Organic Baby Food for a Penny More than Conventional!

My last post mentioned the downward pricing pressure in the organic market. I’ve never seen better evidence of this than today, when I noticed a sale on Safeway’s O Organics line of jarred baby foods. Now through Sunday, November 11th you can purchase 10 jars of organic baby food for $6. That’s just 60 cents per 4 ounce jar, or 15 cents per ounce. Sitting right down the shelf from the O Organics is conventional Gerber baby food, priced at 59 cents per jar. Yes, that’s right – this means that you can buy organic jarred baby food for just a penny more than conventional jarred baby food.

If you prefer the name brand Earth’s Best, you can grab that on sale too – 12 jars for $9.49 – that’s just 79 cents per jar, versus it’s regular price of $1.05 per jar at Safeway.

Don’t interpret this as an ad for Safeway – I have no connection to the store other than the fact that I’ve probably spent tens of thousands of dollars there over the years!

A key reason I launched this blog was to help parents make sense of their organic purchases. And what makes better sense than buying organic when it’s just a penny a jar more than conventional baby food?

Best news – I asked the customer service rep if this sale is nationwide, and she said yes. It’s a nationwide in-store only sale. So head out to Safeway and shop, shop, shop! — Lynn

Copyright 2007, Organicmania

Filed under Baby, Food, Marketing, Organic Prices, Organics, Parenting | Wordpress Comments (2) |

Parents® Magazine Just Doesn’t Get It

They really don’t get it. The editors over at Parents® Magazine must not understand the angst that real parents feel about the spate of recent toy recalls involving lead paint and myriad other defects. How else can they justify their November cover story on “52 Hot Holiday Toys?” The article promotes more of the same Expensive Plastic Crap (as opposed to Cheap Plastic Crap) that has been marketed to parents for years.

I love Parents, I really do. It’s one of the few parenting magazines I still subscribe to after 5 plus years of the Mommy gig. So when my new issue arrived Tuesday, I opened it eagerly, and to be honest, I was shocked by what I read. I really thought the article would at least include some eco-friendly toys. Perhaps a few organic stuffed cotton animals? Some hand crafted wooden toys? Something without plastic or paint?? C’mon! Parents are screaming for non-traditional toys this holiday season. I’ll even confess that in my sleep deprived state I may have missed the promotion of eco-friendly toys (DH is out of town and darling baby is teething all night long). But if Parents is promoting eco-friendly items somewhere in this issue, they’re sure not making them stand out from the rest of the editorial and advertising content.

Actually, to be kind, I think the editors probably do get it. I saw the cute pictures of them with their adorable offspring. It must be the advertising chieftains who don’t get it, or if they do, they were afraid to do something different this holiday season.

So dear readers, what say you? Please leave a comment sharing your favorite sources for eco-friendly toys, and then I’ll do a compilation post combining my research (to come) with your suggestions.

UPDATE 11/9/07 – The Parent Bloggers Network is leading a great effort with Consumers Union to protest the seemingly never-ending saga of toy recalls. They are looking for 30,000 volunteers to visit stores nationwide. Visit Consumers Union to find out what you can do to make a difference.

— Lynn

Copyright 2007, Organicmania

Filed under Eco-friendly toys, Marketing, Parenting | Wordpress Comments (8) |