We eat a lot of cheese in our family. I ate a lot of cheese as a child so it is not surprising that my love of cheese continues to this day. So when LCW texted me this morning to let me know that cheese is on sale at Sobey's this week ($4.99 for 500 gram blocks), I was reminded that I need to write a post about buying cheese.
The price of cheese fluctuates greatly. However, it is a
loss leader item and it frequently goes on sale. In Alberta, 700 gram blocks of
Cracker Barrel are normally priced at $11.99. However (usually twice per month), they go on sale for between $7.99-$8.99/block. On rare occasions, they are priced at $6.99/block. I find that the easiest way to remember whether cheese is a good deal is to know that big blocks shouldn't be much more than $1 per 100 gram. Because cheese goes on sale so frequently, I refuse to pay full price for cheese. It stores well in its original package so I will usually buy 2-4 blocks at a time (or whatever the limit is for the sale price).
*after reviewing the Cracker Barrel website, I thought that it was interesting to see that their cheese has no artificial preservatives, no artificial growth hormones, or antibiotics. I'm no expert on how organic cheese differs from conventional cheese but these points make me feel somewhat less guilty about buying non-organic cheese as it's VERY expensive and I find it hard to justify the cost given how much cheese we eat!*
