We Found 500 Lemons for $18.75. Then We Started Asking Questions.
Behind the scenes at Coffman & Watson Grocers.
We have a confession. Coffman & Watson Grocers started as a joke about selling Tuna Helper on Bluesky.
Now we're building an actual shopping department, and we've already discovered why finding a bargain is sometimes more complicated than finding a low price.
Consider our first grocery candidate: a box of 500 True Lemon packets advertised on eBay for $18.75 with free shipping.
For comparison, we found a listing for the same quantity at Tractor Supply for $34.99 as of this writing: Tractor Supply Listing. The eBay price caught our attention immediately.
But we weren't quite ready to put it on our shelves.
The seller, the shipping and the suspicious lemons
The seller had 99.5% positive feedback, substantial sales history and a 30-day return policy with seller-paid return shipping. Encouraging stuff.
Then we examined the product description.
It contained AI-generated information describing the lemon packets as sweet and containing fewer than 50 calories each. According to the manufacturer, regular True Lemon packets are unsweetened and contain zero calories. Zero calories technically qualifies as fewer than 50. The actual problem is that the description calls an unsweetened product sweet and substitutes vague nutritional information for precise facts. Now, Watson is in the AI family, so you know we don't have anything against AI, but sloppy AI? No, honey.
Not an especially reassuring description of a food product.
We also encountered customer feedback mentioning Amazon-branded packaging. That doesn't establish how this particular order would be shipped, but it raised a question relevant to our purchasing standards.
And there's one more thing: we haven't established the product's best-by date. Five hundred packets aren't necessarily a bargain if you can't reasonably use them before their quality deteriorates.
What happens next?
We aren't rejecting the listing, but we aren't giving it our seal of approval without resolving the remaining questions.
That's how we intend to operate our new shopping department.
Some products will require only a quick price comparison, a seller check and a careful reading of the specifications. Others will warrant contacting the seller, comparing alternatives or doing a little additional detective work.
And some things won't make it onto our shelves at all.
We may earn commissions when readers purchase through our affiliate links, but our recommendations won't be determined by commission rates.
The Deal Check: We did the homework. You decide if it's worth your money.
Welcome to Coffman & Watson Grocers.
Nice groceries. Real budgets. No bullshit.
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