One of the easiest ways to save money is to watch out for the sneaky supermarket tricks stores use to get you to spend more than you need to. Grocery stores have been studying your shopping habits for decades and have developed more subtle ways to get you to part with your money.
1. The "Handwritten Sign" Trick
Supermarkets have come to realize that shoppers frequently assume that anything with a handwritten sign on it must be on sale. Stores use this to their advantage by placing handwritten signs on things that are not on sale. Often these are items that the store is actually trying to get rid of. Just be careful and always double check the handwritten sign price with the shelf price.
2. The "Warehouse/Overstock Look" Trick
This is becoming more common. Grocery stores will pile boxes of a particular product still in their shipping containers in the middle of the aisle or at the front of the store to give the appearance that there was no more room in storage to hold this particular product. We often assume that the product is on sale (especially when it has a handwritten sign on it) and frequently put the item in our shopping cart without double checking the price.
3. The "Save When You Buy In Bulk - Not" Trick
Supermarkets have learned that consumers expect the bulk sized version of a product to be priced more cheaply than the smaller sized version. Its exactly for this reason that supermarkets frequently price the bulk size version more expensively than the smaller alternative.
4. The "Every Variety of This Product is On Sale But One" Trick
This technique is what I consider to be an especially sleazy trick. A store will place a particular item on sale - lets say microwave popcorn. Every variety of that popcorn will have a red sales sticker on it - every variety except for one.
The "kettle corn", "theater butter", "low salt", and "cheese flavor" variations may all have sales sticker. There will be one variety, however, that is not on sale - lets say the "butter-free" variety.
Seeing all the red sales stickers you just assume that the "butter-free" variety is on sale and you leave the store thinking you got a deal when you actually didn't. I've been the victim of this sneaky grocery store trick twice so far.
Supermarkets are devising ever more clever ways to separate you from your money. You're best bet is to pay careful attention to the price of everything you place in your grocery cart.
Editor's Note: This tip was submitted by Charlie from the excellent Pay Less for Food blog which features many more excellent money-saving articles. I also highly recommend signing up for their RSS Feed.
One of the easiest ways to save money is to watch out for the sneaky supermarket tricks stores use to get you to spend more than you need to. Grocery stores have been studying your shopping habits for decades and have developed more subtle ways to get you to part with your money.