GROCERY GURU Strategies for Super Market Shopping

Tips for shopping - Don’t grocery shop when you are hungry. Go alone. Take a list. (60 cents of every dollar are unplanned purchases – impulse buying)

Elevator music Stores play slow music to keep you moving slowly. This is another method to keep you in the store longer.

Smells Many stores will have a bakery or deli toward the front of the store. They will purposely pipe the smell throughout the store to make you hungry.

Continuity Offer A continuity offer is a special offer that requires repeated trips to the store. It might be a set of dishes you can earn, turkey bucks, video rentals, photo printing, pharmacy, banks etc.

Power of the Perimeter Stores are arranged to keep you in longer. The longer you stay the more you will spend. Demand items are basic foods that shoppers need and thus seek out. Demand items like meat and milk are located in the back of the store, making you walk past the other items. MilkMeat Bakery Canned and packaged aisles Front doors Produce

End Aisle Display Displays of merchandise attractively arranged at the ends of aisles. A shopper who selects from an end aisle display will usually not look at the normal store display, thus undercutting the competition and eliminating price comparisons.

Impulse buys Impulse buys are unplanned items bought on impulse. App. $.60 of every $1.00 is an impulse buy. Grocers usually make more money on impulse buys than on sales of staples like bread, milk and dry groceries. Merchandising means getting shoppers to spend more time in the store thus increasing the likelihood of impulse buys.

Loss Leader Loss leaders are sale items sold at such a low price the store makes very little or actually “loses” money. This is done to get shoppers into the store so they will spend money on other items. $ $ $ $ $ $

Multiple pricing Multiple pricing makes you think the product is cheaper by selling you more than one at a time…for example 3/$1.00

Shelf talkers Shelf Talkers are bright colored signs on the shelf, many times hand written, which call your attention to a product. They may say “new” or “special buy” or “power buy”, etc. They tend to lead you down the aisle.

Store brand Store brands or private labels are brands that are sold only in one store or chain of stores. Store brands are usually priced lower than advertised national brands. Mounds $2.79Western Family $1.49Bakers $2.19

Layered merchandising (Shelf placement) Higher priced brands are placed closer to eye and hand level. The bargain brands are usually harder to reach and see. National brand Generic or store brand

Tie Ins Tie ins are items that are used together and placed near each other to promote buying. Often one is on sale and the other is at full price. By the apples you might find fruit wash, apple dip, etc. By the meat you may find marinades, etc.

Dump display For a dump display the stores will take products (especially ones from past holidays) and pile them in a basket or cart. The disorder of the display makes you think that they must be sold quickly and therefore are cheaper.

Package Dating Packages of perishable foods have dates printed on them. Sell by date or best if purchased date is the date the product should be off the shelf. Those items with later dates are usually put toward the back of the display. Sell by Jan Sell by Jan 09 04

Unit Pricing Is the large box a better deal than the small box? How can I tell?

Compare the same unit What is the unit the product comes in? Ounces, Pounds, number of servings, number of pieces?

Now- figure the cost of the product divided by the number of those units and that will tell you how much 1 unit of the product costs. $2.00 ÷ 10 oz. = 20¢ Therefore each oz. in this problem would cost 20¢

Do that with all the products you are comparing and you will find out which is the cheaper buy. 1. a 25 oz. box costs $ a 40 oz. box costs $ a 30 oz. box costs $5.25 Which of these boxes would be the best price per oz.?

Figure the unit price for these: oz. can of milk costs $ oz. bottle of Pasta sauce is 2 for $ lb. bag of sugar costs $ oz. can of Chili costs $ lb. of corned beef costs $4.30

Price per serving Price per serving is figured the same way. Divide the price by the number of servings.

Formulas Price per unit ……price divided by unit p  u Price per serving ……price divided by number of servings. p s