Grocery Store Sales Tricks | Pay Less For Food

Grocery stores have become masters of consumer psychology and use their knowledge about our purchasing behavior to get us to buy more than we need. Supermarkets frequently take our assumptions and use these very same assumptions against us.

Cases in point:

We assume you save more when you buy in bulk. Yet, in some cases, supermarkets purposefully price a bulk size package more expensively than the smaller size package.

We assume products with large handwritten signs attached to them are on sale. Grocery stores purposefully place these handwritten signs on items which are, in fact, not on sale. In some cases, these products are the ones the store is actively trying to get rid of.

We assume that the products on sale at end-aisles or end-caps are great bargains. Supermarkets use this to their advantage. Products displayed at the end of an aisle (end-caps) are frequently higher priced versions or brands of a similar product that can be found much cheaper in the middle of the store aisle.

For this reason, be careful when you’re in the store and see a “limit sale” – a sale in which you’re only allowed to buy a limited quantity of the item on sale. Our natural tendency is to think because we are limited in the number of items we can buy at this “special” price that this must be a great deal. In some cases it is.

In other instances, however, the supermarket again uses our assumptions against us. In our rush to scoop up our allotment we may fail to notice whether or not we’re actually getting a significant discount. Alternatively, the item may be one the store is trying to clear from its inventory because of a rapidly approaching expiration date. The product in the limit sale may even be a more expensive brand that the store is having trouble selling.

So what should you do the next time you see an item on sale but with a limit to the amount you’re allowed to buy?

First and foremost don’t automatically assume that you’re getting a great deal. You may or may not be. Check the sale price against the regular price. Is the discount significant? Is this an expensive brand? Can you find a much cheaper brand in the supermarket aisle and save even more money? Finally, don’t forget to check the expiration date of the product.

“Limit sales” can provide great bargains but you must be careful before quickly grabbing your allowed allotment.