How to Compensate for Rising Grocery Costs

February 5th, 2008 • Related • Filed Under • by admin

You may have noticed in the last year or two that prices are increasing in your local supermarkets. The price of energy has increased making it more expensive to produce and transport the food to your local grocery store. In addition, the price of plastic containers has increased as well adding to the price of the items you purchase on a regular basis. This has put people who are lower or fixed incomes in a bit of a pinch. Here are some options to compensate for the increased price of buying groceries.

Shop at the Right Store. Wal-Mart and Costco have consistently been the two grocery stores that sell groceries at the lowest cost. These two stores are about 20% cheaper than an average grocery store. If you have shopped at a corner market or small grocery store chain, it might be time to give into the will of globalization and shop at one of the big box stores where the prices will be much lower.

Buy Private Label Products. There are a lot of privately-labeled products that are almost the exact same product that you would purchase if you were to get a name-brand but are 20% to 30% cheaper. It’s always a good idea to buy these over their name-brand equivalents. The reason they are so much cheaper is that you as the consumer no longer have to subsidize the name-brand company’s multi-million dollar ad-campaigns.

Circulars are there for a Reason. The grocery store makes almost nothing and often loses money on the items they put out in their weekly flyers. These products are what’s called “loss leaders,” meaning that the company is willing to sell some products so cheaply that they lose money on them, but it gets people to go into the store and buy other products as well. Inside your weekly flyer, you’ll find the best deals that are in the store that’s too be had. Consider getting two or three flyers from different stores and making a couple of stops, so that you can get some really good deals. Don’t purchase items in the flyers that you won’t ever make good use of.

Buy in Bulk, Sometimes. For the items that you buy most often, you should buy them in bulk. Only buy items in bulk when it makes sense to do so. If you are purchasing a product that you don’t use very much of, there’s no reason to buy it in bulk. And be aware that items sold in bulk packages are not necessarily cheaper. Always calculate the cost on a per unit basis and make sure that the bigger package is indeed a better deal.

Rising grocery costs might pinch your pocketbook a little, fortunately there are proactive things that you can do to decrease your weekly grocery bill.