I have to hand it to them. Grocery stores are the masters of consumer psychology. How else can you explain walking into the grocery store for one item and coming out with a basket full of stuff?

In some ways they remind me of carnival pitchmen who’ve refined their sales pitches to perfection. In the process we spend more than we need to or would like to.

Let’s take a look at the subtle grocery store manipulation that drains hard earned money from our pocketbooks.

The Limited Quantities Trick

How many times have you ever heard a cashier say,

“No ma’am, you’re over limit on those mangos – there’s a limit of 3 per person you know.”

Do you really think that the store cares how many items each customer purchases? Of course not. Their only concern is making sure they sell as much as possible.

Here’s a simple fact – In the direct marketing world the two easiest ways to influence a person to make a purchase are (1) limit the time an offer is available or (2) limit the quantities of product available for purchase.

Don’t believe me. Just take a look at the Home Shopping Network or any typical late night infomercial to see what I mean.

It seems supermarkets have adapted these time tested marketing ideas for use on the grocery store floor.

Placing a limit sign on the side of a product automatically guarantees that more customers will buy. I mean if the quantities are limited it must be a great deal – right! Not only will more customers purchase but I’m quite sure each will make sure they get their limit.

So with a simple limit sign the grocery store has both increased the number of people interested in the sale and also guaranteed that those who do buy will buy more – probably the limit allowed by the sale.

Now don’t get me wrong. Sometimes these “limit sales” turn out to be great deals. I’ve run into a few great limit sales recently. I’m simply saying that you should always check out such a sale before reflexively placing items in your cart.

Check the regular price to see if you really are getting a deal. Sometimes you’re only saving pennies. Make sure to check the expiration date of the product or the condition of the items if they are perishables. A limit sale is a quick way for a supermarket to get rid of items past their prime.

Finally, if it is a legit sale be careful of going over the limit because the scanner may charge you full price for any extra items.

The Limited Time (4 Day Sale) Trick

This limited time sales trick is another adaptation from the direct marketing world. Typically supermarket sales run for a week. Sometimes, however, stores feature “special” 3 day or 4 day sales – the typical limited time offer trick. I believe they want to secretly give you the impression that the deals at these sales are especially good.

One night I was in the store to get some milk and noticed that a “special” 4 day sale was going on. I better make sure I check out all the deals as I won’t be back before the sale ends, I thought. Yes, I have to admit that there were a few great bargains – what I like to call “super sales” when you can get an item at 50% off or more.

But the truth be told, the normal week long sales also had many of these same super sales! Yet the difference is that because it was time limited – 4 days long only instead of the normal week long sale, I felt compelled to stay and shop.

The Sucker Sale

This is perhaps the most interesting of grocery store tricks I’ve come across. Supermarkets understand this simple fact. Everyone loves a sale. Don’t you? I have to admit my heart races just a little bit faster when I see the red sales sticker and the promise of a great deal.

Yet, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in the process of putting a “sales” item in my basket only to notice how much I was really saving. Ten cents off a $3.29 box of cookies, twenty cents of a $2.99 carton of orange juice! Not quite a deal after all.

These “sucker sales”, as I like to call them, are particularly effective since they are interspersed amongst real bargains – items that are on sale for 30%, 40%, even 50% off their regular price. We’re so conditioned by the savings we get with the true sales that we blindly act as if all sales are deals.

Next time you’re about to throw a sale item in your cart take a second to figure out how much you’re really saving. You may be about to become the next victim of a “sucker sale”.

Do you have any grocery store tricks you’ve come across? We’d like to hear from you. Share your experiences with others by leaving a comment below.

It never fails. We go into the supermarket to buy a few things and come out with a cart loaded with groceries. The problem – those impulse grabs that fill our grocery carts.

In fact, depending on the study cited, nearly 40% to 50% of our grocery purchases are impulse buys – items we never intended on purchasing when we set foot in the store.

So how do we avoid these costly impulse purchases? Below I list nine simple tricks that you can use to keep more of your hard earned money.

Skip the grocery cart and go with the hand basket.

Have you noticed the growth in the size of grocery carts over the past decade? Supermarkets understand the larger the cart the more likely we are to fill it up. If your grocery trip is only for a few items simply walk right past the carts and take a small hand basket instead.

Skip the hand basket and use your arms.

Need only one or two items? Skip even the hand basket. With only two hands you’re only able to pick up what you can carry. This almost ensures that you’ll have to walk right past those impulse temptations.

Leave your credit card in car. Instead bring just enough cash.

So you only need a bag of sugar and some butter. Simply leave the credit cards in the car and instead bring in just enough cash to cover the cost of the butter and sugar. If you notice a REALLY good deal you can always run back to the car. This also gives you more time to think about whether or not you need to take advantage of that good deal anyway.

Park your grocery cart at the end of the aisle.

One of our readers submitted this tip. If you need to buy a week’s worth of groceries avoiding a grocery cart is out of the question. But you can still lower your chances of making impulse purchases. Simply park you cart at the end of each aisle. Walk down the aisle to pick up what you need and then head back to your grocery cart. Head to the next aisle and repeat. Again, with only two hands you force yourself to pick up only what you need and can carry, thus avoiding impulse buys.

Do a grocery cart check before you check out.

There’s nothing that says once you place an item in your cart you can’t remove it. Make a habit of finding a quiet corner in the grocery store where you can calmly examine your grocery cart. Does it contain items you really don’t need? Perhaps you have items that can be bought cheaper at the drug store or local Target. Do you really need 10 cans of pinto beans?

Don’t get fooled by a “sucker sale”.

Sales are one of the ways in which supermarkets trick us into making impulse purchases. I’m not talking about the great deep discount sales but what I call the “sucker sales”. These are sales in which the regular price of an item has hardly been reduced at all.

You notice that delicious bag of cookies on the shelf with the big bright red sales sticker above it. You instinctively grab a bag even though you know you don’t need cookies – but hey they’re on sale. If you’d look closer you would have noticed that you’re only saving ten cents on a $3 bag of cookies! – you’ve just become another victim of the “sucker sale”.

When you can’t find an item ask for directions.

Supermarkets don’t want you to become too comfortable with the store layout. This would allow you to enter the store, quickly find what you need, and walk out. Not the optimal situation for the supermarket because the more time you spend in the store the more money you spend.

This is why supermarkets periodically relocate items in their stores. In fact, store shelves actually contain retractable wheels on the bottom that make this task of relocating items all the easier.

The next time you notice that your store has moved an item you buy on a regular basis, don’t waste time wandering the store looking for it’s new location. Just ask the nearest clerk or checkout person where it is.

Place a snack in your car ahead of time.

Common advice is not to go to the grocery store hungry as you are inevitably much more susceptible to impulse purchases.

Sounds great in theory, but in practice many of us have such hurried and hectic schedules that we’re not even thinking about eating something before we arrive at the supermarket.

One way to make sure that you’re not hungry when shopping is to always have a snack available in your glove compartment – chips, energy bar, or gum for example. I get stock up on cheap snacks at my local dollar store.

Finally, watch out for those cheap $1 Redbox video rentals.

Those frugal $1 video rentals from the Redbox kiosks located outside the supermarket entrance are a great entertainment bargain. Be careful, however, because they may also lead to more impulse spending.

When you rent a video you naturally have to return it. It’s the return visit where you may be tempted to step inside the grocery store and again open yourself up to impulse shopping. In essence, the cheap videos serve as a way for the supermarket to get you back to the store within a short period of time – a recipe for increased grocery spending.

Do you have tips for stopping impulse buying? We’d love to hear from you. Leave a comment below.

I’m always amazed at how food companies alter the packaging and appearance of their products to entice us to make a purchase.

A recent example of this occurred with my regular orange juice purchase. A few months ago while browsing my local grocery store I came across a special promotional case featuring a new variety of Tropicana orange juice called Trop50. Trop50 offers 50% less sugar and 50% fewer calories than regular Tropicana orange juice. It sounded like a healthier alternative.

Since the Trop50 was on sale, I placed a few cartons into my shopping cart. It was not until I reached the regular orange juice section that I noticed the Trop50 cartons are taller and slightly more narrow than the regular cartons of orange juice.

I didn’t think too much of  it because the taller Trop50 carton makes it appear that you’re getting the same amount of juice as you would have if you purchased the regular Tropicana orange juice.

No big deal until you take a closer look and see, as indicated on the side of the carton,  that the taller, slightly skinnier carton of Trop50 orange juice actually contains only 59 ounces of juice compared to the 64 ounces of juice found in the regular Tropicana orange juice cartons. Worse yet, the non-sale price of the Trop50 was 20 cents higher than the price of the regular Tropicana orange juice.

So let’s get this straight: for the Trop50 orange juice with 50% less calories and 50% less sugar,  you pay 20 cents more and get 5 ounces less juice than the regular Tropicana orange juice!

Yet it seems that I’m not the only one that’s picked up on this food packaging slight of hand. A recent Consumer Reports publication has commented on the new Trop50 orange juice as well. They too noted the fact that the Trop50 carton contains 5 less ounces than the regular varieties of  Tropicana orange juice (although in their case the Trop50 and regular orange juice were priced the same.)

Consumer Reports goes on to report something that I failed to notice at first. The Trop50 is listed as a “orange juice beverage” containing only 41% orange juice, while the regular Tropicana orange juice is made from 100% juice.

I believe Consumer Reports sums it up best when they say”

“Instead of spending extra for a lower-cal juice beverage, cut those calories by mixing regular orange juice with water or seltzer.”

Key Lesson: Be careful with product packaging. New sizes and shapes can be misleading. That’s why its more important than ever to read the product information carefully to see how much food you’re actually getting.

Have you had an interesting experience with product packaging, presentation, or labeling? Share your experience. Leave a comment below.

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 becomes difficult to find.

Stop carrying some of your favorite items for seemingly no reason at all.

I can totally relate to this article because I’ve had the very same gripes on several of my shopping trips. 

The simple fact is that supermarkets really have no interest in making our lives more convenient. 

Yeah they say they do. They advertise their friendly atmosphere, vast product selection, and super low prices. But the real truth of the matter is that your friendly supermarket is a big business whose sole existence for being is to make a profit, not to make our lives any easier.

In fact, your convenience gets in the way of their profits. Making things more convenient for the shopper directly interferes with them making more money. 

Let me explain. 

If your grocery store was truly concerned with making things more convenient for you they would place the basic staple items you need closer to the entrance. 

This convenience would allow us to quickly grab what we needed and go.  But how many times have you gone into the store for a quick trip to buy some butter or bag of sugar and come out with a cart full of groceries? 

Supermarkets purposefully place the essential staples not at the front of the store, but far in the back. As a result, we pass through row upon row of edible temptations. In fact, nearly 40% to 50% of all of our purchases inside the store are impulse purchases! 

If your supermarket made it convenient for you by placing all of the staples at the front of the store, they would lose all the profit they collect as you make your way to the back to purchase your essential items. 

If your grocery store was truly concerned with making things more convenient for you they would place the items we use together near each other.   

Why are the hot dogs on one end of the store and hot dog buns on the other end, the salad greens in one place while the the salad dressing sits in another?

Well it again relates to the issue above. By making us travel across the store to get the buns for our hot dogs we’re more inclined to make impulse purchases, spend more money, and increase the store’s profits. 

If your grocery store was truly concerned with making things more convenient for you they would keep sales items in stock. 

Lets consider the super cheap “loss leaders” that supermarkets use to lure us into the store. The simple fact is that if you don’t get to the store during the first two days of the sale the sale items are frequently out of stock.  But to make it convenient for us by keeping store shelves fully stocked of sale items would cost the supermarket profits. 

Many of these super cheap sales items are sold at a loss to the supermarket (ie the term “loss leader”). Their only purpose is to lure you into the store. Once a customer is in the store there is not much of an incentive to stock a product the store loses money on. 

If your grocery store was truly concerned with making things more convenient for you they would keep check out lines short. 

Long check-out lines. Why does it seem that grocery stores have some magical formula where the number of check-out lanes left open is directly proportional to the number of people in the store so that even at 11pm we are kept waiting in a check-out line?

Simply put, long check-out lines create a captive audience more likely to purchase that candy bar, bag of chips, or magazine sitting right in front of us. In fact, per square foot, the check-out area is one of the most profitable locations in the entire store!

If your grocery store was truly concerned with making things more convenient for you they would keep sale prices simple. 

As I mentioned in my last post, supermarkets make sale pricing unnecessarily complicated – 3 for $7, buy 2 get 1 free, 4 for $7. Determining the individual price of a sale item is like taking a 5th grade math test.  

Grocery stores have discovered that we simply spend more when prices are advertised this way. With a 3 for $7 sale, for instance, its often easier for us to just place 3 items in our shopping basket than divide 7 by 3 to determine the individual price of a sales item. 

They don’t want you to easily figure out the sale prices of  individual items … you might realize you’re not getting a great deal after all.

The take home lesson: Supermarkets are in the business of making money.  Making things more convenient for us costs them potential profits. And let me be clear there is nothing wrong with a business wanting to make money. We live in a capitalist society.

The key is for us to realize this so that we keep more money in our pockets. By understanding supermarket tricks and tactics we simply save more.

Update: We’d like to thank Counting My Pennies for including this article in the Carnival of Pecuniary Delights personal finance blog carnival.

In a previous post we listed seven simple ways to dramatically cut your grocery bill. With food prices expected to rise even further in 2009, its more important than ever to take steps to slash your grocery costs.

Here are 7 more simple ways to save money in tough economic times.

Shop with a list. Grocery stores are supreme experts in getting you to buy things you don’t need. In fact, between  40%- 60% of all supermarket purchases are impulse buys.

Supermarkets are teeming with sales, deals, and special offers designed to take more money out of your pocket. By making a list and sticking to it you’re guaranteed to buy only what you need.

Cut Down on the Number of Trips You Make. Every single time you go into the supermarket you are entering a minefield of impulse temptations. By simply cutting  the number of grocery store visits in half, you cut in half the number of impulse purchases you’re likely to make.  You’ll also save time and gas.

Buy the Freshest Food Possible. You want the absolute best value for your dollar.  You search for the freshest products possible. Unfortunately, grocery stores often rotate their stock so that the oldest products are closest to the consumer.

Milk, for example, that is closest to its expiration date is often at the front of the refrigerated display.  Next time you’re shopping, pick the milk jug furthest from the front or take the box of margarine farthest away from you.  These are usually the ones with the best expiration dates.

In addition, to buying the freshest milk, butter, eggs, and similar products, it doesn’t take much effort to find the freshest produce or meat. There’s nothing worse than spending good money on fruit only to get it home and it have ripen so quickly that you have to throw it out. Simply ask the produce manager or store butcher when the meat, vegetables, and fruits  are placed on the store floor.

Weigh Before You Buy. Not all five pound bags of potatoes or one pound bag of carrots are made equal. In fact, there can be considerable variations in the weights of supposedly pre-weighed bags of produce.

A one pound  bag of carrots, for example, could contain .9 pounds or 1.1 pounds, a relatively significant swing of .2 pounds.  Most produce sections have scales where you can weigh bags of produce.

This same concept applies to items like heads of lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, and other produce which is priced per item. By weighing these items as well you can make sure you get the maximal amount of produce for your shopping dollar.

Skip the Grocery Cart. If you’re in the store for just for a few items, skip the grocery cart. Stores realize that people spend more when they don’t have to lug their items throughout the store.

In fact, many supermarkets have increased the size of their carts in order to get you to spend even more. By using a hand basket or your arms you’re much less inclined to purchase the impulse items that quickly inflate your shopping bill.

Try Hot Cereal for Breakfast. Processed cereals full of sugar are becoming increasingly expensive. Hot cereals like oatmeal and cream of wheat can be purchased for one half to one third the price.

They take only a few minutes to prepare in the microwave. Add some raisins or banana slices and you have a delicious morning meal at a fraction of the cost.

Avoid Pre-portioned Foods and Snack Packs. Why pay for a box containing 6 cookie snack packs when you can simply buy a whole bag of cookies for much less?  Its seems that food manufacturers are coming up with an increasing number of ways to create “snack packs” which they advertise as great for kids’ lunches and mid-meal snacks.

But the “convenience” of a snack pack usually comes at a premium.  Instead simply buy the large bag of chips or cookies, a bulk box of sandwich bags, and make your own “snack packs”.

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 a bright red sale sign in front of it. But as we’ll see this habit can be dangerous to our wallet.

Let’s take a look at a basket of goods that an average shopper might purchase:
shredded cheese, cookies, waffles, orange juice, syrup, cereal, ravioli, trash bags, and spaghetti.

All of these items were recently on sale at a suburban Chicago supermarket. Now if we take a closer look we see that we did indeed get a great deal on some of our products.

We saved between 44% – 50% on each of these items. Truly great deals. But lets take a look at some of the other sale items in our basket.

The savings now don’t look so great. Only 10% – 11% savings. The savings on the rest of the goods in our basket were even worse.

On these items we saved a measly 5% and quite frankly a 5% savings is hardly worth the effort.

The lesson …. Before you instinctively pick up a sale item, compare the sale price with the original price to see if you’re truly getting a great deal. If you can’t save at least 30%, put the “sale” item right back on the shelf.

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, sports teams, and special events. A football theme display, for example, might contain table clothes and sign-age in your favorite team’s colors, along with items needed for watching the big game like a variety of chips, salsa, popcorn, sodas, and other party foods.

This may be one way the supermarket manager might envision the perfect theme display working:

Customer walking into store and spying a football theme display: H’mm I forgot the big Chicago – Green Bay game is this Sunday. Hey these chips are on sale, might as well pick up a pack or two for the crew. Well if I’m going to buy these chips on sale, might as well pick up salsa to go with them …… and while I’m at it why not pick up some drinks as well.

Let’s take a closer look at how such a theme displays brings in extra profits.

First, by drawing your attention to an event that may not have been on your mind, they can influence you into buying products you may not have originally intended on purchasing.

Second, An item within the theme display is often on sale thus adding “drawing power” to the display itself. Upon further inspection, however, this sale item may not really be much of a bargain, say discounted only 10% or 20% off its regular price. Alternatively, the sale item may represent a more expensive brand. A walk down the store aisle often reveals several cheaper brands.

Furthermore, the sale item in a theme display is often surrounded by complement products – products that are often bought in conjunction with the original. Salsa and chips in this example. Others examples include spaghetti and spaghetti sauce, crackers and cheese, or milk and cookies.

When you purchase the sale item you’re much more inclined to purchase its complement partner, especially if you feel that you’ve just gotten a deal on the sale item.

Even with the complement products, the grocery store can seize upon an opportunity to make additional profit, as many of these complement products are either brands with a higher profit margin or slow sellers that the store is looking to move off the shelves.

The best way to keep from losing money to supermarket theme displays is to avoid them all together. If you are tempted, just make a mental note of the items that interest you, then walk to the different sections of the store where these items are normally shelved. You’ll likely find cheaper brands of each item there, saving you money!

If you’re like most Americans your grocery bill is one your top monthly expenses. But unlike your mortgage, car payment, and other monthly expenses, you can easily and dramatically cut your grocery expenses.

Here we list 7 simple ways to reduce your food costs.

Don’t go to the store hungry. Grocery stores have made a science out of playing on your senses. The first thing you’ll notice when entering a  grocery store is the smell of freshly baked bread.

Since many stores don’t actually bake on the premises, these smells are actually piped into the store’s ventilation system.

The bright colors of fresh fruits and vegetables serve as tempting beacons, as do the rest of the delicious food items in the grocery store. If you enter a supermarket hungry, you’re guaranteed to spend more money.

Leave the Kids at Home. Supermarkets have nifty tricks for turning your kids against you.  Popular kids cereals are placed at their eye level so they can pester you into buying the most expensive, sugar-laden boxes.

Some grocery stores even provide miniature shopping carts so that your kids can place products in that you’ll have to argue to get back onto the shelf.  The final insult is a check-out area overflowing with candy, gum and other snacks.

Be Cautious of End of the Aisle Displays. This is an especially dangerous area because supermarkets know consumers pay more attention to items at the end of the isles. More often then not shoppers assume items here are on sale, when they’re actually not.

Even genuine sales items placed at the end of aisles are often more expensive than similar items found in the middle of the aisle.

Don’t Fall into the Bulk Purchase Trap. It used to be that the more of a product you purchased, the less it would cost per unit of that product. A larger can of baked beans, for example, generally would cost less per ounce than a smaller can.

Sadly, manufacturers have realized this and now often use it to their advantage. Buy that larger  bottle of salad dressing and you could end up paying more per ounce than if you had bought the smaller bottle.

To avoid this trap always compare unit prices – the price per unit of whatever you are buying. This could be price per ounce, price per pound, price per square foot, etc. This unit price is generally found on the shelf price label.

Beware of Handwritten Signs. Grocery stores know that consumers have a tendency to assume that any item with a handwritten sign must be on sale. Not surprisingly,  many products with handwritten signs, in fact, are not on sale.

Items with handwritten signs are often slow moving items that the supermarket wants to draw attention to. To steer clear of this trap, always double check the price.

For the Best Deals Search High and Low. Grocery stores often place the highest margin items – those items that make the store the most money – where they are easiest to reach.

This area is from the eye level to upper chest level of the average size shopper.  In order to find better deals, take a look at items near the bottom or near the top of the shelf.

Check Your Receipt. Scanner mistakes occur more often than you think.  Usually its not a problem with the scanner itself, but the simple fact that each week hundreds of new sales prices must be manually updated into the computer system that controls the scanner.

This is usually where the mistakes occur.  Always check your receipt to make sure you’re charged the right price.

Got a great grocery saving tip? We’d like to hear from you. Share your tip below.

Price deception is the way your friendly local supermarket gets you to pay more than you need to. Its practiced in little subtle ways – each working to siphon off your hard earned money.

When you know where this price deception is practiced, you’re one step closer to supermarket savings. Let’s take a look at some of the sneakiest price deception practices.

Beware of Handwritten Signs: Grocery stores know that consumers have a tendency to assume that any item with a handwritten sign is on sale. Not surprisingly, supermarkets use this to their advantage by placing handwritten signs on products which are not on sale. 

Often these are slow moving items that the supermarket wants to draw more attention to. To steer clear of this trap, always check the handwritten sign price with the small printed price information on the store shelf.

Be Careful of Sales Circular Items:  Think everything in the weekly sales circular is on sale? Think again. Supermarkets often mix sales and non-sales items in the same circular.

Generally this occurs in the pages between the advertised specials located on the front and back covers of the circular. Always, double-check circular prices to make sure the item you’re interested in is actually on sale.

Watch Out for End-Aisles: This is an especially dangerous area because shoppers frequently assume items displayed here are on sale.  Supermarkets know this and it is quite common for these items to be full price. Worse yet, supermarkets often place on the end-aisles products they’re having trouble getting rid of. To avoid the end-aisle trap, simply take a walk down the aisle where the product is normally shelved to see if you’re getting a bargain. 

By understanding how supermarkets use price deception you can avoid their traps and save more of your hard earned money.

Ever wonder why grocery stores try so hard to build shopper loyalty with special reward cards and offers? The reason is that your loyalty is vital to their profits. Here’s why.

Simply put, no store can offer the lowest price on everything.

In fact, most stores offer different products at various mark-ups, a process called merchandising the mix. Some products will be sold at cost (loss leaders) or at a small 5%  mark-up. Other products will be sold 10%, 15%, or 20% above cost.

Your local store entices you into the store by advertising products with little to no mark-up, then count on your loyalty to remain in the store where you’ll also purchase the more lucrative 10%,15% and 20% mark-up items.

This is a crucial point. The low prices stores offer on some products is offset by the higher prices they charge on other items.

Now here’s how you use this simple fact to your advantage.

First and foremost, begin by throwing store loyalty out the window. Pick two or three different national chains that you will each frequent at least once a week.  The key is to buy the low mark-up products at each store.

Now supermarkets have been clever at promoting the myth that you’ll waste more in gas by visiting a competitor’s store.

This is simply not true.  In most mid-size to large cities, increased competition has resulted in major supermarket chains locating stores right near each other.

In smaller cities, major chains often have stores within a few miles of each other.  While it might cost you at most $4-5 dollars in gas you can easily slice 20% off of your grocery bill – for many families this can add up to $100 or $200 dollars per month!

Personally, I shop in a location where there is a Dominicks supermarket located just 700 yards away from a competing Jewel-Osco store.

How do you tell which stores are selling which products at the lowest price?

Use a price book. This is a simple notebook in which you keep track of the lowest price you have paid for the products you commonly purchase. In it you’ll write down the product, the unit price you paid for that product, date, and store you bought the product in.

When you see a product in a store, check your price book. If the price is close to or less than the price in your price book, stock up on the product. If its not, wait until you visit the next store on your list or until the product goes on sale.

By cherry picking the deals at each store you’ll enjoy huge grocery savings.