Shopping around: organics on a budget

Betty from our GreenGroup is like many of us. She wants to buy organic as much as possible, but the prices can sometimes make it cost prohibitive. Here's her experience:

H/R:  In 2008, I want to purchase more organic foods, so I found the following article -- Organics on a Budget -- written by a green mom interesting.  It made me think about why I have never made it a regular practice to purchase organic foods more consistently in the first place.  The first things that usually come to mind are higher prices and having a more difficult time finding organics in the places that I normally shop.  I have no idea whether these statements are factually true or not, but because I believed them to true, I hadn't made any effort to disprove them.

When I lived in San Francisco, I thought organic foods were priced much more expensively in comparison to their non-organic counterparts.  On my way home from work, I often passed by a small organic store.  I never thought to go into it though because of the price issue.  Then, over the years, I one day found myself in the store because I was desperately needing an item (probably milk), and decided that it was much easier for me to walk here and get a carton and save lots of time in the process.  Even though I might have to pay more for it, I was willing to make the trade-off.  Well, much to my pleasant surprise, I remember the milk costing a little bit less than the supermarket that was a 10 minute walk away!  So, after this positive experience, I found myself walking to this store more often to get my milk on the way home from work.  Then, one thing led to another, and I started buying fruits and vegies there.  Over a period of time, as the store began to have more regular shoppers, it seemed to me that the prices slowly started to come down so that they were more comparable to the prices set at chain stores for the same items.

Have you noticed a price decrease in organic products in the time that you have been shopping for organic products?

It would seem that if more people are buying organics, then the prices might come down as organics becomes more the norm. On the flipside, I think I've read that because demand for organics is growing so quickly, the prices may go up to meet demand. I do think there's a lot of value in shopping around. Market of Choice seems to regularly have much lower prices on organic milk than Fred Meyer does (two of my regular shopping haunts).

Do you shop around? What have your experiences with organic food prices been?