Home economics: Mr. Market, part0

Self-tutoring about grocery shopping and economics: the tutor begins….

In my family, I do a fair amount of the grocery shopping – it’s something I’ve been learning since around 2017. With grocery shopping, it’s hard to imagine the learning will stop.

I recall hearing Warren Buffett’s reflections on Mr. Market.¹ I plan to talk about this more, but for now, the short version: Mr. Market offers pretty much the same inventory each day, but at prices that might be different from yesterday. Buffett’s point is that just because a good is offered at that price, doesn’t mean it’s worth that. You should know, before you visit Mr. Market, what things are worth.

At the grocery store, it can be a similar scenario: I often see things highlighted as a “special price” that’s 25 to 40 percent more than last time I was there. A person needs to know, beforehand, what a “special price” would be.

1. Robert G. Hagstrom, Jr. The Warren Buffett Way. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 1994, 51.