Grocery Shopping 101

During my senior year of high school, I worked for a grocery distributor. I went on to broadcasting school and came back to work for the 2 other times. The first time I went back for a steady income. They left me go and two years later came looking for me across country. I worked for them for another 5 years (11 years total).

They had many stores across the US. While working for them I discovered a few secrets to shopping habits that people over look. Here is a few of them

Tip 1 Avoid the “Wall of Value”
When you first enter the store the store designers make you go past all the “sale” items for the week. This is called the Wall of Value. Sometimes it is an aisle. This does have the items that are on sale that week. Lesson: These items may not be the best value. They have a better markup than other sizes and brands.
Also check out Grocery Shopping 202 Buying in Bulk.

Tip 2 Avoid the End Caps
End caps are the end of aisles. This is where they put impulse buy items like the Twinkies, the doughnuts candy and the bottles of soda and water. Lesson: These are high mark up items. They grab your attention as you walk by or are waiting for the only checkout line available. A few stores will put sale items there but the items are the same as the Wall of Value items.

Tip 3 General Merchandise – Don’t buy it here
Shampoo, aspirin, toothpaste, laundry soap, the slotted spoon. All the items that are not food (human or animal) are considered General Merchandise. Lesson: This is the money maker for the store! Ever wonder why Tide is $2.00 more at the grocery store than Target and Wal-Mart. Because they know if you buy it at the grocery store you are trying to save a trip. So they can charge you more for the convenience.

Tip 4 There are no such thing as Loss Leaders
Loss leaders were used in the 1950s and 1960s to get you in the store. Some stores still have them. The company I worked for stopped using them in the 1970s. Why? Because they charge what the item costs. They are not losing money on them. Lesson: Even if they have loss leaders, they put the item in the Wall of Value or between better markup items. So people will buy more than just the loss leader the store will make money.

Tomorrow, I will continue with more in Grocery Shopping 201.

Just my 2 cents. Jim @ ChangeJarSavings.com