I went back to the Capital Region Farmers Market and bought a whole chicken from Melinda Corbett of Melinda's Chickens.We had a quick chat about how she raises the chickens, etc. and I found out that she does sell chicken frames (as does at least one other seller at the market) so I'll be able to start making my own chicken stock. Sweet!

The thing is, Belinda's chickens are pretty pricey. $21 for a size 16 bird works out at about $13 per kilo (roughly US$3.35/lb), compared to $5.99/kg (US$2.72/lb) for a conventional chicken, or $6.60-6.99 (US$3-3.17/lb) for commercial free-range. Double the price.

So it's time to put my money where my mouth is, and I'll admit that I'm having a few doubts. Not because I think Belinda is one of those charlatans I mentioned back in an earlier post. Not at all. But after recently reading about the "self-incrimination" price discrimination strategy. This is when a seller offers a range of similar products with different prices, allowing buyers to identify themselves as people who are willing to pay higher prices. Harford uses coffee as an example, where customers with greater sensitivity to price can choose a smaller-sized, "no-frills" coffee at a lower price, and customers with less sensitivity to price can get a larger size, add upgrades like whipped cream or flavored syrup or whatever, and maybe pay an additional premium by choosing organic and/or Fairtrade coffee. Doing so can double, triple, and even quadruple the price of a cup of coffee.

As I was reading about this stuff yesterday, I was thinking about the chicken I bought on Saturday, and the fridge we bought on Friday. The basic manufacture of the two fridges we looked at were exactly the same. One got a few extra features, slightly higher-quality inclusions (for example, the shelves feel a little more solid), and a Westinghouse badge instead of Kelvinator. The price difference was $290, but I would be very surprised if the cost difference in the price of the components amounted to $50. But they charge more because the people who buy the Westinghouse instead of the Kelvinator have identified themselves as being less sensitive to price (but maybe sensitive enough that they're not willing to spend another $400 to get the Electrolux version, which has a stainless steel exterior and slightly different (but not necessarily higher-quality) shelf/compartment inclusions).

So I'm price sensitive enough that I wouldn't have paid the extra price for the Westinghouse-badged fridge, but I was happy to buy it when offered at the same price as the Kelvinator. But I just bought a chicken for twice the price I could've bought one in the supermarket. So what am I getting for that price difference?

First, I get chickens that are really free range. Commercial free range chickens live in sheds with access to an outdoor area, but that doesn't mean that they actually ever go outside. Belinda's chickens roam outside during the day, then put back in their portable (so that they can be moved to a different area of pasture every day) sheds at night to protect them from predators. If you don't understand how different that is to the life of a conventionally-raised commercial broiler chicken, watch this 12-minute video, The Life and Death of a Broiler Chicken, and you'll see.



Second, I get to buy chicken from a real person. A person who is putting in a lot of effort to provide me with the opportunity to eat chicken without supporting the factory farming system shown in that video. I think that's awesome.

Double-the-price awesome? Yeah, I think so.

So why have I said that I have some doubts? Those doubts don't really have anything to do with whether or not I think buying Melinda's chickens is a good idea, but more to do with timing. Is this the right thing for us to do now?

Now when we're trying to limit our spending and use the money to pay off debt.

Now when we're paying off debt so that we can save up a deposit and buy a house.

Now when we're saving up for a short holiday this summer?

I mean, I've been eating factory-farmed chickens (and cows, pigs, sheep, etc.) all my adult life. Is it going to make much difference if I wait another year or two or three before I stop? Presumably, I'll be in a much stronger financial position to support farmers, growers, and producers like Melinda Corbett when I'm spending less money supporting the National Australia Bank and Visa, Inc.

The thing is, despite the fact that buying Melinda's chicken instead of a factory-farmed chook from Coles or Woolworths adds $10 to my grocery bill, since we've started buying more Real Food and less crap, our weekly grocery bill has dropped by over $50.

I just got back from Coles and saw that they're selling Inglewood Farms organic, free range whole chickens for $12.99 a kilo. So that makes me feel better about the $21 chook from Melinda. And in a way, it's also good to know that if I can't get hold of a chicken from Melinda, the Inglewood Farms (which I've bought a few times in the past) seems to be a pretty good alternative.

Update: I just realized that this post was still saved as a draft, and never posted. So I'm posting it now, and I think I'm backdating it so that it'll show up as being posted on the 31st of July, even though it's really the 22nd of October today.