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If you read my pages on Examiner.com regularly, you might have noticed that I do not include prices on many products that I review. While I'd be happy to list prices for everything if my audience was limited to Atlanta, over 95% of my readers don't even live in Georgia. About 2% don't live in the U.S.
There is another reason I don't like listing prices on my reviews though, besides the fact that most people reading them don't live anywhere near Atlanta. Prices on gluten-free products fluctuate greatly depending on where they are sold. Atlanta has the largest gluten-free community in the Southeast. The panhandle of Florida might have the smallest. It is common for patients down there to come to Atlanta to see Dr. Cynthia Rudert because many doctors down there don't know much about celiac disease.
Fewer people eating gluten-free in an area equals much higher prices for gluten-free products there. It's a matter of supply and demand, like everything else in business. There is gluten-free flour blend that sells for $3.49 at most places in Atlanta. The exact same item sells for $5.89 in several parts of Florida. It's not a different size - it's not a different anything. Yet, it's over $2 more per package because the small stores in Florida can't sell as much of it as the stores in our area can.
If I lived in a tiny place with limited gluten-free product choices, I would not want to know that I have to pay $5.89 for something that sells for only $3.49 elsewhere. It would annoy me to pay that much more for a product than others have to pay - every time I bought it. Until everyone who should be eating gluten-free knows they should be (and does it), these price fluctuations will continue in the market. There will always be some fluctuation of course, which is understandable. However, some products cost over double elsewhere than they do in Atlanta.
Since everyone can't move to a major city for the exceptional gluten-free options, we should all do what we can to drive celiac diagnosis rates up. Urge your family members to be tested - even if they are asymptomatic. Family members should be tested every 3-5 years, depending on which celiac expert you're talking to.
If we all wait around until the NIH plan to educate doctors about celiac disease kicks in - we might be waiting forever. It is up to our community to step up and drive the change needed in the U.S. regarding celiac, gluten intolerance and other food intolerances.
For more info: Consider referring friends (with suspicious symptoms of celiac) and your family members to the NFCA website to complete the FREE symptoms check list.
Comments
Another alternative for those in remote places is to buy in bulk via Amazon.com. That approach isn't optimal for testing new products, but once you find a favorite flour blend, that often more economical - even for city-dwellers!
I've had the same experience with Amazon as Alicia. We have no children at home and I've pretty much quit eating bread in general. I've been using Jules Shepards's flour blend, mixing it myself, and using my old dessert, quick bread, and muffin recipes as well as cookies and them come out close to what the regular ones tasted like. I'm shopping more on the perimeter of the store and buying in season. We also have a garden that helps keep prices down. Our food bill is still higher than before I was diagnosed.
Yes - Amazon is great, as Alicia says IF you know you like something. And the FREE shipping is great! The problem is that many people are still resistant to online shopping. It's hard to believe but it's true none the less. Gluten Free Mall is good too if you want to try something and don't want a case of it. Many people have NO gf food in their local stores so they have to buy online of go without.
Barb - we spend much less today on food as a country than we did in the 1950's because food companies over processed everything - adding a lot of fake ingredients that are not even allowed to be put in food in some countries!. We (our household) spend a fortune on food and still the percentage is less of our income than our grand parents grew up. And I ship in bagels, doughnuts, cheese crackers and buns.... The average Amercian family spends very little on food which will likely result in them being fairly unhealthy. Many people really don't get that we are what we eat.
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