You are here: Home / Archives for Grocery store

The Myth of Variety

July 31, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Soft drinks on shelves in a Woolworths superma...

Image via Wikipedia

Walk into some American grocery stores and you may be surprised at the sheer size of the place and the aisle after aisle of food choices. One whole aisle for bread, soft drinks, snack items, and more. The different labels lead one to believe that there are hundreds of companies selling their wares. The truth is that though the labels are different, many times the companies are the same.

Take the soft drinks for example, in a typical aisle there is Coke, Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Orange Crush, Hawaiin Punch and a host of others, what you may not know is that Coke owns 450 brands including Minute Maid, A&W, Mr. Pibb, Sprite and Nestea. So there is a good chance that 450 products you come across in the grocery store is owned by one company, Coca Cola.

Down the bread aisle you may find 5 different loaves from the brand Natures Own, which is owned by Flower Foods who also own the popular brand Sunbeam. The examples go on and on. The point is that variety within our grocery stores is often a myth. Should we be concerned? The answer is yes. This control within the food industry must point to stringent regulations that keep smaller businesses from competing. Mom and pop bakeries have no hope of competing with the “big boys” This should be disturbing to Americans who are largely against monopolies and all for equal opportunity. So the next time you peruse the aisle of your local grocery store, ask yourself, “how many of these brands are owned by the same company?” The answer may surprise you.

Filed Under: Cooking & Recipes, Shopping Tagged With: , ,

Avoid Overspending on Your Next Trip to the Grocery Store

July 5, 2011 By Leave a Comment

You might not realize it but your grocery store is trying to play tricks on you. No, you aren’t going to show up on the next episode of Punk’d, but you might end up spending more on items that you neither wanted nor needed.

While you might think you are smarter than the grocery store it can be hard to overcome their little tricks to get you to spend more. Whether you are a rocket scientist, online trading broker who uses UFX Markets Trading,  or a parent, educating yourself on some of the tricks grocery stores pull will help you save money and eat better.

Junk Food When You Checkout

Grocery stores try to appeal to your impulsive side by placing the junk food at the checkout counter. This operates under the belief that if you’re hungry before you checkout you won’t think twice about tossing a candy bar or other snack into your basket.

To avoid spending money you don’t want to on candy bars, or eating unhealthy try to avoid the temptation of the candy bar rack at the checkout counter.

Avoid the Maze of the Grocery Store

Grocery stores specifically design their store to appear like a maze. They hope that you will get lost in the store and accidently come upon an item you wouldn’t normally buy and purchase it.

To avoid falling into the trap of the grocery store, try to map out your shopping trip before you go and only shop at stores you are familiar with the layout of. This will help you avoid getting lost and purchasing items you didn’t mean to.

Using these tips will help you avoid overspending and purchasing items you didn’t mean to on your next shopping trip.

Filed Under: Cooking & Recipes, Food News & Reviews, Grow Your Own Tagged With: , ,

How to Save Money on Your Grocery Bill

June 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Example of an American grocery store aisle.

Image via Wikipedia

As television shows like “Extreme Couponing” are becoming popular, many are intrigued with the idea of saving money on their grocery bills. Although the people who are on many of these shows are extreme examples, paying miniscule amounts on their large orders, the methods that they use to save money certainly do work, and should be considered by all to save money.  Here are a few tips on how to save money on your grocery bill.

Look at the Sales Paper

Prior to going on your weekly shopping trip, it is important to check out the sales paper.  This way, by seeing which items are on sale, you can save money.  For example, the person who normally buys one brand of an item out of habit and not out of preference may find that they can get a comparable item on that particular week for a much lower price.

Write Down a List

It is so important to write down a grocery list prior to walking into the store, and it is equally important to stick to it.  So easily we can become distracted while grocery shopping, causing us to walk out the store with more than intended.  Granted, picking up an extra item or two won’t break necessarily break the weekly budget, but the constant adding of unnecessary items can really add up in the long run.

Coupons

Coupons can truly be a life saver, especially at stores that double them.  Smart shoppers can clip them out from their local Sunday paper, or even print them out online and watch the savings pour in.

Filed Under: Cooking & Recipes, Grow Your Own Tagged With: , ,

How to Avoid Grocery Store Manipulation

June 6, 2011 By Leave a Comment
sprinkles

Image by cathro via Flickr

Unlike Department Stores, there is something about grocery stores that does not seem like they are trying to get as much money from you as possible, but they are.  Grocery stores are strategically set up so that they can manipulate shoppers into purchasing the items that they want you to buy.  So, this mean, your grocery list that may have only had a few items on it, can quickly grow to a list that is double what you intended on getting.

In order to avoid becoming victim to grocery store trickery, here are a few tips to assist with your trip.

  1. Write a shopping list prior to coming into the store, and stay focused.
  2. Don’t shop when you are hungry.  Hungry shoppers tend to be more impulsive shoppers because they are enticed by the delicious smells radiating throughout the store.
  3. Store brand items are often made by name brand companies but are sold for a much lower price.
  4. The items around the checkout counter can be very tempting, and although another brand of the same type of item can be purchased elsewhere in the store, the most expensive type of a particular item will be located near the register.
  5. Just like hunger can fuel impulsive shopping, so can lingering.  If you shop when you have nothing else to do, there is no rush, meaning that you will spend more time in the store than necessary, which will lead to purchasing a few extra items.
  6. Items that “go together” are usually placed near each other, therefore some customers feel like they cannot buy one without the other, like chips and dip.
Filed Under: Food News & Reviews, Shopping Tagged With: , ,

How Your Grocery Store Affects Your Health

May 9, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Example of an American grocery store aisle. 

Image via Wikipedia

 

The argument that your grocery store affects your health may seem unreasonable. After all, the average grocery store carries fruits and vegetables and the basic foods you need to stay alive and healthy. However, grocery stores do vary greatly from one another. Depending on your beliefs about food and nutrition, choosing your grocery store carefully can make a difference in your overall health.

Convenience and Affordability

Your average large grocery store offers you convenience, tremendous selection and affordability. By virtue of offering bulk products, such stores are able to deliver cheaper prices. The larger the packaging, the better price you generally receive per unit or weight amount. Purchasing giant bags of potato chips and multiple gallons of ice cream makes sense from an economic standpoint, but do they benefit your health?

The Alternative Grocery Store

As society establishes the link between nutrition and health, alternative options are appearing. Larger health food stores that carry healthier food are becoming more prevalent in larger cities. Organic and pesticide-free produce allows you to avoid harmful toxins that have the potential of accumulating in your body through repeated exposure. Healthier, non-chemical sugar substitutes are made available, along with alternative options for the lactose and gluten intolerant.

The Mom and Pop Grocery Store

The smaller health food stores have their unique advantages as well. When management is deeply interested in learning about and promoting health, this is reflected in the foods stocked and sold to the public. When visiting these stores, you often find individuals who have studied the impact of food on the human body and have carefully selected healthy options for your consumption.

 

 

 

Filed Under: Shopping Tagged With: , ,

Choosing the Best Grocery Stores

May 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment
"The New Fred Meyer on Interstate on Lomb...

Image via Wikipedia

 

Grocery store choices are plentiful. The traditional supermarket, organic grocery store and your corner grocery market are some of the possible options. You may be choosing grocery stores based on matters of price or location. When it comes to choosing the healthiest options, you might consider a few other factors.

Shopping at the Corner Store

One of the conveniences, particularly for city dwellers, is shopping at the corner grocery market. If you’re coming home late from work and are hungry, these stores are often the most attractive option simply because they’re nearby. However, the corner market generally offers fewer items at higher prices. Additionally, a smaller store may not be frequented as much, so you’ll want to make sure to check the expiration dates on items such as milk and bread.

Weekly Trips to the Supermarket

Traditional supermarkets typically offer better prices and a large selection. This type of store is your best bet if your concern is stretching your money as far as possible. With a larger selection of foods from which to choose, you also benefit from greater access to nutrition. Keep in mind, though, that unless your supermarket is located in a highly health conscious part of the country, you may not have access to organic foods and alternative food options, such as Stevia for sugar avoiders and almond milk for the lactose intolerant.

Occasional Trips to Health Food Stores

To guarantee greater access to organic products and wholesome nutrition, visit large-scale health food stores. The extra dollars you spend there may be offset by the savings you gain in fewer visits to the doctor.

 

 

Filed Under: Shopping Tagged With: , ,

Every Grocery Store Is Different

March 9, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Grocery stores offer all kinds of food for you and your family to enjoy and replenish themselves with. Your local grocery store that you go to all the time might not have the best deals on everything. This might not be news to you, but for the people that don’t know how grocery stores stay in business you should start to understand a few things. Not all grocery stores are the same, again this is not news to you, but do you know how they are different? Also grocery stores provide different services for people that come to shop at their store.

The first thing you know different about the store is the name, most of the stores today where once small family owned stores. The store names usually come from the last name of that family way back in the day when you didn’t have all these chain food stores. The different grocery stores also focused on one food section to be the best in when they first started out. They could have either focused on meat, grains, produce, or dairy products. This comes from where the store originated from usually the town that they started in had abundance of one of these items.

Some stores offer service like helping you carry your groceries out for you and grocery pick up, to find out more about the kind of services that your store offers just ask a cashier. The cashier should be able to tell you or at least point you into the direction of someone that knows. A lot of store services are built in the stores themselves. A good store will have a pharmacy, a bakery, and something like a butcher shop to along with the rest of the foods. The best way to find out what kind of different things different stores offer is to shop at each one yourself.

 

Filed Under: Shopping Tagged With: , ,

What You Need to Know About Your Grocery Store

February 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Here are some things to remember when you go to a grocery store to find your food or other house hold items. Most grocery stores print out coupons to bring in business to their store; the coupons usually come out with the paper and you have to cut them out and bring them to the store. If you don’t have any coupons to use for shopping then you are losing money.   The store marks up prices for the day or week that coupons are used and if you don’t have any then it will cost you. It will cost you more to shop on coupon day or week than on any other day or week. Coupons can be found easily with the use of laptops and the Internet.  Make sure you have them handing and ready to go.

When you are shopping at a grocery store they always put the most expensive food where it can be seen the easiest. This is a great strategy that store owners use so you will buy the more expensive foods from their stores. The off brand foods are in places that you may not expect to find on the shelves. They are kept closer to the bottom of the floor and closer to the entrances and exits of isles. Most of the time you will walk right by these brands and they taste just as good as the brand names.

Grocery stores lower the prices on foods that don’t really fill up when you eat them. They will also sell these kinds of products in pairs or quantity so you think you are getting a good deal. The foods that do fill you up and are really good for you are usually more expensive, because your body doesn’t need to keep taking in the calories. Sometimes a smart shopper means knowing what your body needs to feel full for a long time and not just at the moment.

Filed Under: Shopping Tagged With:

Large Store Chains are Bad for Community Growth

February 3, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Many people are against large corporations because they take money from communities that would otherwise be spent back in the community. Take a small farmer for example the farmer raises his crops and sells it for a profit to buy tires and whatever he needs. The farmer would usually get tires and whatever he needs from the community that he just sold his crop to. Retailers would set their price so the farmer could afford the tire and buy from them, while they still made a profit. This has all gone out the window as large corporations have moved into small communities to provide everything at a lower price.

This is wrong because large corporations don’t hire the people they put out of business only the people that will work for the least amount of money. You can argue that low prices are great, but that’s where you are wrong. The well-oiled machines that are large grocery stores do not play for the growth of the community, but for the growth of their accounts. This still might not seem like an alien thought to you, partly because you shop there. What if your job was based on the growth of the community; would it be good or bad that this store moved in?

It’s a very bad thing because the store takes money out of the community that would otherwise be used for the growth of the community. The store has to pay taxes that would otherwise be kept in the community for the local government. Instead of the local government taxing 30 stores for the money they need for projects they are only taxing one. They are only taxing the one store that is a part of the major cooperation that spans across the United States. The local store pays its taxes, but it’s not the same amount as 30 stores. Most of the taxable money that the cooperation makes goes to the Federal government. Low prices are not good because stop development for things like new schools.

Filed Under: Shopping Tagged With:

The Appealing Factor of Organic Foods

December 12, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Have you ever walked through the grocery store and seen two of the same types of product next to each other? One’s label is ordinary, just indicating a regular product. The other is in a slightly different package, with”Organic” on the label. If you’re like most customers, you probably select the first item due to its lower price. This is starting to change, however, as organic food products have been growing in popularity. Sales of organic foods have been increasing at a rate of nearly 20% annually. What is it about organic foods that appeals to people, in spite of the higher cost?

There are a number of factors that make organic foods appealing. In order for food to be certified as organic, it must be raised with no synthetic pesticides. It also cannot have any additives or preservatives added during processing, and processing is minimal in general. The resulting food is a product that many believe to be more nutritious and full of flavor. In addition, it is also believed that organic foods can have additional health benefits. Some proponents for organic foods believe that the lack of exposure to pesticides and chemical additives can aid digestion and help prevent illnesses.

Another appealing factor of organic food is that of the higher quality, prettier colors and fresher taste. This appealing factor is backed up by the large number of farmer’s markets that are popping up all across the country. Local area farmers come to these markets to sell food straight from their own farms. The products are often larger, brighter, and higher in quality than what you can find in your local supermarket, due to the methods used in the mass production of those food products. Many people will only purchase produce from a farmer’s market and refuse to buy elsewhere because there is such a difference in quality.

Filed Under: Organic Tagged With: , ,
«Older Posts