Things that are inexplicably cheap

[ChewChewIsMySpiritAnimal]

Inspired by the thread about things that are inexplicably expensive!

My pick is bananas. You can buy a huge bunch of bananas for a few pence - I'm always shocked when i get to the till and find I've got about 22 bananas for less than a quid exaggerating but they've been imported from halfway round the world - yet the British apples next to them are twice as much.

What do you find inexplicably cheap?

If I were him, I'd be inclined to say to the customers that those suspiciously cheap ones will without a doubt be produced under cruel intensive methods, without any care for the welfare of the birds. Most of his customers appreciate being able to enjoy richer-tasting eggs produced by well looked-after hens at a more realistic price, but obviously, it's their choice to make.

He must be selling his eggs for 25-30p or so each, so potentially three times what they reckon they could pay for them at the mystery supermarket of dubious existence. If price is all that matters to them, why aren't they just going there?

I think they must realise that his non-intensively-produced eggs taste much nicer and are also happier at his superior ethical husbandry of the birds, but they still want them at the same price as bland cruelty-produce.

I'm always very suspicious of people who will return time and time again to (usually small-scale) producers and constantly moan that other places are much cheaper, in the hope of getting them to slash their prices, instead of simply going to the cheaper places in the first place (if they exist). I don't go to Waitrose and waste my and their time moaning that their bread is significantly dearer than the bread at Lidl - I just go straight to Lidl.

Shopping in Aldi - I’m always surprised by how cheap it is compared to sainsbos/tesco

@Biddie191 10p an egg is stupidly cheap, I would wonder what they're fed and what conditions they're kept in to achieve that price.

I've eaten cheap eggs before and they taste like nothing. I'd rather pay more for something tasty, produced by happy birds.

At first he used to worry that he was selling his eggs for too much, but then realised that other free range eggs are similar, and often more expensive. He's 13, does it all himself, and is regularly found watching MOTD with a hen on his knee!
Most of his regular customers are more than happy to pay the £2.40 per dozen he charges, several insist on paying a little extra too. During lock down we've had to do lots of baking though, as his usual customers are mostly through my work.

Ah, I didn't realise he was that age - good for him

In that case, I think they're definitely trying it on because he's young and basically lying to (you could even say gaslighting) a child in order to profit from him to the tune of a pound or two. They should be ashamed of themselves. If anything, most adults would gladly pay a bit extra to young people to encourage them, not try to rip them off.

Milk - it’s a crime how cheap it is . Supermarkets should be ashamed ! Come to think of it it’s quite similar with lots of food.

Wish I could buy some from him. Sounds fine to me,

2.40 a dozen is about standard from peoples' driveway egg shops. Used to be a pound for half a dozen but it's crept up over the years..

Glass. It's an amazing thing and we just treat it like it's nothing.

Five pairs of women's basic white from Tesco £2.50.

Don't know how long they'll last but they look okay.

*Oh for god's sake: Five pairs of women's basic white socks from Tesco £2.50.

Milk - it’s a crime how cheap it is . Supermarkets should be ashamed !

You're right, but they won't be. Notice how some of them have started selling a variant which promises to give the extra amount you pay for it directly back to the farmer. Of course, they dress this up as them being compassionate to their small suppliers when, in reality, if that had been true, they would never have needed to offer you the opportunity to make up for their own lack of ethics in the first place.

Maybe they hope you'll assume that the farmers are already handsomely paid, but that you're just adding an extra tip to thank them again - rather than that it's up to you and other customers to decide whether the farmer will be able to feed their family this week (and, in more cases than anybody would like to think, not feel driven to take their own lives).

Still, it's no different really from their regular practice of making immense profits partly through paying their staff wages low enough so that they need to be subsidised and topped up by the taxpayer for them to earn enough to live on. Not just supermarkets, but many huge businesses.

Wish I could buy some from him. Sounds fine to me

Me too. What sad little lives some people have, lying to children in order to guilt them into giving away the proceeds of their hard work and efforts and subsidise the CFs. It doesn't sound like he does any more than break even if he's lucky anyway. He sounds like a smashing lad.

I always get surprised how cheap salt and sugar are!
@Whenwillthisbeover how good is the company shop! I'm always recommending it to everyone I know who is eligible for a card

@thegreymethod - the best! It’s a 50 mile round trip to Tankersley for me so I only go one a month, but I get so excited before I go in 😂

@Whenwillthisbeover I feel like that too 🤣 oh no!! Mine isn't that far so I go a couple of times a week, I can't shop in other supermarkets now because everything feels so expensive!

Felt tip pens

I'm 51, when I was a child (overseas) they were incredibly expensive. Like eye watering. My nana used to bring/send them to us from England, where they were still expensive compared to today though.

@Biddie191. Tell him to stick to his pricing (Or increase it!!) & tell them they're welcome to buy mass produced eggs, from hens kept in horrible conditions & fed crap if that's what they'd prefer to do but if they want tasty eggs, from happy, well looked after hens, then 30p per egg is an absolute bargain.

@Biddie191 I agree with @IncrediblySadToo, lots of people would bend over backwards to get lovely fresh eggs from happy chickens. I get mine from a farm sometimes and would bite your hand off if you offered them to me for 30p each.

tell them they're welcome to buy mass produced eggs, from hens kept in horrible conditions & fed crap if that's what they'd prefer to do

Maybe I'm just being PA, but I'd simply refer to them as 'cruelty eggs' when talking to these people. If they try to gainsay him and ask how he can possibly know that, he can calmly tell them from his position of expertise that he knows what it costs to be a responsible and humane keeper of chickens and if their eggs are on sale in a retail setting at half the price it costs to feed them properly - never mind all of the other associated costs and profit that the shop is presumably wanting to make - they cannot possibly be treating them anything but cruelly. And yes, you don't have to be Einstein to realise that the eggs from these malnourished, imprisoned, traumatised hens are not going to taste anywhere near as nice as those from happy, compassionately-kept hens.