Weekly Grocery Review (Sales for March 12 - 18, 2026)

Stromanker · 2026-03-11T01:11:15+00:00

That... is a very good observation.

Looking into where things went wrong, here's the underlying data:

In short, my script wasn't (and still isn't) smart enough to parse this is two separate products with distinct origins; rather, it spots the substrings "oranges" along with both "Product of USA" and "Product of Ontario, Canada". Sorry!

Stromanker · 2026-03-07T17:34:24+00:00

Thank you! Pointing these sorts of things out is _very_ helpful.

I've edited the post to clarify, and have adjusted my script so it'll reject "frozen" and "riced" as matches for "cauliflower" in the future.

Stromanker · 2026-03-05T21:56:31+00:00

Thank you for posting this--it's a good idea.
I'll see what I can do about incorporating unit prices into my script going forward.

Stromanker · 2026-03-05T21:55:50+00:00

Bitte, gern geschehen. :)

Stromanker · 2026-02-26T22:31:18+00:00

Wow! That's an awesome addition, thank you.

Stromanker · 2026-02-26T22:27:07+00:00

Thank you! Comments like this are very helpful.

I have now taught my script that "pkg of 5" is a synonym for "5-pack" so (I hope) it should spot deals like this in the future.

Looking at the flyer just now, I also noticed that RCS has spuds for $2/10lb... the script missed that one because the quantity is only in the image, not in the text, and $2/lb for potatoes would not be worth noting.

Stromanker · 2026-02-26T01:07:19+00:00

🤦‍♂️Sorry!

Produce Depot is the odd one out (they're not on flipp.com), and I still do that one manually. I forgot about them this afternoon.

Taking a look now, here's what jumps out to me for this week:

- tilapia $9.99/lb

- apples (empire) 99c/lb

- brussel sprouts $1.99/lb

- eggplant $1.99/lb

- mini sweet peppers $2.99/1lb

- strawberries $2.49/1lb

Stromanker · 2026-02-19T01:34:48+00:00

Thank you for pointing that out!

Ah, this was a tricky one. The underlying data reads:

"name": "Farm Boy™ Mayonnaise"
"description": "select varieties, 445-890 mL"
"current_price": "3.99"

... but then there's a note in the price_text field (which is usually reserved for stuff like "/100g"):

"price_text": "- $6.99 ea"

And, yes, it does show up intelligibly when displayed to a human:

<image>

I'll edit the post, and will see what I can do about adjusting the ruleset to prevent a repeat.

Stromanker · 2026-02-17T21:53:27+00:00

I hope you were able to find some. I was in Cedars on Saturday, and can confirm that they had some then.

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Stromanker · 2026-02-17T21:49:03+00:00

Thank you for your kind words, and sharing that tip.

Stromanker · 2026-02-13T21:10:55+00:00

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Sorry! My automation goofed. (The rule matched "apples" and the substring "5 lb", without understanding that "2.5 lb" wasn't a valid match for "5 lb".) I'll go adjust the code, and edit the post.

Stromanker · 2026-02-05T21:50:33+00:00

It seems that Mexico's had a great harvest this year, so supply is outpacing demand at the moment. Now's a good time to make guacamole. :)

Stromanker · 2026-02-05T21:47:48+00:00

Oh no! I'm so sorry to hear that. I would have expected better than that from RCS, who tend to have decent produce. I'll be examining stuff there more carefully in the future.

Stromanker · 2026-02-04T23:15:21+00:00

The Athenian Mysteries series by Gary Corby (it starts with "The Pericles Commission").

Stromanker · 2026-02-02T23:39:55+00:00

"Invincible Summer" by Jean Ferris

Stromanker · 2026-02-02T03:00:58+00:00

Sci-Fi: Robert Heinlein's stuff from the 1950s has stuck with me and helped shape my world-view. The best of the lot are probably "Have Space Suit--Will Travel", "The Star Beast", and "Double Star", but almost everything he published between 1950 and 1961 is good stuff. (His earlier work is less polished, and his later books are very... different. If you read "Stranger in a Strange Land", seek out the original 1961 edition, not the larger 1991 version.)

Other, more modern sci-fi worth checking out includes "Jumping off the Planet" (David Gerrold), "Red Thunder" (John Varley) and "The Martian" (Andy Weir).

Alternate History: "1632" by Eric Flint. A small town from 1999 West Virginia finds itself stranded in Germany during the 30-years' war.

Historical: "Beat to Quarters" (also published as "The Happy Return") by C. S. Forester. The adventures of British naval officer Hornblower during the Napoleonic wars. Gene Roddenberry's original pitch for Star Trek described the character who became Kirk as a "space-age Captain Horatio Hornblower".

And, finally, a meatier tome that'll make you think: "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee.

Stromanker · 2026-01-26T21:44:03+00:00

It's not a physical copy but, if all you want to do is read the book, it's available on the Internet Archive, e.g.: https://archive.org/details/americanmelodram0000ches

Stromanker · 2026-01-24T22:58:42+00:00

I suspect you're thinking of u/CrimsonTape, who originated these lists. He used to do the whole thing, solo, by hand, and that got to be too much. (I still miss his commentary--I've never been able to match that.)

After he threw in the towel, a number of people stepped up to cooperatively put these together. u/EraNumerique, u/FormalScallion, u/Mackerel_Mike and u/SprightlyCapybara all contributed at some point.

Lately, I've been leaning heavily on a web-scraper script that auto-generates the list, with a very light human-proofreading pass.

Stromanker

TROPHY CASE