On Friday, 14 August 2015 13:59:05 UTC-4, George Shirley wrote:
>
> Just back from a visit to the stupor market, egad! canning jars and lids
> at retail are ridiculous. Probably by mid-October both will be heavily
> discounted. I don't need any as I have about eight dozen jars of varying
> sizes up to half gallon. I AM NOT A HOARDER, no matter what my wife and
> children say.

George, what are the jars going for now? In Canada, sometime in the past few weeks they *raised* the prices of jars about an average of a buck a dozen.. Bernardin brand (Ball's sister brand in Canada) pint jars (with lids and rings) are 8.99 or 9.99 now depending where you get them; you can get Golden Harvest pints at Crappy Tire though for 7.99. Replacement metal (flat part) lids are basically 30 cents each. (3.60 for a box of twelve.) For some stuff you're canning, the darned single-use, disposable lid is worth more than what you're putting in the jar.

You know how the canning rings and lids now come right on the jars for several years? And they used to be on quite tightly and many people suspected that ruined the rubber gasket on the lid? Well I've noticed that the shipments of new jars (the buck extra boxes) hitting the stores have the canning rings placed very loosely now on the jars. Maybe the buck extra is for someone in the factory down in Muncie, Indiana to go around and loosen the canning rings a bit. Ha!