# How much should I be paying for a pumpkin? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 14, 2006, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-should-i-be-paying-for-a-pumpkin/376460 "2006-10-14T22:55:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2006, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-should-i-be-paying-for-a-pumpkin/376460/1 "2006-10-14T22:55:29Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2006, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-should-i-be-paying-for-a-pumpkin/376460/2 "2006-10-14T22:59:52Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2006, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-should-i-be-paying-for-a-pumpkin/376460/3 "2006-10-14T23:04:04Z")
‘Five dollars, same as in town.’ ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2006, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-should-i-be-paying-for-a-pumpkin/376460/4 "2006-10-15T00:18:09Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2006, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-should-i-be-paying-for-a-pumpkin/376460/5 "2006-10-15T01:54:30Z")
[QUOTE=Argent Towers] 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. [/QUOTE] 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. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2006, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-should-i-be-paying-for-a-pumpkin/376460/6 "2006-10-15T01:57:47Z")
All the same price, completely regardless of the size. Huge ones are the same price as small ones. Weird isn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![XJETGIRLX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9fc29f/32.png) [@XJETGIRLX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XJETGIRLX)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2006, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-should-i-be-paying-for-a-pumpkin/376460/7 "2006-10-15T14:24:31Z")
They’re asking $4.99 each at the grocery stores here, but they’re all about the same size (fairly large). ---
**Author:** ![Sunshine\_and\_Smiles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Sunshine\_and\_Smiles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunshine_and_Smiles)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2006, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-should-i-be-paying-for-a-pumpkin/376460/8 "2006-10-15T15:16:34Z")
[QUOTE=Patty O’Furniture] 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. [/QUOTE] 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. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2006, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-should-i-be-paying-for-a-pumpkin/376460/9 "2006-10-15T16:10:09Z")
[QUOTE=Argent Towers] All the same price, completely regardless of the size. Huge ones are the same price as small ones. Weird isn’t it? [/QUOTE] 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 ? ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2006, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-should-i-be-paying-for-a-pumpkin/376460/10 "2006-10-15T17:10:39Z")
[QUOTE=Johnny L.A.] ‘Five dollars, same as in town.’ [/QUOTE] I love that joke. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2006, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-should-i-be-paying-for-a-pumpkin/376460/11 "2006-10-15T17:37:38Z")
what joke ? ---
**Author:** ![StuffLikeThatThere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc8723/32.png) [@StuffLikeThatThere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StuffLikeThatThere)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2006, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-should-i-be-paying-for-a-pumpkin/376460/12 "2006-10-15T19:57:01Z")
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. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![gardentraveler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gardentraveler/32/3576_2.png) [@gardentraveler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gardentraveler)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2006, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-should-i-be-paying-for-a-pumpkin/376460/13 "2006-10-15T21:06:40Z")
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 ---
**Author:** ![yellowval](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/919ad9/32.png) [@yellowval](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowval)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2006, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-should-i-be-paying-for-a-pumpkin/376460/14 "2006-10-16T13:21:15Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2006, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-should-i-be-paying-for-a-pumpkin/376460/15 "2006-10-16T13:25:34Z")
[QUOTE=Cartooniverse] what joke ? [/QUOTE] The Priest and the Prostitute joke. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2006, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-should-i-be-paying-for-a-pumpkin/376460/16 "2006-10-16T13:56:59Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![zenith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zenith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zenith)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2006, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-should-i-be-paying-for-a-pumpkin/376460/17 "2006-10-16T14:11:03Z")
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.