Grocery Store Tricks

There is a whole science to how a grocery store is laid out in order to create more sales. For example, the milk and eggs are usually at the back of the store so you have to walk through the entire store to get these items. You likely will pick up some other groceries as you walk by all the displays.

One thing I have noticed is that a couple of stores (locally Albertsons and Smiths) have 10 for $15 or 10 items for $10 sales. The weekly ads have a block of items which each cost $1 if you buy 10 of the said items. Sometimes these are steals and great deals, but many times they aren't worth the time and money rushing to the store and stocking up.

I went through last weeks Albertson's ad as an example. Kraft Macaroni and Cheese was ONLY 60 cents if you spent $10 on participating items. I don't know about you but that doesn't seem like a great price. Green Giant veggies were 75 cents. I usually just buy the store brand for about 50 cents per can. Jet puffed marshmallows were on sale for $1.20 each (again, I usually purchase the store brand for less than $1). Sometimes you will find these sales are actually a markup from the regular price. They changes the price tag for the "sale".

Sometimes the cereal in these ads are good deals, but you have to be careful. For example the Cheerios were only $1.50 but it was a 8.9oz box which is so small. That is about 17 cents per ounce which is an okay price. The problem with these sales is you often don't need to buy 5 boxes of Cheerios to get the sale price plus two bags of marshmallows and a couple of cans of vegetables. You end up spending more than you would.

There were a couple of good deals in this advertisement. Fruit Roll-Ups, Betty Crocker Premium Brownies and Lemon Bars, and South Beach Diet Bars were all $1.50. These are pretty good prices only if you use the advertised items. For example, once there was a sale on Quaker cereal bars. I stocked up on a bunch of them but then we didn't really like how they tasted and we ended up giving them away. Buy items that you know you like. If you aren't sure about a product you haven't tried, buy only one.