smart shopping

Pooky Bear and I had a great ladies shopping night tonight. She picked out her birthday invitations and a birthday present for her friend at Toys R Us. We then found ourselves at Northgate mall enjoying a starbucks strawberry frappicino while wondering through out the mall. After picking wrapping paper for the birthday present we ended up at Safeway picking up a "few" things.

While we were picking up a "few things", we ended up in the yogurt section where I looked at almost every ingredients label on yogurt in hopes to find one with out sugar added. Pooky Bear saw the yogurt tubes I used to by and commented,"mommy, if yogurt tubes are bad for you; why do they put them on sale?". The tubes were on special 2 for $5.00, something like that. What a great question. What do I tell an inquisitive 4 year old about marketing and the economy. Fortunately the conversation diverted quickly when I found Dairyland yogurt and knew their was no sugar added to it. She instantly became excited about the different kinds of yogurt which were in the box. I was saved from Pooky's curiosity, so I thought.

I then moved on to Sour cream. If you know me, you would know I try to stick to dairyland products as much as I can. I was raised on Dairyland (AKA Dairy Producers) and have grown accustomed to the fresh taste and quality which comes with the products. This is definitely being passed down to my daughter as she instinctively looked for the dairyland sour cream. Once she helped me find it, she asked why I always look for "that kind", instead of what's mostly there. I confidently told her about the taste and quality and the fact it is made is Saskatchewan where we live. Yes! one question answered, confidently. I knew she would stump me again.
I just thought we could at least get to the rest of the store first.

She asked another question right after I put the sour cream in the cart. Looking at the rows of Energy drinks, she asked, "mommy, those drinks are not good for you, why do they put them on sale?" Many thoughts entered my head:
1. How does she know what energy drinks are
2. Yes! My daughter knew they were not good for her and didn't want them
3. This question again?!
4. My child is too smart for her own good
5. I hope her ideas on what is good and bad for her stay when she is older.
6. WHAT ON EARTH DO I TELL HER!!

Do I tell her some companies don't care how healthy products are as long as they sell? NO
Do I tell her not everyone knows some of the products are not good for them? maybe
Do I teach her about the marketing strategies that are used by companies to sell products in stores? too complicated.

I ended up talking to her more about not paying attention to what is on sale, but what is healthy for her. I reminded her about looking at the labels on foods. I reminded her healthy food can be on sale too, like some of the fruit we were buying.

What a girl.