When I was younger I worked for a Supermarket Chain and lost my innocence (not necessarily in that order.) One of my duties around Thanksgiving was to scan competitive ads for prices and especially try to pin down what our competitors were going to sell Turkey for that holiday.
Then I would attend a merchandising meeting and breathlessly provide my input. After a number of these meetings I began to notice something I found to be strange. The major chains were always within a few cents of each other. ...and still more strange, each week they seemed to take turns being the lowest priced chain.How could they possibly know in advance what was going to happen??
Heaven forbid there could be any collusion going on!! (Remember, I was young and very naive.) Rather I attributed this to amazing coincidence.
Later I heard that a person at each major newspaper was "financially encouraged" to pass along the prices of each chain as soon as the desk received the copy that was to be used to set the ad.
That taught me a lesson. This Thanksgiving we noticed only one of the three major supermarket chains were advertising the leading major brand of Turkeys. The other two were quietly selling it in store and pushing the heck out of their own private label in the ads. On which, of course, I would assume they made a greater profit.
Now I would never say this was all planned by the 3 chains. I would never say it cause, being a lot older and more careful now, I can only imagine the lawsuits that would ensue. Happy Triptofan. (of course the Drug companies sell a lot more anti-acids this time of year. Is it only a coincidence ?
Think about it as you indulge in your holiday meal. Happy Thanksgiving Readers.
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