California Christmas/Holiday Ham Prices

[CalItalian]

Certainly higher than last year. And who knows how high they will be next year (but we'll have this thread to compare) with the new CA pork law coming into effect on Jan 1. Each chain is offering their traditional ham supplier in SoCal.

Ralphs. Farmer John. Full Half Ham. .99 lb., Spiral Sliced Ham $1.49 lb.. Requires $25 minimum purchase. I've never seen a minimum purchase requirement before at Christmas.

Vons/Albertsons. Cook's. .88 lb. with digital coupon. No minimum purchase required.

Aldi. Appleton Farms. Spiral Sliced Half Ham, .95 lb. By far the best price just as they were at Thanksgiving on Butterball turkey. No minimum purchase.

Smart & Final. Farmer John or Hormel Cure 81. Spiral Sliced Ham, $2.49 lb. No minimum purchase.

Stater Bros., Food 4 Less & Pavilions have yet to advertise a ham.

[Bagels]

Went to Aldi on Wednesday to buy a ham. They had a sign that said due to limited quantities available and high demand, they were adjusting the price to 1.99/lb.

Very interesting year.

[storewanderer]

Went to Aldi on Wednesday to buy a ham. They had a sign that said due to limited quantities available and high demand, they were adjusting the price to 1.99/lb.

Very interesting year.

I wonder if any consumer protection laws in CA would come into play with this... it seems like if they ran the ad, and have the product available, unless it was a glowing error...

Better practice may have been to honor the ad price for these hams, sell through them, and bring in some other brand at the 1.99/lb. Then they could use the "while supplies last" excuse for why there are no .95/lb hams left.

[CalItalian]

Went to Aldi on Wednesday to buy a ham. They had a sign that said due to limited quantities available and high demand, they were adjusting the price to 1.99/lb.

Very interesting year.

I was in Aldi this morning and bought a ham at the advertised price. They can't raise an advertised price. I'd report them to your local county price and measures department and DA.

If the specific advertised product is available, they have to honor it. I've forced many retailers to honor their prices over the years (not just supermarkets).

Ads are still online showing the price. They haven't taken them down.

[CalItalian]

Aldi is still advertising the Spiral Sliced Ham for .95 lb.. They also have a butt or shank ham for .69 lb. No minimum purchase. Both are by far the lowest in SoCal.

[HCal]

I wonder if any consumer protection laws in CA would come into play with this... it seems like if they ran the ad, and have the product available, unless it was a glowing error...

Better practice may have been to honor the ad price for these hams, sell through them, and bring in some other brand at the 1.99/lb. Then they could use the "while supplies last" excuse for why there are no .95/lb hams left.

I'm sure their flyer has a disclaimer saying that they are not responsible for errors. I don't know how it would play out legally, but this does make them look bad and will put off customers, especially in California where they are still fairly new and don't have large market share.

[storewanderer]

[
I'm sure their flyer has a disclaimer saying that they are not responsible for errors. I don't know how it would play out legally, but this does make them look bad and will put off customers, especially in California where they are still fairly new and don't have large market share.

Yes, but this isn't an error. This is a "we decided we wanted to raise the price" move. Which I question the legality of.

[J-Man]

I was in Aldi on Monday and while they were out of the spiral-sliced hams, the shelf label was still there, and it showed the higher price, but said that the price would be adjusted to the advertised price at the register. I've seen that often at Aldi, especially with fresh meat specials.

[HCal]

Yes, but this isn't an error. This is a "we decided we wanted to raise the price" move. Which I question the legality of.

I just checked Aldi's flyer, it says "printing or typographical errors". So that wouldn't cover a case where they decided to raise the price to make more money.

California does have a law https://codes.findlaw.com/ca/business-a ... 024-2.html which based on my reading, says that this is illegal and carries a fine of up to $1000. But I have no idea how (or whether) this is enforced or if there are any loopholes available.

I wonder if this was sanctioned by corporate or if a rogue manager did it on their own initiative. My guess is that Aldi doesn't give store-level managers much autonomy on pricing.

[storewanderer]

Yes, but this isn't an error. This is a "we decided we wanted to raise the price" move. Which I question the legality of.

I just checked Aldi's flyer, it says "printing or typographical errors". So that wouldn't cover a case where they decided to raise the price to make more money.

California does have a law https://codes.findlaw.com/ca/business-a ... 024-2.html which based on my reading, says that this is illegal and carries a fine of up to $1000. But I have no idea how (or whether) this is enforced or if there are any loopholes available.

I wonder if this was sanctioned by corporate or if a rogue manager did it on their own initiative. My guess is that Aldi doesn't give store-level managers much autonomy on pricing.

It may have been a very bad local-level decision. I was wondering that too as I didn't think the Aldi stores controlled this sort of thing at the store level but don't know much about them so maybe they have more control than it appears. But based on recent posts it sounds like they are honoring the price again. So either some store/group of stores did this, or a decision was made to honor the ad.