Hi Greg and All,

There are a few things going on that you've noticed.

1) Comparision shopping is difficult and always has been. It requires time and care. If you get in the habit of shopping at one store, not reading the price labels and doing the per-unit checks, then it's easy to spend more than you would with a little more work. E.g. Safeway has a devilish habit of putting the per-unit prices of some items as per ounce, others as per unit, and sometimes they're just completely wrong because they didn't do the division right. E.g. I've seen some bottled water listed at 1.9 c/oz and others listed at 33.5 c/oz when the latter should have been 3.35 c/oz.

Coupons and in-store specials can make comparison shopping even more difficult. Few people are able to travel from store to store to pay the minimum price on their staples.

The internet helps some in doing comparision shoppping, but there's still a mountain of information to sort through and that takes time. Everything you need or want doesn't show up on PriceWatch or NexTag, and if you need something today the 'net isn't going to help much.

2) Many stores are having a terrible time generating increasing sales. I think JCPenney had their "once-in-a-century" sale on every weekend for the last 6 months. There are too many retailers out there for the volume of sales these days and many are going to have to undergo reorganization in the near future, is my guess. It's very difficult to compete with Wal-Mart even if you're a retailer that has better prices because Wal-Mart has the reputation for being the cheapest. Retailers feel they have to be shrill in their advertising to overcome shoppers' habits.

Store loyalties are based on more than cheapest prices, as you noted.

3) As Glen said, deflation in some prices is an issue. Stores find it easier to do a temporary mark-down than to cut prices across the board.

A lot of this stuff goes in cycles. I remember when Dell was the dog of the industry and in danger of going under because they didn't have a competitive laptop. Now they're the 500 pound gorilla. I remember when Lowes was in bankruptcy. Now they're doing very well....

Cheers,
Scott.