Grocery stores know how most people like to shop, and they use that information to make you spend more. However, you can counteract their intentions with some information on product placement. If you know just where to look (and not look) in the grocery store, you can reap some big savings.
There is a lot of thought and marketing that goes into product placement in a grocery store. Major brands compete for shelf space, often paying stores for the privilege of being put in highly visible areas. The store displays have a science behind them and are usually arrange specifically to get you to spend more on the more expensive products.
Recently, my local grocery store decided to switch all of its products around. Cereal wound up where the canned soups were, diapers moved to the spot once occupied by baking goods, and who knows what happened to the beans. The switch drove me crazy. Until I got used to the changes, I spent far too much time in the store and was in danger of spending more because I couldn’t easily find the best prices.
Grocery stores sometimes do this shake up to get you to look at the store in a new light, and find products that you might be so use to ignoring that you don’t buy them. It is a marketing strategy. Fortunately, even though the aisle themselves were all mixed up, I still remembered some of the basics of finding the best prices on the shelves.
Here are some tips to help you counteract all of that marketing to get the best prices and the best bargains at your grocery store.
Look up and down
The stores usually put all of the most expensive products at your eye level. Generic or off-brand cereal, for example, will be placed on a top shelf or low shelf, out of your immediate vision, in the hopes that you will be attracted to and grab the higher priced cereal that is right in front of you.
Look at the ends of the aisle
Most people walk down an aisle and stop somewhere just before halfway down, when they are looking for something. It is fun to observe this the next time you are at the store. The marketing people know this and place the less expensive products near the ends of the aisle.
Shop the end-caps….carefully
End caps are those displays that “cap” off an aisle. They want to grab your attention and make the store seems like it is full of bargains. That small shelf space will often have the week’s sale items, so it is a good place to shop. But be careful. Sometimes the store is just trying to promote something new. Other times, the sale is real, but a generic brand will still be less expensive. Remember to compare the unit price, that is, the cost per item.
What are your best grocery shopping tips?
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