Targetrage

As obsessively noted here, I have taken great care to reduce the materials cost for home-baked bagels. Getting the best price on a jar of Fleischmann’s Yeast is tricky. At full-service grocers, the price is typically $7.00 to $9.00 for a 4-ounce jar. Ouch.

Wal-Mart’s posted price is $5.48, but it is never in stock at the local “supercenter”.

Target’s online price depends on the store you’ve selected. At the store closest to me, it’s $5.89:

But if you go to the store, the posted price is $7.48. You can evade this extra charge by ordering for curbside pickup (who pays extra for the privilege of venturing into a crowded big box store).

Weirdly, even the curbside price varies depending on which store you have selected when you first search for the product.

If you start your search at the Westwoood Target location, the price is $7.49:

And this is the price you’ll get, even if you switch the pickup location to Framingham. On the other hand, if you have the Framingham store selected when you initially place the product in your cart, switching to the Westwood store preserves the lower price.

I suppose the general price differential between the two stores makes sense, based on the demographics of the two communities:

And Target’s willingness to provide a 23% discount for pre-ordering the item for curbside pickup? I guess that’s what that data point about my shopping behavior is worth to them.