http://www.igd.com/index.asp?id=1&fid=1&sid=8&tid=16&cid=2269
Blogger after Blogger talk about how to save money on your food bill, how to reduce, how to build a pantry, how to use flyers and coupons, how to write a list or plan your meals, all good solid ways to help you reduce your food bill, of course farmgal highly recommends trying to grow some of your food if possable, or creating a good relationship with local farmers.
The link above shows the flip side of all that advice, it shows the trends and tracking that is being done by the stores and how they are trying hard to figure out how to take the advice being given and just “tweek” it to get you to open your wallet just a little wider..
They said that the most impluse unplanned buying instore is promotions, and as soon as I read it, I realized that is ME.. I write my lists and can go in, and come out with everything on my list to the letter, unless I see an amazing sale on something we use, then I have been known to fill carts (like last years when I bought every pinnaple they had on sale) I consider finding those sales a good thing, I watch the flyers for them, and I often will send DH on his way home from work(reducing gas used and a extra off farm trip) to pick up a a case or two of certain things..
How often do I go shopping with a set budget only to find a good sale makes me go over, now to be fair this does work well for creating a long term pantry, and allows you to buy things on sale and not have to buy anything on full price..
Still I am going to need to start watching this even more closely, I had already noticed that the end of row sales were getting to be less and less good sales, that often a better buy can be had going down the row, and looking for sales on the top or bottom rows.
So how about you? Do you find yourself going off-list when amazing sales hit the stores? Any after buying regrets when this happens? or are you more like me.. perhaps being unplanned, but 99.9 percent of the time, a good thing overall on savings.
Just another Day on the Farm 
Ha – gotta love this: “Promotions provide a vital mechanism for disrupting shopping decisions in-store.”
If, say, pork legs are on for $0.77, I will go in and buy as many of them as I figure I can deal with. I might grab something out of the discount bin, when you see a box of discontinued cookies for $0.99, for example, or a box of day old croissants for half price. We cherry-pick 100% – NO buying of anything that isn’t on sale.
When we go to the wholesale club, we get what we know we need, and there’s very little variety in those purchases. Those prices are always better than Sobeys, at least for what we buy.
And when we go to the farm, we take whatever is available and never quibble about prices.
I hear you on the cherry picking, its the way to go! I tend to walk about in shock at the prices at the higher end stores and rarely will buy anything in them.
Here is the key phrase, “unless I see an amazing sale on something we use,”. This not only works well for creating a long term pantry it’s the way to maintain a pantry. The reason for having a pantry isn’t just to get through disaster or crisis; it’s a place to store what you grow so you can eat until the next growing season, as well as store purchased items that are used consistently. By utilizing the pantry properly; you never need to worry about ingredients for the recipes you use regularly, you are paying the best price, you avoid extra trips to the store.
The article says,”We also found that many shoppers are now resolved to only ever buying certain categories on promotion, deferring purchase if a suitable promotion is not available on that trip.” – SUITABLE – that’s you, too. Good Job! My big thing with end cap sales is toilet paper. They can entice me into looking , but whether it’s really a good deal is another thing. Many times there is an even better deal down the aisle. There are often in store sales that aren’t advertised, also. But, as long as I have six packages in the closet, I can wait until the brand I prefer is priced right.
We live 30 miles from the store so we only shop when we are in town for other reasons, always combining trips. I may only have lettuce on my list but I budget $100 for the grocery store.
When I check out I put like items through together to make evaluating our spending and eating habits easy (example: meat, dairy, baking, produce). At the end of 2006, I found I was feeding a family of six for less than $200 per month which included the grain we fed animals that produced eggs, milk or eventually went in the freezer.
The moral of this long story…Put “amazing deals” on your list, be sure they really are amazing, and buy 2.
Agreed, have a added note on all shopping trips lists, Amazing Deals!
Buy 2 – heck, buy 10. It’s not all that often we see ‘amazing’ sales, but when we do, we buy as much as we can use before the use-by date, or as much as we can store. For instance, a local store had cranberry juice on for $2.50 – regular over $4. They are rarely on sale for less than $3.50. We bought two dozen jugs. I wish we’d gotten more! I also wait for sales for the things I want to can, like pears. No point paying full price, especially when you’re buying cases of something. You really have to know the regular prices of stuff, though, so as not to get sucked in on a sale that really only amounts to ten cents off.
I feel differently when buying from local farmers, though. I will ask if there is a bulk price, but I don’t tend to haggle. Usually the prices are good anyhow, and I like to see small farmers get ahead.
Hi JJ
I keep a little book on the regular prices so that I can compare to the sale prices for just how good the sale really is. and I hear you about buy ten or twenty
It is a little creepy when you read their strategies… I’m afraid to even wonder what goes on with the shopper’s reward cards.
Good tips all. I admit I’m not the best shopper and the less often I go, the less I want to go. But keeping a good pantry is a skill that saves a lot of money in a year so I try. I almost don’t even look at the sales, but stick to my list – if I impulse buy it’s because I have a bad habit of going to the store when I’m hungry. But you have all convinced me to do a better job. 200/month for a family of six is pretty amazing…
the one that drives me crazy lately is about the stores that always ask for our postal code to track us in the stores, I always refuse, I have only had one checkout really get pushy about it, and it was in the city in Ikea, she was sure I had to give it to her.. I was just as sure, I DID NOT, finally asked for a manager, and they entered their own postal code, she said that they could not finish the buy without entering a code.. ahhh
Consumer behavior is a science — the old mom & pop shops of yesteryear are gone and now we’re watched on camera, by security guards, and by mag strips on pay-cards. Wait til the day when products have implanted chips to signal when the product is used/opened/consumed.
O yes, a billion dollar science, don’t you just love how you get to smell the fresh bakery stuff right into the door, to start your hunger going, different lighting, carefully picked music and the list goes on..