Avoiding retail store ripoffs when buying bulk bird seed for feeding wild birds:

by James K. Sayre

Many of us buy bird seed to restock our outdoor bird feeding stations on a regular basis. This morning I went into the large Longs Drugs store in Walnut Creek, California and brought two five pound bags of regular mixed bird seed that were shelf priced at $2 to the checkout counter where the clerk scanned them to be $5 each. I said no thank you, they should be priced about $1.89 or $1.99 for a 5 pound bag.

Regular mixed birdseed should be at most about 40 cents per pound or about $2 for a five pound bag. The Wild Birds Unlimited Center in Pleasant Hill, CA is another rip off: they charge about 90 cents per pound for regular mixed bird seed. This is more than twice the going rate for bulk bird seed typically found in chain grocery stores or chain. But they are "groovy."

So watch those store scanners and watch where you shop and you should be able to continue to feed the local wild birds in a thrifty manner.

Recent note: the Dollar stores, a chain located in California and possibly elsewhere in the nation, offers 4.5 # of regular bird seed for $1 and 1.5# of sunflower bird seed for a dollar. Definitely the best buy.

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