Grocery Stores: Attractive Places for People - Essay Example

?Assignment Assignment Grocery stores are attractive places for people to be in; they are full of different kinds of food and most individuals give in to their temptations while purchasing edible items. When it comes to food, not many people are able to make a compromise while deciding what to buy and what to leave out. Most food items at the grocery store are packaged so well these days that it becomes difficult for people to not feel their appeal and give them a try. Thus, by making so many purchases, people tend to buy a lot more than they had come to the grocery store for and end up paying a lot more money than their original budgets. Grocery stores have many tricks and traps to make people buy expensive items or increasing the level of their purchases by tempting them. It is very important for people to be able to save money at the grocery store because food items are what tend to cause a great deal of financial loss at the end of each month. This paper aims to discuss the various ways in which a person can save money at a grocery store, as well as the best saves and stores in the east and west coast. Each and every grocery store is designed in a very fashionable manner; this means that the food items are placed very strategically, making it difficult for people not to get tempted by them. For example, the fruit and vegetables that cost the least amount of money would be placed towards the back whereas dinner kits and expensive and exotic food items from other countries would be on display, tempting people into loading them into their shopping carts. Most grocery stores are laden with such traps which people find difficult to decipher and escape from and thus people need to be focused on the food items that they want to purchase. For this, a list must be prepared and adhered to; if a person is able to diligently purchase everything on his list and nothing more, then he will be able to save on a lot more money than expected. Without a list, people tend to simply move along the aisles and purchase whatever they find appealing to them, on display. This method tends to make people spend a great deal of money and is very dangerous financially for people that tend to frequent such markets or grocery stores on a daily basis. According to experts, making lists helps people save upto almost 41% of their money rather than not planning and purchasing whatever they see. It is pertinent to understand the location of each and every required item in a grocery store; most people are not aware of where the items lie and thus tend to walk around aisles and shelves picking out whatever they see instead of going towards the back sections where the actual frozen fruits and vegetables lay. The fresh foods always tend to lie towards the back of any grocery store and it is always helpful to have someone assisting in order to make the correct purchases. People should visit a single grocery store and get acquainted to it rather than go to different stores and find different food items. This helps in not only knowing exactly where what lies, but also in helping them resist from making exorbitant purchases because people tend to overlook the fancy items once they begin seeing the same things again and again in the same section. Furthermore, if a person needs to save on some more money, fruits, vegetables and other durable and fresh food items should be bought from local markets and not from grocery stores because the stores tend to charge more in order to cover their overheads. Visiting a grocery store means looking at a lot of food; not only fresh foods but also readymade meals, deserts, cooked items etc. All of this tends to make people hungry and that is why they end up buying more; many researchers state that when people go hungry to grocery stores or supermarkets, they feel like eating more food because of all the food that is around them and available in well packaged containers. Many people might even get hungry while shopping and thus buy items on the spot in order to eat and that is why, in order to save some money, it is always better to eat and then go to a grocery store in order to avoid the extra purchases. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle and diet is an important aspect of eating the right kind of foods. People should be able to understand their own diets and health and keep in mind that eating right is the best way to live. This should be documented on paper as part of their shopping lists where the least amount of processed foods should be written down on for purchase. The more a person invests in processed foods, the more he will spend his money because processed foods need to be bought again and again once people begin to purchase them, for example sauces and canned foods and are not good for the health. It is therefore vital to skip out on the processed foods not just to save money but also to look after one’s health and diet. Instead of buying these, it is better to invest in fresh foods which are not only healthier, but also cheaper. Moreover, many processed foods cost a little more because of being already cut, grated or immersed in a preservative like vinegar to keep them fresh. This adds on to the cost of the product when one can easily grate or cut the foods himself; by doing this, one can easily save a little more money. Many food products in a grocery store come under different brands and labels. These brands often tend to be high priced as compared to the same product selling without brand names attached to it. In order to save on money, people should go for the products that are not branded but at the same time have the same quality, especially when it comes to processed foods. A brand name with a higher repute will sell the same kind of dairy product than a product belonging to a lesser known brand or no brand at all. Buying brands means investing in extra packaging, taxes and other such hidden costs which make people spend more money than they want at a grocery store. Giving up on brands and labels thus will help them save their money. At the same time, it is also better to buy items in bulk from a store especially if they are non-perishable in nature. Also, in case of a larger household with more members or a party being thrown at home, it is always better to buy items in bulk and save on money rather than purchase them individually from such stores. However, it is important to know what to buy in bulk because many items might seem appealing to buy in bulk but they might not stay for a long time and rot faster. This is a trick that supermarkets and grocery stores use in order to make people buy more items at the same time and make them spend money on it when these items tend to get spoilt much faster, leaving them no choice but to come back and buy some more. Non vegetarians tend to spend more money on their groceries as compared to vegetarians; this is because they buy meats which are more expensive. In order to save money, it is better to go the vegetarian way at least two to three days a week and avoid eating so much meat. This helps to save on a lot more money because fruits and vegetables are cheaper than meats. This is also a way in which a person can live a more healthy life because meats add a lot more fat and cholesterol to a person’s body as compared to fruits and vegetables. Moreover, items like cottage cheese can be cooked with the same gravy as one would cook meats and taste alike, helping people enjoy their food while saving on money and also being healthy. Once a person has put everything he needs in his shopping cart and heads towards the cash counter, he may seem to think that the tough part is over with; however at the cash counter, there lies something called an end cap. These end caps are products placed strategically, right at the end, catching the customer’s eye and making him put it in his cart as a last minute buy. Manufacturers of these products often pay higher prices to grocery stores to keep these objects at such locations where people will ultimately buy them. For example, a pack of expensive but appealing chocolates lying right at the cash counter which many people tend to just put in their carts at the last minute and bill them in. In this manner, people add on to their bills and might spend more money than they expected to. In many countries, people buy bottled water in large amounts – they might buy it in bulk or singly, however there is no end to the amount a person would spend on water. It is a smarter idea to buy a water purifier or a filter and use the water that comes through a tap which ends up getting cleaned and purified and is healthy for drinking. Packaged drinking water is very expensive and people do not realize the same because water is an extremely essential part of daily living. The sales of bottled water made the news when New York Times announced that every individual personally ends up spending almost $1400 on an annual basis on bottled water which can be easily saved by using tap water which comes from the municipal corporation and is clean. People in countries like India use their tap water and purify it with very cheap earthen pots where the residue and dirt particles tend to settle at the bottom. In the modern times, water purifiers do the job quite well, helping the water to retain all its minerals and iron and keeping people from falling sick. Saving money at the grocery store thus can be done in many ways; people need to focus themselves on saving money rather than spending it and the process becomes much easier. If a person is not focused on what he wants to buy and ends up making unnecessary purchases, he will by default spend a lot more money, exceeding his budget without realizing it and then not having a plan of action to go about making purchases the next time. Once in a while it is alright to spend a little more money and give into temptations at the grocery store by purchasing food products that might be processed or different; however on a frequent basis it is much better to spend on exactly what one needs in order to avoid any extra costs. In the United States of America, there are many grocery stores that give out a number of promotions, discounts and coupons in order to lure people into buying items. Many a times however, this is financially perilous because the incentives are only of worth after making high purchases or on products that are very expensive, which otherwise can be avoided. On the other hand, there are many grocery stores where one can make the best of their savings by buying food financially diligently. On the West Coast, ‘Amelia’s Grocery Outlet’ and ‘Grocery Outlet’ are two chains where one can find second rate goods. These are otherwise known as discount groceries and are not expired in nature but their cans or boxes may have dents and tears. The food inside is the same and one can even find many branded products at lesser prices. One can even find many products at such stores which may not be available at other grocery stores because manufacturers not being able to sell their products sell them at lower rates at such stores. It is very important however to check the product because it just might not be healthy or expired and this will ultimately make people spend more than the value they get rather than giving them heavy discounts and helping them save their money. On the East Coast, grocery stores like ‘Netgrocer’, ‘Peapod’, ‘Albertsons’, and ‘Fresh Direct’ provide some of the best discounts and incentives and help people save their money on various items like meats, fish and other perishable items that they would otherwise end up spending a lot of money on. Some of these are online grocery outlets where one can easily manage his or her own schedule and spend lesser time and energy shopping on their groceries. These outlets deliver to people’s homes and are perfect for negotiating prices as well because they have low prices on many essential items. They sell fresh food and it becomes easy for people to manage their accounts online. Adding to online carts gives people an item to item update on the money that they have already spent with the items on cart, a disadvantage that they face while shopping manually, in person. Furthermore, online grocery shopping helps in continuously updating the expenses and one can easily delete items which he or she might not feel like doing in person. Once an object has been added to the cart in person at a grocery store, people find it tough to fight their conscience to take it out even though it might be costly or unnecessary. By shopping at grocery stores that help people to save money rather than spend it, people are also happier and can manage their finances well. It is extremely important to be able to find a supermarket or grocery store which does not lead to too many temptations. As mentioned above, it is much better to make a list and visit a store as it helps people to remain focused in what they need rather than what looks good on the shelf and what they want. Furthermore, it is important to understand that what looks good on the shelf might not actually be so and will only end up making a person spend more than required, and later make him regret the same decision. References Brunschot, A. (n.d.). 3 Easy Ways to Save Money at the Grocery Store. Fresh Juice. Retrieved May 23, 2012, from http://www.freshjuice.ca/live-well/work-and-money/3-easy-ways-to-save-money-at-the-grocery-store/a/41749 Dunsmuir, L. (2011, February 9). 4 ways to make the most of online grocery shopping.Reuters. Retrieved May 23, 2012, from http://blogs.reuters.com/reuters-money/2011/02/09/4-ways-to-make-the-most-of-online-grocery-shopping/ Maven, D. (2007). Top 20 Ways to Save Money at the Grocery Store. Retrieved May 23, 2012, from http://www.curbly.com/users/diy-maven/posts/2289-top-20-ways-to-save-money-at-the-grocery-store Moss, E. (n.d.). 8 Ways to Save Money at the Grocery Store. Health on a Budget. Retrieved May 23, 2012, from http://healthonabudget.com/8-ways-to-save-money-at-the-grocery-store/ Vandermulin, R. (n.d.). Discount Grocery Stores: Are They Worth the Savings? . Money Crashers. Retrieved May 23, 2012, from http://www.moneycrashers.com/discount-grocery-stores/ Read More