DEAR HELOISE: Why is it that when I run into the grocery store for just milk and eggs, they are always at the very back of the store?
-- Mary Ann D. in Texas
DEAR READER: Thank you for your letter. This is an opportunity to talk about the layout at the supermarket. There are some "tricks" that grocery retailers use to get us to spend more.
• Necessities, like milk and eggs, are in the back of the store. This way, you'll walk through and be tempted by other items.
• More-expensive items are in the front. When you first come in, you have money to spend.
• Things that go together are placed together, like chips and dip. This will lure you into spending more.
• The costliest items typically are on the shelf at eye level.
• Retailers may use scents to entice you, too. Warm cinnamon rolls and bread smell yummy.
• Be a smart shopper and read those labels.
DEAR READERS: Need hints on what to put in those Christmas stockings? Read on: rain bonnets, perfumed soaps, emery boards, lipsticks, new socks, pocket combs, handkerchiefs, keychains, coin purses and potholders.
The above came from the files of my mother's, the original Heloise (1919-1977), and it appeared in a column dated Dec. 24, 1970 -- time-tested!
DEAR HELOISE: I use last year's Christmas cards to decorate gifts I'm giving this year. I wrap the gifts in plain wrapping paper and attach card fronts to the paper with double-sided tape.
I select cards that relate to the gift recipient (animal lovers, or pictures of Santa for a child). Then I frame the card with flat ribbon. If you need to ship packages, the flat decorations pack well.
-- Sandra, via email
DEAR HELOISE: I wish that card manufacturers would leave the glitter off of greeting cards. Every Christmas, we get several cards with glitter on them. It is pretty, but it gets all over my clothes, it falls everywhere, and it isn't easy to clean up.
When we receive glittery cards, I peek inside the envelope to see who it's from, and to read the verse and any note that has been written, then into the trash it goes! The nonglittery ones get displayed in a card rack.
-- A Reader, Charlotte, N.C.
Send a money- or time-saving hint to Heloise, P.O. Box 795000, San Antonio, Texas 78279-5000; fax to (210) 435-6473; or email
Heloise@Heloise.com
Weekend on 12/14/2017