"supermarkets" news and stories

So does that box of cereal seem a little slimmer, that can of tuna a little lighter? Does it feel like you just bought that jar of peanut butter that you're now scraping the bottom of?

Well, at least you can take comfort in the fact that you're not going crazy. As the New York Times reports, we can say so long to the era of "supersizing": Meet the incredible shrinking carton of ice cream.

No doubt you've heard that the cost of, well, just about everything is going up. But what you may have only had an inkling of until now is that one sneaky way food makers are passing those costs onto you is not to raise prices; it's to get you to shell out the same amount for just a little bit less in return.

Jezebel reports that a Facebook group called Supermarket Scrabble, which advocates re-arranging products on grocery shelves to spell out dirty words, is calling for an all-out Spell-In on April Fool's Day. What products, you ask, lend themselves to this brand of merry pranksterism? Well, let's just say that a certain spice label -- one whose individual offerings display a big initial letter on each jar -- makes it especially easy to participate in this X-rated spelling bee.

But before you decide to have some fun down at the A&Pee (oops, A&P), you might want to think about the poor staff who will have to re-arrange all of the lewd lettering. Is it fair that the joke is on them?

Walking into your average supermarket is a lot like being a contestant on "Jeopardy!" If you think hard, choose wisely, and give all the right answers, you can go home with a carload of cash and prizes. But make a few mistakes and you'll leave with an empty wallet-not to mention a lot of empty calories.

In fact, even the lowest-priced supermarket in your neighborhood is brimming with complete rip-offs-health foods that aren't healthy, gourmet foods that aren't gourmet, specialty items that just aren't that special. Here are just some of the foods you're overpaying for, compliments of Eat This, Not That! Supermarket Survival Guide and Cook This, Not That!.

If you're trying to eat healthy, put down that debit card.

New research shows that customers are less likely to buy unhealthy foods if they use cash than if they pay with credit or debit cards for groceries, according to a report from Bloomberg BusinessWeek.

Over the course of six months, researchers from Cornell University and the State University of New York in Binghamton and Buffalo followed 1,000 households, analyzing their shopping behavior. Their study found that when the shoppers paid with credit or debit cards instead of cash, they put more junk food in their shopping carts, the study showed.

Why does health go out the window when paying with plastic?

As evidence that our future is shaping up to be some unholy hybrid of Blade Runner meets Mad Men (with a dash of Orwellian paranoia thrown in), here comes this: 3GTV.

As The New York Times reports, a company called Automated Media Services has developed TV screens that can be clipped to supermarket shelves. And what will be showing on those tiny screens? You guessed it: endless loops of the same commercials for cereal or soup or shampoo.

More after the jump.