scotia and Argentia, Newfoundland.

[ChrisGreaves]

That's correct. Newfoundland is an island, without bridges to other parts of Canada.

Hans, I think that our tumbling tumbleweed friend here is "winding us up", as another island nation would say. meaning "he's pulling your leg".
Texans are very well-educated people, especially when it comes to World Geopolitical science.
They even have high schools in many parts of the state.
At least, in those parts of the state that are mapped
Cheers to both of you
Chris

[ChrisGreaves]

Chris, in your 3rd map above it appears that you live on an island. Is that the case? Is it accessible by road or only by ferry or airplane?

Bob, I think that our waterlogged friend here is "winding us up", as another island nation would say. meaning "he's pulling your leg".
In a technical sense there are many ferries travelling between Newfoundland and "he offshore parts of the country. This page alone shows two ferries in in its first image , let alone all the others as you scroll down the page.

There are three public transportation ferry routes published for Newfoundland. The two routes that Hans mentioned, and a third route that passes between The Northern Peninsula and the south coast of Labrador ("Hang a right at Deer Lake")

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.

Why, this very morning, as I type 5:00 NDT, another trailer is preparing for an early start, an all-day drive to Rocky Harbour for an overnight stay, then a shorter drive up to Pidgeon Cove, a short ride in a ferry, then on to Labrador City.

I, myself, acting on my own behalf had a wonderful experience once I drove off The Blue Puttees on February second 2019("I was relieved. I was ecstatic. I was exhilarated. Took them under a minute to locate it it on this monster ship")

Cheers, Chris

[BobH]

So then, it is isolation that has presented the world with the Newfie, eh.

[ChrisGreaves]

So then, it is isolation that has presented the world with the Newfie, eh.

Just like the isolation that made Western Australians so fiercely independent. and resourceful.

The strange thing about Newfoundland is that the 1992 cod moratorium introduced a dole scheme, and thirty years on there is so much "free money" floating around that almost everyone drives one of their SUVs to the supermarket and loads up on processed food, as well as strawberries flown in, mid-winter, from Chile.

For any physical comparison, when you think of Newfoundland, think "Tasmania".
Cheers, Chris