Walmart cheating the Government?
 

I was shopping at the new Walmart near Colony Plaza today. A 16 oz package of Sara Lee bread was $3.18, but a 20 oz package of the exact same bread was $2.48. So, asked the stock guy why they charge more for less bread. He showed me a "W" on the shelf under the 16 oz package, which indicates that it is a WIC (women, infants, and children) Government program product. So they charge more for that product because the Government will pay it. Outrageous.

Not an expert on the WIC program in general, or specifically in Fla. (each State kind of runs their own program), but it's a typical govt program that is racked with complexities and inefficiencies. Though many of its problems have been resolved over the years, there are still some inconsistencies that appear in the program.

The one you discovered with the bread is a typical one involving both pricing and packaging. It may, or may not, be the case that Sara Lee's production is geared primarily for the 20 oz package size, leading to the pricing you saw. However, because the Fla. WIC program requires all allowable breads to be in 16 oz packages, Sara Lee has to make that change to their production in order to get their bread on the WIC shelves. That change might cost them, and that cost may be passed on to the retailer, who passes it on to the customer, who, by the way, has no reason to be "cost conscious" when using the WIC Program.

Add to that complete flexibility granted to the retailer in how they price WIC products, and you now have the situation you found at Walmart's market. It's actually even worse in the WIC-only style stores, which Fla. has as well. Hope that helps.....a little.....like I said at the start....it's a Govt. program!! lol :)

Anybody remember when you use to get day or two a day old bread and seen bread truck two or three time week delivering fresh bread? When I was kid there were only two brands in my hometown, Rainbow and Wonder. This bread now days got to be week old before it hits the shelf?

The Mystery of Bread -- Solved!
 

Bread . . .

In America, we each consume around 53 pounds of it every year. It’s the one food eaten by people of every race, culture, or religion. And we all want the freshest loaf whenever we buy it.

But is there a way to spot it, other than squeezing, tapping, or simply guessing?

Well, it turns out that there’s a simple visual code that can take you straight to the freshest loaf in seconds. And it’s all contained in the twist ties or plastic clips around the top of the bread bag. (See also: Fresh Fruits and Vegetables, By the Month)

I often wondered why they used different colors on those tags and ties. When I was a kid, I had hundreds of bread clips on the spokes of my bicycle tires, but I just figured the colors were for variety.

The Color Code of Freshness:

As it turns out, it indicates when the loaf was baked. The standard is as follows:

Blue: Monday
Green: Tuesday
Red: Thursday
White: Friday
Yellow: Saturday

And here's a quick color key that you can keep on you, if you so desire:

An easy way to remember it, though, is to simply recall the alphabet. The colors run in alphabetical order, so the earlier they appear in the alphabet, the earlier in the week the bread was baked. And it’s true. Even the ever-cynical Snopes.com backs it up.

This whole system was set up to help the supermarkets and grocers identify which bread was new, which was getting old (so it can be put on sale), and which was out of date and needed to be removed from the shelves. As a general rule of thumb, you should only see two colors of tags on the shelves at any one time, or three maximum for those days when bread wasn't delivered. But that doesn’t stop the old bread from sneaking in though. Do a check next time and see for yourself.

So when you go to the store for your next loaf, make sure the color of the tag is the same as the day on which you are shopping. Blue for Monday, green for Tuesday, and so on. Please note that if it’s Wednesday, you also want green. Sunday, you want yellow. For some reason, the system does not include those days. Some say it’s because bakers did not used to bake on Wednesdays and Sundays.

There Are Exceptions to the Rule:

Of course there are. Life would be too easy if everyone followed the same rules, made the same chargers for every cell phone, and used the same bread code.

So in some rare instances, you may see bread tags that are one color regardless of the day on which they were baked. They may simply contain a date. In that case, here’s what you need to remember:

The date on the tag is the sell-by date, not the date it was baked.

Source: Snopes.com

Re: Packaged bread
 

Packaged bread such as Wonder-not sure if it is even made anymore, was and is loaded with preservatives. In the good old days, I think it was the bakeries that would sell day old bread at a reduced price. Left out of the refrigerator in three or four days it would be moldy. Read what is in the bread you eat. If, they still use BHT it is the same stuff in Stabil gasoline aditive. Hey, if it is good enough for your golf cart.................

An excellent post that confirms that there is always more to the story than it initially appears to be.

As most of the rip-off, scam, beware, warning, etc. titled posts here at TOTV are.

So, it is fine that the Government is paying a lot more for the Sara Lee bread in the WIC program than a full priced paying customer? It sure doesn't seem right to me. Why can't Sara Lee and Walmart offer a cheaper price or at least the same price to the Government as a regular customer pays?

No it is not so we have to get people in Congress that work for us. Unfortunately not all rules work out as intended but as a vendor you have to follow the rules. Medicare overpays for most of its medicines as the law does not let medicare bargain for a lower price.

But it smelled so good. :) Wonder (& Burry's) were before they shut down within 5 miles of where we lived up north. Did it ever smell good when they were baking. Every year the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts would tour through the factory and get bags of "broken" cookies and loaves of bread at the end. Nobody cared about additives then. :D

Don't blame the stores. They only set pricing according to the manufactures. As said before it might cost more to produce which they pass on. Be thankful that the stores offer it on their shelves.

As stated by somebody else, WIC is a state run program, not federal. Congress has nothing to do with it.

There was a Merita bakery right alongside I-4 in downtown Orlando for over 50 years. I loved driving by and smelling the bread baking! They also had a day-old bread store that I always went to if I had to go downtown. Alas, it finally closed a few years ago, but at least the big neon sign that was a landmark went to the Morse Museum.

Makes sense.

Be thankful that Walmart isn't taking advantage of the fact and jacking up the price of the 20-oz loaf to the higher price of the 16-oz loaf.

The answer, of course, would be for the WIC program to accept whatever size the manufacturer can make the cheapest. But that would be too easy.:confused:

When I was a kid, we lived within 5 miles of a Nabisco factory. I can still smell in my mind the wonderful aroma of all that stuff baking.