From the category archives:

Grocery Store Traps

When More is Less

September 23, 2009

Surprisingly, a trip to the movie theater reminded me of a great lesson that can save you money in the grocery store.
Approaching the movie theater concession stand I decided to order my usual medium bucket of buttered popcorn (yeah I realize that movie popcorn is not the most frugal purchase but we all splurge [...]

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How Your Local Friendly Supermarket Profits From Your Inconvenience

May 29, 2009

A recent post by Myscha Theriault at the personal finance blog Wisebread.com got me thinking about our “friendly” local grocery stores. 
In the article she discusses things that frustrate us all about our local supermarket. Particularly how supermarkets will:
Dramatically increase the price on a favorite item.
Change the location of an item in the supermarket so it [...]

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Big Brother is Watching You (In the Grocery Store)

April 13, 2009

Unknown to many, grocery stores are one the largest living laboratories around. Unfortunately, we are the mice and the large corporate supermarket chains are the investigators.
Every single inch of your local friendly supermarket has been tested and re-tested to achieve the maximum amount of profit for the supermarket – from the color of the floor [...]

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Do Supermarkets Price Discriminate?

February 25, 2009

Dominick’s is one of the major grocery chains here in Chicago. I may be naive, but I thought that if I went into one Dominick’s supermarket in the Chicago area that I would pay the same price for a jug of milk, or bag of apples, or box of cookies as I would at any [...]

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A New Supermarket Distraction Aimed to Get You to Spend More Money

December 15, 2008

The other night I was in my local grocery store looking to buy some milk and other essentials. As I flew down the cereal aisle to get to the diary section, I stopped in my tracks noticing this strange looking price on a box of Kelloggs cereal.
I don’t know why I stopped to look but [...]

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Gift Carding Your Way out of a Starbucks Habit

November 17, 2008

The Starbucks fix – the daily habit of enjoying our favorite Starbucks drink can cause serious damage to any budget. Financial gurus call it the “Latte Factor”, the way small daily charges add up to cause significant financial harm. Unfortunately, this Latte Factor doesn’t just apply to Starbucks.
Are you one who just can’t refuse [...]

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Discover How to Resist the Temptations of the Checkout Counter

November 10, 2008

Between 40% to 60% of our shopping purchases are impulse buys – purchases we had no intention of making when we first entered the grocery store. One of the most notorious impulse traps is the check-out counter.
Here grocery stores understand they have a captive audience as we patiently wait to pay for our purchases. It [...]

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Money Trap – Not All Supermarket Sales Are Created Equal

November 1, 2008

We all love the thrill of getting a great deal. A sense of pride overwhelms us when we get 50% off a purchase. Yet, grocery stores have learned how to play this love for the deal against us.
They have conditioned us to expect a great bargain whenever we pick up an item that has [...]

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The Theme Display – A Grocery Store Money Trap

October 31, 2008

Supermarkets have carefully refined their methods for making us spend more than we’d like. One of their most insidious money traps is the supermarket theme display. These displays usually take the form of tables, end aisles, or special shelves that display food items related around a central theme.
Theme displays are commonly focused around holidays, [...]

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The Supermarket Secret That Costs You Money

October 30, 2008

Supermarkets are marketing masters. They’ve studied your shopping behavior for decades.
As a result, they understand this simple fact – the longer a shopper stays in a store, the more that shopper will purchase. This explains why grocery stores have developed a variety of methods to keep you shopping longer.
Frozen Food Near the Back. Ever notice [...]

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