Thrifty shoppers check CNS
(CNS): With the prices of just about everything on the rise, the need to shop wisely is more important than ever for many households in the Cayman Islands. To help people find the best bargains on necessary goods, Cayman News Service has introduced a “CNS Price Check” feature in CNSclassifieds.com. Participating grocery stores will be listing a selection of items each week to help shoppers get the most out of their pay cheques. The online answer to supermarket inserts in print news is just one of a number of new features in the Classifieds section, including an unique way to get all the latest hurricane information whenever needed and to post messages and press releases during an emergency.
To find the supermarket price lists, click on the link to the CNS Classifieds section on the main menu bar in 
the News section (see picture right) or go to www.CNSclassifieds.com. Under the menu bar in the Classifieds section, there is a “CNS Price Check” heading, and under that a set of rotating banners for the various supermarkets (Fosters, Cost-U-Less and Kirk Supermarket). Click on each banner to find the price list for that grocery store. For each store there will be a number of pages; to check all the pages, click on the 
numbers right above the price lists (see picture left).
“Everyone is used to the price list inserts in the printed news, but now that more and more people are getting their news online there needs to be a way for shoppers to check prices online too. As the number one online news service for the Cayman Islands, CNS is perfectly poised to offer this feature in our classifieds,” said CNS General Manager Nicky Watson. Thisadvertising feature is open to all supermarkets on Grand Cayman and Cayman Brac (read Special offer for supermarkets or call Doreen 916-5579).
“CNS Price Check” is one of several new features offered in CNSclassifieds.com. “Like all news outlets, we receive far more press releases than we have time to post. The result is that many people take time to write releases that are either never published or take weeks to appear,” Watson said. “So we are now encouraging businesses, organisations and individuals to post their own press releases and PSAs, which can be easily accessed and read by finding the correct categories on the left hand side column in our Classifieds or using the quick links on the menu bar, such as ‘Biz News’, ‘Wha’ Happenin’ and ‘Notice Board’.”
“The press releases appear instantly and the person posting the release will have the ability to change, update or delete it,” Watson said. “Please don’t stop sending us press releases as we will continue to publish a selection in our news pages. But we hope that the ‘Post your Own’ function in CNSclassifeds.com will become a useful tool for the Cayman community to tell everyone what’s going on in our islands.”
Perhaps the most important new feature in the CNS Classifieds is ‘Storm Watch’, which has a quick link on the main menu bar in Classifieds to the latest updates about hurricanes and storms under the sub-categories ‘Be Prepared’, ‘Business Update’, ‘Official News’ and ‘Personal Messages’. We have also moved our link to the Cayman Islands Weather site to the Classifieds menu bar so that if there a storm watch all the necessary hurricane information is easily accessible in one place.
Another feature recently introduced is a quick link to the CNS Calendar in both the News and Classifieds sections. This is a regular gmail calendar so it has the added advantage for anyone who has a gmail account that events can easily be added to personal email account calendars. All events, whether they are one-off or regular functions, can be listed on the CNS calendar – just email calendar@caymannewsservice.com if you would like an event posted.
“From the start, Wendy and I have strived to combine a reliable, credible news organization with an interactive online community. The new features on CNS add new ways to deliver information to the right people. But Cayman News Service has always been, and will continue to be, a work in progress, and we will continue to look for needs within the community and see what we can do to fill them,” Watson said.
Category: Local News
The prices at all the food markets here on the Brac are going so skyrocketing high that the average person can not afford to feed a family of 4 a good nutritional meal. I was just in the Market Place here on the Brac’ it’s totally upsetting to see the sky rocking prices there on everything in the store. I just wanted a jar of Mayo. I checked out the price of Hellmann’s Mayo. Believe it or not the price at the Market Place is $8.89 for a 32 ounce jar. I checked online in Florida. The cheapest I found a 32 oz jar was $1.89 I don’t know the price’s buying anything in bulk, we all know the stores here are buying everything to stock their stores in bulk and at wholesale prices.
It’s outrageous to me that Mr.Millionaire T is ripping off consumers, and that there is very little outrage from the consumers here on Cayman Brac, I have heard that Little Cayman is even worse in high rising food prices than here on the Brac.
The number of food stuffs that high prices has effected to over the last several years is astonishing to us all. Everything keep rising in price, where is the end to all this. Soups, canned veggies, canned fruits, meats, lunch meat, milk, breads, everything in the stores here on the Brac and Little is becoming so out of reach of our money.
The way I see it’ these stores are ripping us in every way possible that they can, from high prices too the cheap immigrant crop pickers that work in these stores, which are outsourcing all of our paying jobs, to scamming and skimming packaged amounts, raising prices while reducing amounts.
I am really upset about all this, and so should everyone here on the Brac and Little Cayman. If these food stores can order food in bulk, so can we. WE need to come together and start a co-op with our friends and neighbors, pull together and order our foods from Grand Cayman’s "Pay Less" Store and other stores. These stores can put our foods on a container and ship it to us’ the consumer, just as they ship to all the stores here. Then we all divide the cost of the shipping price, and we save tons of money. Some friends of mine here on the Brac are already doing this, one family I know here on the Brac are saving a little over $1000.00 a month by pooling together with their friends, and ordering from Pay Less and other stores in Grand Cayman. That’s a annual savings for them’ of $12.000.00. If the people here on the Brac, and Little Cayman would pool together on this matter, Mr. Millionaire T, and other stores here on the sisters islands that are ripping us off with as much as 400% to 500% mark up’s on food prices, would soon either lower their prices, or go out of business. We need honest store owners here not thieves who rob us our money and our jobs.
What is needed is a Cayman version of http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/
That also includes a comparison in USD to shops in Florida.
When the truth can be seen the prices will fall in Cayman.
Although the intent isgood, people don’t use it properly by publishing their private classified ads in this section.
The section should be reserved to businesses advertising their prices, whether it be for food, gas, shoes or other. Individuals should continue to use the regular classifieds sections.
Otherwise, it simply takes too much time to sift through the junk.
CNS: If you’re not doing so already, it would be nice to have a list of gas prices at all the stations as well. Thanks for keeping us informed.
CNS: Yes, we did that at one time and it was a good idea. I’ll think about whether it’s feasible and where we could put it. Thanks – we appreciate feedback.
http://www.planning.gov.ky/HTML_BODY/PI/PI_Current_retail_prices.htm
Seek & ye shall find.
You’re ahead of the curve once more CNS thank you.
itll soon be cheaper to food shop in miami on a monthly basis too i think. lol.
Although your statement was meant in jest, that might be a viable idea, were you to set up a non-profit co-op…
I’m tellin’ ya – the Brac sure could use a co-op! Grocery prices are wayyyyy over the top here! A small can of Campbell’s mushroom soup for 2 and half dollars??? Yikes! For those who are not familiar with a co-op, my understanding is that it’s a group of individuals who make an order large enough to fill a container and have it shipped over while sharing the shipping and delivery charges.
Perhaps a boater could do a regular run to Grand. We could probably pay them and their gas and still save money. The power of a group is much stronger than an individual alone.
By the way, great idea CNS! I hope the Brac grocery stores do get involved. Maybe they see for themselves that their markup is much too high and will consider lowering their prices. We can always hope.
Co-ops are one of the first steps in taking back our ability to live affordable lives. They were around loooooooong before supermarkets. Buy in bulk with your neighbors and use your power as a consumer. Co-ops stem from co-operation.
So was bartering. What comes around-goes around. Think outside the box because it ain’t our box…it’s someone else’s box. Good suggestion.