I was at the grocery store. It was a major chain store that I frequent because it’s close to my house. If I pay attention, use coupons and a discount card, I can usually manage to buy what I want for the week without going over my preset budget.

I was at the meat section, searching for sales. On the top shelf I saw a tag that said T-Bone Steak $4.99lb. Sometimes I crave this kind of protein and I always assume my body is telling me something I should know, so I took a closer look. And can you believe I couldn’t find a single steak for $4.99lb? I did, however, find packages with two steaks, two shelves down for that price.

Ah ha! I thought. There they are, but you have to buy two and that will put me over budget, so I will pass. The funny thing is that the sign for the low price was two shelves higher, where the porter house steaks (which look remarkably like t-bones) were sitting, priced at $10.99lb.

Hmmmm. Do you think maybe the store stacked the steaks this way hoping that I would pick up the waaaay more expensive porterhouse without paying attention to the price. I thought maybe I was just being paranoid, but upon closer examination I saw another shelf tag for t-bones for $5.99lb on the top shelf. I went on a serious search for those steaks and found only one, completely surrounded by (drum roll please) really expensive porterhouses.

At this point I walked away from the meat counter, fearful that the beef mafia my realize I was on to them and order a hit to protect their evil enterprise. Okay, maybe that’s a bit paranoid, but I will bet dollars to donuts, the shell game they are playing with the steaks is designed with hope that some folks will spend 10.99lb when they think they are spending $4.99lb and never see the switch.

It’s possible that this was all coincidental, of course, but I don’t think so.  And it’s a good reminder to closely check both the price tags on your items and the receipt you get from the store.

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Just my two cents...Happy shopping!