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Retailers locked in their prices for turkeys this year, so Thanksgiving won't break the bank for most Americans.

Americans will be able to enjoy relatively cheap Thanksgiving turkeys this year, thanks to many retailers locking in their costs before a drought this year drove up U.S. feed prices.

And retailers are determined to keep prices for the traditional Thanksgiving main course as low as possible, even though sky-high corn prices have nearly doubled the cost of producing a pound of turkey meat this year.

Offering attractive prices for turkey can help retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Supervalu Inc lure customers into their stores for other Thanksgiving staples such as turkey stuffing, cranberries and sweet potatoes, industry sources said.

"Like the rest of the industry, we're seeing an increase in the prices on turkeys," said Mike Siemienas, spokesman for Supervalu Inc, the third-largest U.S. grocery store operator. "We continue to work with suppliers to ensure we're getting the best price possible for our customers."

Retail prices for frozen turkeys have barely moved in recent weeks. Whole frozen turkeys were selling for $1.62 a lb in September, up from $1.57 a lb at the same time two years ago, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service.

One reason for that is many producers' contractual prices with retailers were set this spring when feed was far cheaper as U.S. farmers began planting what looked like would be a record corn crop.

The expectations for a bumper autumn harvest evaporated as the worst drought in half a century devastated crops and sent corn and soybean prices to record highs this summer.

The impact of higher feed costs are beginning to show up at some supermarkets that did not lock in pre-drought prices.

A manager at Paulina Market in Chicago said the meat market recently increased the price of their fresh turkeys by about 50 cents a lb to $3.75 a lb.

At Casey's Market in a Chicago suburb, owner David Casey said his wholesale suppliers are quoting prices that are "up a couple ticks, about 5 percent."

The surge in grain prices were also making it more difficult for some producers to secure bank loans.

John Burkel, a turkey grower and processor in Minnesota, said the rising grain prices can make it difficult to obtain bank financing.

"I used to feed a turkey for 22 cents a lb, now it costs 45-50 cents," Burkel said. "When you go to the bank and say, 'I need a line of credit that's twice what I typically have,' they look at you and say, 'Are you out of your mind? How are you getting that back?'"

In 2011, the United States produced 5.79 billion lbs of turkey - a 7.4 percent drop from the 6.25 billion lbs produced in 2008, according to USDA data.

The nation consumed about 5.02 billion lbs of turkey in 2011 - 6.6 percent less than the 5.37 billion lbs in 2008.

Industrywide, farmers and processors say they have scaled back their flocks, and further production cuts are expected as grain prices remain high. September's egg set placements fell 6 percent from a year earlier, according to USDA data.

Jim Hertel, managing partner of Illinois-based food retail consultancy Willard Bishop, cautioned that even if turkey wholesale prices continue to rise savvy retailers will eat as much of the difference as possible.

"Smart retailers will be looking to absorb the costs they can, and spread any of the price increases across other categories that haven't been as hard hit," Hertel said.

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A lackluster economy plus ubiquitous mobile technology are behind a surprising date-night trend: More than a quarter of people say they’ve used a coupon to pay for a first date.

A survey conducted by Harris Interactive for CouponCabin.com found that 26 percent of people have brought a coupon to a first date. A voucher or discount code is no third wheel, though; 26 percent also said they would react positively to a coupon-financed first date, up from 18 percent last year.

Nearly three-quarters said that using a coupon wouldn’t prompt them to walk out or deter them from seeing the person again. Only 1 percent of people said they’d walk out on a date who proffered a coupon, while 3 percent would vocalize their displeasure and another 12 percent would keep quiet, but turn that first date into a last date.

“After the past recession and with the recent state of the economy, people definitely have to start educating themselves on how to save money and do what they can to put some extra money in their pockets,” said Jackie Warrick, president of CouponCabin.com. “It’s definitely become a part of people’s everyday life and it’s not seen as taboo.”

According to the survey, 49 percent respondents said they’re more likely to use a coupon on a date because of the economy. (The survey was conducted on a random sampling of more than 2,300 adults, not necessarily CouponCabin users, which might have skewed the results pro-coupon.)

More than seven out of 10 respondents said it’s okay to use a coupon on a date anytime, while 37 percent said it’s acceptable for married couples and 31 percent said students can get away with pulling out a coupon when it’s time to pay. Only 4 percent said it’s “never” acceptable to use a coupon “on any kind of date.”

While the economy is the catalyst, the growing use of smartphones is what makes date-night couponing so prevalent, Warrick said.

“With the rise of digital and mobile technology, people can access coupons on their phones on the go,” she said. Technology makes it possible to use coupons without pre-planning: Merchants use location-based services like Yelp and Foursquare to push offers to people in the area, and mobile apps mean it’s not necessary to print up a paper coupon or gift certificate at home.

The ubiquity of daily deal sites like Groupon.com and LivingSocial.com, which frequently offer discounts on date-friendly activities like bike rentals and sunset cruises, also contributes to the growing acceptance of cut-rate dates, Warrick said. “It’s definitely allowing people to get out there and do more.”

But you don’t need to take your date rock-climbing. Couponing has been incorporated into that old standby of dinner and a movie, Warrick said. Sites like Fandango and Restaurant.com let restaurant and movie theater operators reach customers who want a traditional night out without breaking the bank.

Rather than viewing a coupon as the mark of a cheapskate, Warrick said it’s actually a desirable quality to display on a date in these economic times. “It definitely conveys that you’re smart with your money,” she said. 

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Jonathan Hayward / AP

Hold your horses, bacon lovers! There's no need to buy a deep freezer and fill it with all the bacon you can get your hands on.

Don't worry, no one is coming for your BLT.

Even though headlines for the past couple of days screamed, “Bacon shortage!” (including one of our own) and social media blew up with jokes about the impending “porkocalypse,” it's all a lot of oinking over nothing.

The summer drought, and rising corn prices have hurt hog farmers for sure. Soy, a component of hog meal, is also costing more, driven by ravenous demand by China. But all that will only lead to bacon being temporarily more expensive, not an outright “shortage.”

“It's a challenging time because of drought for both consumers and producers and food costs will rise,” Cindy Cunningham of the National Pork Board told NBC News, but we're “not going to see people in line for bacon... there will be no bacon rationing.”

Let's look at some basic economics.

First, as long as prices are allowed to rise and fall freely, there can be no shortage. Shortages only occur when the government fixes prices and consumers want more supply than exists. That results in rationing. There's zero evidence to suggest the government would do that, or that there would be any “runs on the pork bank.”

“As long as prices roam free, there's never a shortage or a glut,” said Bob Brown, an independent meat market analyst in Edmond, Okla. “It will find a way to clear the market.”

The only sign of a pork shortage is a press release from Britain's National Pig Association proclaiming, “A world shortage of pork and bacon next year is now unavoidable.” 

But let's put on our critical reading glasses. The rest of the notice points to declining sow herds in the EU and asks British supermarkets to pay higher prices to pig farmers. It asks for shoppers to only buy British-made pork to protect British farmers, identifiable by the “Red Tractor” symbol on the package as part of a “Save our Bacon” campaign.

"British supermarkets know they have to raise the price they pay Britain's pig farmers or risk empty spaces on their shelves next year," said NPA chairman Richard Longthorp in the press release. "But competition is so fierce in the high street at present, each is waiting for the other to move first."

Get it? This is an attempt by British pig producers to build grassroots support among British shoppers to apply pressure to supermarkets. Their tool for propping up prices is fear, wrapped in bacon, wrapped in the Union Jack. It's pork propaganda.

The release also warned that prices could rise as much as 10 percent. The USDA has forecast only a 2.5-3.5 percent increase.

So hold your horses, bacon lovers, there's no need to buy a deep freezer and fill it with all the bacon you can get your hands on. The green number on the LCD screen at checkout might be slightly higher than what you're used to, but there's no bacon crisis.

“Bacon prices in the next few months should be quite stable as there is a steady supply of pork going to market and in cold storage,” said Matt Swantek, Swine Field Specialist at Iowa State University. 

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In this photo taken Thursday, Aug. 9, 2012, winemaker Cathy Corison stands surrounded by oak barrels at Corison Winery in St. Helena, Calif. A lot more women work as winemakers today, though research by Santa Clara University professors Lucia Albino Gilbert and John Gilbert found that just under 10 percent of California wineries have women as the main or lead winemaker.

ST. HELENA, Calif. - In 1978, the first vintage that Cathy Corison made wine, she could count on one hand the number of women she knew of doing the same kind of work in the cellars of the Napa Valley. Without using all her fingers.

Nearly 35 years later, Corison needs a lot more fingers. Winemaking remains primarily a man's world, but research by Santa Clara University professors Lucia Albino Gilbert and John Gilbert has found that nearly 10 percent of California wineries now have women as the main or lead winemaker.

Their second finding: Women winemakers tend to be more highly acclaimed than their male counterparts.

Why? Hard to say— and that's not a question the Gilberts attempt to answer in this study — but it may have something to do with persistence. It takes the same effort and skills for a male or female winemaker to succeed, but women can face additional challenges achieving success in a male-dominated field.

"I think women winemakers had to be really determined and really passionate and still do," says Corison, named 2011 Winemaker of the Year by the San Francisco Chronicle.

An academic psychologist who has studied women's career paths, Lucia Gilbert became interested in women winemakers. With little information available on the subject, she put together a comprehensive list of the 3,200-plus winemakers in California, identifying the women and developing the website, Women Winemakers of California.

The total of women winemakers came to 9.8 percent, below the 15 to 20 percent the Gilberts expected.

It's easy to see why she overestimated. After all, some of the most famous winemakers ARE women, such as Heidi Barrett, who worked for the "cult" winery Screaming Eagle. Among other kudos, the winery is known as home of a 6-liter bottle of the '92 vintage that sold for $500,000 at the 2000 Napa Valley Wine Auction.

So, the researchers came up with a new question — are women winemakers achieving disproportionate levels of success?

Quantifying winery acclaim is a slippery business, but the Gilberts went at it by using the listing of wineries from the 2010 reference work Opus Vino, which includes about 4,000 wineries in the world identified as noteworthy by wine critics and wine writers who worked with the book's editor-in-chief, Jim Gordon.

The results: 23 percent of California wineries with women winemakers made it into Opus Vino compared to 14 percent of wineries with male winemakers.

Gordon, former managing editor of Wine Spectator magazine and currently editor of Wines & Vines Magazine, was surprised by the Gilberts' findings. He and the other authors picked out top wines based solely on quality and without regard to the winemakers behind them, so "seeing our selections through the perspective of Dr. Gilbert's data was a kind of revelation."

But Gordon's not convinced that women winemakers are disproportionately successful compared to men given the 10 percent baseline. "There is still a long way to go there," he points out.

Are there differences between women and men winemakers?

Corison used to resist that idea "with everything I had. Because differences have always been against women."

But after years of working in the field she feels that there may be two differences. "There's pretty good evidence that women have perhaps better sensory abilities. So that's one issue. And, I believe that winemaking is all about details. So perhaps if there's a difference in attention to details? I don't know. I don't feel strongly about that."

Corison, who grew up in Southern California, took a roundabout path to winemaking.

She studied biology, but "fell in love with wine when I was a sophomore." She was smitten by "all the usual reasons, it's delicious, you share it with friends, it makes food taste better and vice versa. On another level, I fell in love with the fact that it's a whole series of living systems. I'm a biologist and I'm still studying biology. That's what tunes me into winemaking, the fact that it's alive."

"There've always been challenges, but I think there have been advantages, too. I think that we sort of stuck out like sore thumbs, so for better or worse people noticed what we did," Corison says of women in her field.

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The hottest club in many suburban towns across America will soon be a Club Applebee's. That's right, starting at 10 p.m., the family-oriented casual dining chain will turn down the lights, pump up the bass, and clear away the cocktail tables to open up the dance floor. 

This is seriously a real thing that is really happening. 

Indeed, “Club Bee's” will have live DJ's, ladies' nights, karaoke, luau, food and drink specials, and all the “Call Me Maybe” covers you can shake a buffalo wing at.

At some of the franchises in Florida, where the concept first started when some franchise owners noticed a younger crowd hanging out towards the end of the night and downing drinks, even have “white” parties. The restaurant hangs white sheets everywhere and patrons are encouraged to sport white colored clothing. Employees then turn on the blacklights to give every surface an ultraviolet glow. 

“This is a pretty good vibe, I'm not gonna lie,” one happy Club Applebee's customer told TODAY reporters when they went to check out the scene. 

“We've come here after ten on Wednesday's for Girl's Night, it's pretty good, I must say I enjoy it,” Analia Fernandez, who normally dines at the chain during the day with her 10-year-old brother, told TODAY's Janet Shamlian. 

“I would definitely come back, this is my second Thursday in a row,” said another. 

What's next? Raves at Dairy Queen? 

The chain hasn't released figures but says so far it's making money. Boozy beverages are the most profitable items on the menu. In a down economy, businesses have to get creative to raise revenue, and regular folks are looking to get down and forget their troubles on the cheap. But how will the raucous vibe play against Applebee's traditional family-friendly and work casual atmosphere?

The chain of some 2,000 franchise locations isn't worried. "Families are a huge part of the business, even for the franchisees that have a strong bar business," Brian Masilionis, senior manager-beverage at Applebee's, told Advertising Age. "Staying open later allows us to have more fun things later at night when kids are in bed. Historically, we may have had more confusion with guests when we closed earlier." 

It's true. When I went to a conference this summer and got back the hotel on the highway strip at a 9:30 p.m., I scratched my head why I couldn't get some food at either the Applebee's or the other restaurants on either side of where I was staying. 

Still, it sounds like an Onion headline. So much so that last year the satirical publication ran a fake news segment on how the chain was trying to drum up business by encouraging hipsters to visit the chain “ironically.” 

The tagline in the fake ad was “Wouldn't it be funny to go to Applebee's?” But judging by the footage and testimonials, the late-night revelers are saying to each other, “Wouldn't it be fun?” 

So while at first blush it all sounds pretty ridiculous, in the suburban towns where Applebee's are frequently found, nightlife options are not. 

“I could see this being hip in some of the burbs by me. I live 20 miles away from downtown and there are no night clubs nearby,” one online commenter wrote . “Plenty of Applebee's, though.”

Dr Pepper

This ad has created an online uproar.

Dr Pepper marched directly into controversy a week ago when it launched its “March of Progress” ad campaign. And the uproar has not abated. 

On Sept. 13, the soft drink maker posted to its Facebook wall an ad using the classic “March of Progress” image tweaked to promote the “evolution of flavor.” The whimsical ad showed a chimpanzee dragging his knuckles, followed by a semi-erect hominid reaching for a Dr Pepper, followed by a fully upright man walking and gulping a Dr Pepper. The images are captioned “Pre-Pepper,” “Pepper Discovery,” and “Post-Pepper” respectively. 

Sounds harmless. Even banal. But about 7,000 comment and nearly 33,000 likes later, the ad is still provoking reaction by creationists who say it promotes the theory of evolution. Some are even threatening to boycott Dr Pepper. That in turn has stoked evolutionists to make counter comments. Then there's folks jumping on the pig pile just for laughs. 

After all, we are talking about a soda pop ad, right? 

At first, most of the comments on Facebook were lighthearted jokes about the image. A few comments from disappointed Christians began to crop up. Soon an evolution vs. creationism debate dominated the conversation, along with heaps of jeers at anyone taking the issue seriously. 

“No we didn't come from apes,” wrote one user. “Lord Jesus pep can be blinded. If we came from apes why is there still apes [sic]” 

“This is showing the theory of men evolving from apes I have lost all respect for Dr Pepper,” wrote another, who threatened to use his connections with various colleges to get them to pull Dr Pepper from their schools. 

Comments like these prompted cries of “get over it!”, “really?” and, “The day your faith is shaken by a Dr Pepper ad is the day you should probably start reconsidering your faith.” 

The debate also blew up on popular link-sharing site Reddit, whose users flooded the thread to mock the outrage and post parody comment, further inflaming the debate and spreading the conversation to their friend's Facebook newsfeeds. 

“Frankly I'm surprised at how quickly it escalated and how big the thread became,” Reddit user undercoverrocker, who first posted the image to Reddit, told NBC News. The Redditer requested to remain anonymous to protect his privacy. Within a couple of hours any semblance of a real debate had evaporated, undercoverrocker said, becoming “trolls trolling trolls.” The term “trolls” and “trolling” refers to comments posted online where the person doesn't so much believe their substance as delight in the angry comments they provoke from others. 

Adfreak nailed it, writing, "Once again, though, it goes to show how protests can spread like wildfire in social media, where outrage — and counteroutrage — are just a click away." 

Dr Pepper has posted over 450 images to its Facebook wall since 2009. Previous images have asked for followers to identify their favorite Dr Pepper flavor, to identify which time of the day is best for drinking Dr Pepper, and asking if they liked their Dr Pepper fizzy or not. Most garnered a few hundred comments. Messages left with Dr Pepper Snapple Group seeking comment were not returned.

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Kellogg

Kellogg is aiming for the college crowd with its new line of toaster pastries in school colors.

Kellogg is trying to breathe new life into its venerable Pop-Tarts, which are battling a tough sales environment as consumers demand healthier options and increasingly eat their first meal away from home.

The Battle Creek, Mich.-based company, the nation's biggest cereal maker, recently entered into licensing agreements with several big state universities in an effort to reach one of its prime markets for the toaster pastries -- adults aged 18-34. The company also resurrected its “Crazy Good” advertising campaign targeting young people that ran from 2004-2008, promoting the brand through social media and concerts.

Kellogg has said the promotions have been a success, pointing to Nielsen data that shows sales associated with the Pop-Tart brand, including some ancillary products, rose 5 perecnt in the second quarter versus a year earlier.

But Symphony/IRI, another firm that tracks sales, says Pop-Tart sales have slipped 1 percent so far this year after holding flat last year at about $420 million. Sales volumes have been maintained through price increases, as unit sales have fallen since 2010, Symphony/IRI says. The firm's sales figures exclude Wal-Mart and certain other stores.

For health-conscious parents,  Pop-Tarts might be a tough sell against trendier options such as Greek yogurt, which has been surging in popularity. Some varieties of Pop-Tarts carry 200 calories and 13 grams of sugar in a single pastry.

That could explain why Pop-Tarts has teamed up with the universities of North Carolina, Michigan, Georgia, Arkansas and Florida to produce toaster pastries in school colors.  While kids under 18 are twice as likely to consume toaster pastries as adults, many food companies including Kellogg have adopted guidelines limiting the marketing of sugary products to children.   

Kellogg also is grappling with stagnant popularity of its flagship ready-to-eat cereals, sales of which fell in the most recent quarter.

“There could be a shift in terms of consumption trends,” Morningstar analyst Erin Lash said in an interview. Lash rates Kellogg a “hold.” “Moms have continued to buy healthier offerings for their kids even if that means that they don’t have the money to buy healthy options for themselves.”

Though breakfast has been called the most important meal of the day, Americans spend precious little time eating it -- about 14 minutes on average, according to market researcher NPD Group. People are increasingly eating their first meal on the road, which is evident by the surging breakfast business at fast-food chains.

“Along with bagels and breakfast bars, Pop-Tarts had a nice run in the 1990s ,” said Harry Balzer, an NPD Group analyst. “Now, they are leveling off. We are looking for something more hearty, and the breakfast sandwich seems to be the answer.”

Follow Jonathan Berr on Twitter@jdberr.

Two weeks ago, in an attempt to eat healthier and support small, local businesses, I signed up for the 30-Day No Grocery Store Challenge. They say that if you can do something for a month, you’ll have formed a habit. By shopping locally for healthy food, I’m hoping to do something that’s both good for my body and good for my community. I found the first week to be a fun adventure into my local farmers market and food co-op. However, just as I was about to think it would be smooth sailing the whole way through, we hit a bump in the road.

Our local farmers market is held for five hours every Saturday during the season. Normally, this is a pretty convenient schedule, especially for most working people. However, if it’s August and you’re planning to be camping for the weekend, it’s a bit of a problem. Having to miss it for a week put a wrinkle in my new-found shopping habits. It also reminded me that it would be more difficult to shop locally come October when the market closed for the season.

I mentioned my quandary to a friend who recommended a large produce stand about 40 minutes from my house. The stand-store is owned by local farmers and is open year-round. It mainly sells the produce those farmers grow, and supplements that with food from other in-state (and a couple of out-of-state) farmers. Although their produce wasn’t organic, most of it was local and the prices were incredible.

For instance, the hormone-free, antibiotic-free eggs they sold were $2.50 per dozen. That’s a better deal than I’m getting through the dairy home delivery and less than half of what I saw offered at the farmers market. But, it was a trek for me to get there, and when you add in what I spent on gas, suddenly those eggs aren’t so cheap.

I’m discovering that in my little corner of the world there are a lot of options for eating healthily and locally (at least in the summer). But, there are bound to be trade-offs. Generally speaking, I’ve had to choose between convenience and cost. Some of the local produce stands and farmers markets offer great deals, but they tend to have more limited hours or are located a bit out of town.

The food co-op is terrific and convenient, as is the home milk delivery, but they’re also a bit more expensive. If I’m going to keep this up, I’m going to need to get smart and figure out ways to make the most of the less convenient shopping experiences and spend money at the pricier vendors in moderation.

While budgetary and time constraints have proven to be the challenge this little adventure promised to be, I’ve enjoyed eating better. There’s almost a feeling of relief, knowing you’re eating foods that are good for you. I’m even finding that there are options for eating out that include eating locally and healthily.

While visiting my mom this past week, we decided to grab some dinner but wanted to keep to the spirit of the challenge and avoid the old drive-thru. She knew of a small shop nearby that sells frozen dinners, which are made with local, healthy ingredients. Although the initial price gave us sticker shock, we later calculated it out and realized it was only marginally more expensive than a trip through a drive-thru would have been. As an added bonus, it actually tasted good — something I’d been a bit skeptical about.

I also made a trip to Chipotle with my kids. It’s not local, but it is a burrito joint known for its sustainable practices. My kids liked it and I didn’t have any of my normal fast-food pangs of guilt. Strictly speaking, it may not be the ultimate in healthy living, and I recognize that. But, I’m realistic enough to know that there are times when I’ll be in a time crunch and need to grab food on the go. Sometimes, it’s not a matter of making the best choice but simply making a better choice.

At the two-week mark, my family is having some mixed reactions to the experiment. My husband has given it two thumbs down, worrying that we’re spending, as he put it, a “crapload” of money on health food and are buying foods we don’t always end up liking. I’m a bit more hopeful. While we spent a fair amount the first week, the second week was much more budget-friendly. I’m optimistic that as time goes on and we get the hang of this, we’ll figure out a way to make this work for both our diets and our wallets.

Dana Macario is a Seattle-area writer who is terrified, yet determined to eat healthy and local for a full month.

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Farmers markets, like this one in San Francisco, offer a colorful but sometimes costly alternative to the traditional supermarket.

The grocery store is dead. Long live the grocery store!

A shining example of post-war success and convenience, supermarkets once were practically the only place most Americans went to shop for groceries.

Today, we’re all still buying groceries. We’re just not buying them at the supermarket anymore. Last year, Americans bought only 51 percent of our groceries at traditional supermarkets, down from 66 percent just 11 years earlier, according to the Wall Street Journal. So, where are shoppers filling their carts if not at the local Safeway or Kroger?

Low prices and convenience have made big-box discounters Wal-Mart and Target major players in the grocery game. In fact Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest retailer, is also the nation’s largest grocer. The hunger for bargains also is driving Americans to club stores, like Costco and Sam’s Club.

The quest for fresh and organic also has led some shoppers to small, locally owned specialty stores and farmers markets, which are booming. “People are looking to shop local. After years of struggling, local markets are having a resurgence,” said Mike Tesler, founding partner at Retail Concepts, a consulting firm,  and adjunct professor at Bentley University in Waltham, Mass.

Traditional supermarkets also face growing competition from the Internet, with online delivery services like AmazonFresh and Pea Pod.

But how we go about getting that food can vary widely depending on our age. Baby boomers may be the last generation of consumers to faithfully shop the local grocery store, as brokerage firm Jefferies pointed out in a report. Retailers are now looking to Millennials, a loosely defined group born roughly from the late 1970s to the 1980s and beyond, to fill the shopping gap.

Even in an age when we’re busier and more crunched for time than ever before,  younger shoppers are giving up the convenience of the one-stop shop grocery store and are, instead, shopping around. By mixing and matching, Millennials seem to be trying to satisfy a variety of needs. They’re saving money at Costco and Sam’s Club, getting quality and freshness at the farmers market and getting convenience at Target, Wal-Mart or the Internet.

Perhaps these complicated shopping habits are a reflection of the complicated times in which we live. Tesler noted that many of today’s college graduates are leaving school with tremendous debt. They’re having trouble finding good jobs and often find themselves underemployed. At the same time, we understand better than ever the importance of eating healthily. By contrast, when the Boomers came of age, jobs were relatively stable and people could expect to get a decent job where perhaps they could stay 'til retirement.

In the 1960s, Americans were worried about the Cold War, not the obesity epidemic. It seemed futuristic and progressive to grab space-age frozen dinners at the supermarket, and no one was fretting that they were filling their kids up with all kinds of preservatives and who-knows-what-else.

While Americans have changed a lot in the last 30 years, grocery stores haven’t. “People used to organize menus and plan meals. Most of us now have no idea what we’re feeding our kids tonight,” said Paco Underhill, author of “What Women Want: The Global Marketplace Turns Female-Friendly.”

These days, when we’re not looking for convenience and economy, we’re looking for fresh and healthy. We’re also looking to satisfy a need to connect on a more personal level. This may help explain the gaining popularity of the local farmers market.

“Farmers markets are a crossing of shopping and recreation,” said Paco Underhill, author of “What Women Want: The Global Marketplace Turns Female-Friendly.” “No one would ever describe going to the grocery store as fun.”

Grocery stores just aren’t doing it for us like they used to. But, could we really do without them? For the next 30 days, I’m going to try.

I’m going to participate in the “30 Day No Grocery Store Challenge” and see what it’s like to go without the conveniences of my neighborhood supermarket for a full month. The goal of the challenge is to eat healthier and support small, locally owned businesses at the same time.

The challenge allots you $30 to spend at a grocery store on items that you need but can’t find elsewhere. I’m going to attempt to avoid the grocery store altogether, and use that $30 instead in chain stores like Target and Trader Joe’s.

Theoretically, if you can do something for a month, you’ve formed a habit. Then you’ll forget all about your old chicken nugget, mac-and-cheese ways.

They don’t call it a challenge for nothing. I don’t think the next 30 days will be easy for me. Between the Boomers and Millennials in age, I’m also between them in shopping habits.

I buy about half my groceries from Costco and half from my favorite chain grocery store. I rarely if ever shop at farmers markets or the local butcher.

I’m one of the many Americans who wants to eat healthier, believes in organic food (in theory, if not in actual purchases) and loves the idea of supporting small, local businesses. But, I almost always find practicalities outweighing these ideals.

As the mother of two, preschool-age children, I worry about the extra time commitment of this challenge. 

I also worry that this commitment won’t be sustainable for my budget. Will budget considerations make me consider other changes to my diet as well?

Over the next several weeks, I’ll report back on my progress and let you know about some of the alternatives to the grocery store that I find.

Dana Macario is a Seattle-area writer who is terrified, yet determined to eat healthy and local for full month.

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Seth Perlman / AP

Steve Niedbalski shows his drought and heat stricken corn in Nashville, Ill. Farmers in parts of the Midwest are dealing with the worst drought in nearly 25 years.

Shoppers across the country should stand up and take notice of the Midwestern drought that has already hurt supplies of corn and soybeans.

The drought will lead to higher supermarket prices for everything from milk to meat. How high will depend on what happens with rain and high temperatures in the Corn Belt in the next few weeks.

“We’re at the cusp of seeing how severely this is going to impact consumer prices,” said Darrel Good, professor emeritus of agricultural and consumer economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The drought and heat, he said, have "already done permanent damage to the crops, but our concern is the outlook for the weather is not very good and we’re expecting a further deterioration.”

If that happens, he continued, “Prices will go up ever higher and have more severe and long-lasting impacts.”

In a twist that may sound counterintuitive, prices in the next few weeks for certain products may end up being major deals as a result of the drought.

For example, you may want to make room in your freezer for meat because prices for beef and pork are expected to drop in the next few months as farmers slaughter herds to deal with the high cost of grains that are used as livestock feed, said Shawn Hackett of the agricultural commodities firm Hackett Financial Advisors in Boynton Beach, Fla. But, he added, everything from milk to salad dressing is going to cost more in the near term, and eventually the meat deals will evaporate as demand outstrips supply. 

Agriculture experts and economists largely agree that the weather conditions are expected to hurt corn crops, and in turn will impact retail prices in the weeks ahead. But we won’t know the full impact of the drought until early August or September, said Richard Volpe, research economist for the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“We don’t yet know what’s going to happen and we don’t yet know how severe the drought will be and the amount we end up getting at the end of the corn harvest,” he stressed.

The USDA provides monthly estimates of food prices but the June data showing increases of less than 5 percent for key items such as dairy and meat products does not take the recent grain issues into account. Updated figures on the drought’s impact will be released July 25.

Volpe wouldn’t provide specific projections based on conditions now, but he did say price increases for milk, that were expected to be flat or decline this year, could head up “if there’s a major jump in feed prices.”

At this point, he added, “there’s been enough damage that we know we’re not going to have a record crop in field corn. Now the question is, how far below the record crop is this going to fall? What happens in next two weeks will drive what happens to corn and that will have an affect on all food prices.”

Field corn, also known as feed corn -- which is different from the sweet corn many of us eat during our barbecues -- is in about 74 percent of the foods consumers buy in supermarkets, he pointed out.

This year, corn supplies were expected to be more than ample because many growers in the Corn Belt -- including Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska and Minnesota -- increased acreage of the crop to meet growing global demand, said John Riley, assistant extension professor at Mississippi State University. “But it will now fall short because of the drought and heat,” he noted.

The price for a bushel of corn hit $7.48 a bushel at the Chicago Board of Trade this week, and government figures now project this year and next that a bushel will be as much as $6.40 a bushel, up significantly from last month's projections of $4.20 to $5 a bushel.

The expected rise in food prices is nothing new for consumers. “Food price inflation in 2011 was well above normal,” explained Corinne Alexander, an agricultural economist at Purdue University. Grocery store food inflation was 4.8 percent last year, she said, and the expectations were of about 2 percent this year.

“The drought means above normal food price inflation in 2012, and going into 2013,” he noted.

While prices for processed foods such as cereal are not expected to rise considerably unless the shortages get much worse because producers had already instituted huge price hike last year, she continued.

But, she added, the cost of things like oil and salad dressing are likely to rise because soybean crops have also been impacted.

The food-price roller coaster is a scary ride consumers have been on for some time. There have been tight supplies going back to 2006, said Mississippi State’s Riley. “Weather events and a bump up in demand for corn for renewable fuel,” he explained, have all contributed to the problem.

When asked if consumers should start praying for rain, he said, “any rain moving forward is a blessing and is going to help, but I don’t know if it’s going to make it better.”

Getty Images file

Whole Foods saw customer satisfaction increase in the past year, according to a new survey.

We’ve been hearing a lot of potentially positive news about the economy lately, and that may be trickling down to the grocery store level.

A new survey finds that even though food prices are going up, Americans are more satisfied than they were a year ago with upscale grocer Whole Foods and less satisfied with discount giant Wal-Mart.

The American Customer Satisfaction Index, an ongoing study of people’s shopping preferences, said Whole Foods’ customer satisfaction rose slightly in the past year, continuing an upward trend. It’s the nation's second most beloved major grocery, after Publix.

Wal-Mart, on other hand, saw customer satisfaction fall. It’s the least popular of the major grocers in the survey.

David VanAmburg, managing director of the ACSI, said that in general people tend to favor quality over price – except when we experience a downturn as we did with the Great Recession.

“When the economy tanks, people are thinking more about, ‘How can I stretch my dollar as much as possible?’” VanAmburg said.

As the tepid recovery has picked up steam, shoppers appear to be starting to look again at factors such as store cleanliness, checkout lines and quality of produce, VanAmburg said.

“Things have improved enough that customers are looking more for quality. They’re looking for that combination of good quality and good price,” VanAmburg said.

Consumer prices jumped in January, thanks in part to high gas prices, and food prices were up slightly. But the nation’s unemployment rate fell to 8.3 percent last month, one of a growing number of signs that brighter days are coming.

A separate poll from Pew Research Center found that people are more optimistic about the economy than they were even two months ago.

In periods such as this, when the economy is showing improvement and prices are rising, upscale chains like Whole Foods have more tools available, VanAmburg said.

The store, which some call “Whole Paycheck” for its high prices, can offer promotional deals or tout its private label 365 Everyday Value line, which may make people feel better about shopping there. That can build on what people already think of as a positive shopping experience, he said.

Wal-Mart, on the other hand, is largely known for being low-cost, and that can make it harder for the chain to find other ways to attract customers when food prices are rising, VanAmberg said.

Wal-Mart has said it is making a major effort to keep costs down. In its most recent earnings call in November, the company acknowledged that rising food prices are an issue for its core customers and that it was trying to absorb some price increases.

Wal-Mart spokeswoman Sarah Spencer said she couldn’t comment specifically on the ACSI study because she hadn’t seen it. But she said the company works hard to please customers with such efforts as helping people choose healthy foods and sourcing more food locally.

“We survey more than half a million customers every month, and they are telling us they are pleased with their shopping experience at our stores and clubs. We continue to work to meet and succeed our customers' expectations by offering them low prices on fresh and packaged food,” she said in an email.

The American Customer Satisfaction Index is based on interviews with about 70,000 customers annually, gauging opinions on  several different industries.