The tricks of supermarkets
The Observer lists some of the tricks which supermarkets get up to, to try and get you to spend more:
- The most profitable items are at chest height and about 1/3 of the way along the isle. That’s where we look most of the time. (The bargains are often much lower down, near foot level).
- Two for one? Check that you are not just paying two for two – if you can buy melons at a £1 each, why buy two for £2? (I’ve seen that trick used here)
- Buy locally – the local grocer often stocks produce which is in season at 30% less than the supermarket (to be fair, hardly a trick, but worth bearing in mind).
- Ready-prepared is a lot more expensive than buying the raw ingredients and doing it yourself. You’ll often pay 2 – 3 times as much if the supermarket washes and chops up a selection of lettuce, or converts minced beef into beefburger patties.
- Watch for mixed unit prices. A pack of four tomatoes priced at 8.7p per tomato is impossible to compare with loose tomatoes priced at 45p a pound (in the case in point, much cheaper). And of course some unit prices may be in pounds, some in 100g units and some in Kg units, so beware an expensive cut of meat being priced per 100g and a cheaper cut being priced per Kg. (In Germany, I have never noticed unit prices per tomato, but you do see kiwis or mangoes at 99¢ each, for example).
- Bulk packs (of washing power, for example) are sometimes more expensive per Kg than a number of smaller packs to make the same total weight.
- The staple foodstuffs (milk, bread, etc.) are usually positioned around the edges of the store far from the entrance, so you have to go past the high-profit impulse buys (sweets, etc) to get to them.
- And, related to the previous point but not mentioned by the Observer, the supermarkets periodically move everything around to force you to look for the milk and bread, and while you’re doing that, discover lots of impulse-buy items you wouldn’t normally notice!