I love it when the grocers start tripping over each other to show the consumer how good their prices are. With the economy crawling ever so slowly upward into a post-Recession mentality, there are still far too many individuals struggling to find footing. The grocery chains, much like the restaurants, are trying to capture some of the action. Earlier this month we saw the beginning round of pricing. Now we are hearing from Stop & Shop and Giant Food about the “real deal.” This terminology makes me wonder how long they sat with an ad agency to come up with something more than just a “deal.” Maybe it should have been titled “reality.”

What do these new pricing strategies mean? As far as I can tell after a mini-aisle cruise, products are tagged with multiple layers of prices–what it used to cost v. the new price and what a nearby national brand competitor (often Safeway) is charging. The gloves are off.

In the Chicago area, it’s Jewel v. Dominick’s, and the focus is on rolled back prices.

No matter where you live, we are all in this grocery pricing life. With Wal-Mart, Target, Costco, and Trader Joe’s competing with traditional grocers, there is some hope for further reductions. As consumers the questions we should ask are: Why were the prices so high in the first place? How do we continue to get them to come down? Overpaying is the name of the game as purchasers continue to feed conglomerates. Some hope is on the horizon as lowered pricing continues to garner attention.

Maybe we just don’t shop the way we used to. Maybe we are smarter, and the chains are just starting to understand that consumers have become savvier and have learned to be more better shoppers; less impulsive.

Maybe, just maybe, the pricing wars will continue, and we, as consumers, will benefit from further reductions.