How much should I be paying for a pumpkin?

I already bought and carved one jack-o-lantern for the porch. The pumpkin cost me 3.99 at Kroger.

I just went to Bloomingfoods, a local co-op, and the pumpkins there are 4.99.

I want to pay less for a pumpkin, if it’s possible. Would 3.99 for a large pumpkin be a good deal, or should I be searching around for a better bargain? If I drive the back roads for a while I’m bound to come across some farms with roadside stands selling pumpkins. Are these likely to cost more or less than the one I bought at Kroger?

I’m in Bloomington, Indiana, by the way.

Pumpkins are going to be pricey this year, as a lot of pumpkin crops failed because of all the rain. So $4 for a pumpkin probably isn’t too bad. By all means, though, drive around back roads; it’s always nice to look at the scenery.

‘Five dollars, same as in town.’

Indeed, a drive in the country IS nice. I live in the country. Folks drive up from the city to let their kids pick their own pumpkins at local farms that do such things.

Keep in mind- gas is somewhere around $ 2.05-2.35 a gallon. How far will you wander along those bucolic back country roads, looking for a cheaper pumpkin, before you’ve paid a lot more than four dollars.

As I said, I adore driving back roads around here too. If cost saving is the goal, stay close to home and pay the dollar more at the second store.

Cartooniverse, who is going quite a few miles to pick apples tomorrow- because it’s FUN, not because they are cheaper than at the stupidmarket.

They’re all $3.99 regardless of size? They’re sold by weight here. Drove by a stand today that was selling them for 95¢ a pound.

All the same price, completely regardless of the size. Huge ones are the same price as small ones.

Weird isn’t it?

They’re asking $4.99 each at the grocery stores here, but they’re all about the same size (fairly large).

Bought four pumpkins yesterday at a going rate of 42¢ a pound. They also had little ones, which sold at a flat rate of $3.50.

Not when you think about it. A lot of folks enjoy buying very small pumpkins to use as decorations along a porch, deck, steps, their desk, and so on. They took the same man-hours to gather off of the stalk, even if they took less physical energy to pick up and lay in the back of the trailer in the field.

For every one biggie sized pumpkin they sell for carving, I bet- based on the bins of smaller ones I always see, and will see in a few hours when we go apple picking- that they sell ten smaller ones. Why NOT charge the same amount ?

I love that joke.

what joke ?

Here in the middle-of-nowhere rural Ohio, you can get big ones for $2 from the neighbor kids. This is not, of course, nearly as convenient or cost-effective if the kids aren’t actually your neighbors.

I don’t know how much they are in the grocery store, because it’s never occurred to me to buy a whole pumpkin at the grocery store. I’ve lived in or near farm country almost my entire life. I don’t buy sweet corn at the grocery store, either. :slight_smile:

In Ohio, we’re allegedly less affected by the pumpkin shortage, but the grocery also had pumpkins for $3.99. I went to the cheap-o grocery and found them for $2.99 apiece. I think it’s more convenient to sell the pumpkins by the piece. Having to weigh a pumpkin becomes a big deal when they get really large. I’ve seen different prices for different sizes other years, but not this year.

GT

Yesterday we were at my dad’s for my nieces’ birthday party and we drove over to the neighbors’ to pick up some pumpkins to carve. She charged us $1 apiece, regardless of size. She also had some gourds and ornamental pumpkins which she sold us for 10 cents apiece. At a local grocery store I stopped at Saturday they were selling them for 25 cents a pound.

The Priest and the Prostitute joke.

How do you carve them now and get them to keep until Halloween? Mine seem to last a day or two, tops, once they’re carved.

My wife and I paid 99 cents apiece at Earl May Nursery in Nebraska City, NE.

They were on sale the first week of October for that price and are now back up to their normal$1.98.

Hybrid white “ghost pumpkins” were pricier at $3.98 apiece.

We didn’t make a special trip; just passing through at the end of a camping trip south of there.

Omaha area stores run $2.50 to $3 for ordinary pumpkins and double that for whites.

We had an Earl May in our suburb for many years, but they closed it last November. Pumpkins there were 99 cents apiece for one week last October.