Grocery shopping (& Consumer Reports)
 

love it; hate it; we all gotta do it. And you can't get everything at one store, nooooo.

I recently converted my paper Consumer Reports subscription to online, and I think I'm really going to like it. (Only problem is automatic yearly billing, but hey--I guess I can live with that to be able to search for specific products online.)

CR has these tips for grocery shopping:

--shop clockwise to spend less time & money. (Most stores have their door on the right, so you go counterclockwise naturally. I know I do).
--buy store brands; these have improved over the past few years
--you can have low prices or great service; not both. Go to warehouse-type stores for bulk packaged items; high end stores for fresh perishables
--study the circulars online; watch for patterns of sales so you can stock up on staples cheaply.

I'm off to the store now! :headshake

I admit that I do sometimes buy 'impulse items'. Sometimes there are 'opportunity buys', like meat department items marked down because they are about to expire.

My personal favorite is rainchecks. I love it when an item is out of stock. It's a lot easier to store a piece of paper than make freezer room.

Right now I'm sitting on BOGO (buy one get one free) rainchecks for sirloin steak burgers for my next BBQ.:yum:

Watch the register for ringing mistakes. I buy a lot of stuff on sale and I have found an error rate of up to %5 on sale items due to the computer not being updated or their failure to take the sale shelf tag or sign down. Most supermarkets give you the first item free and any additional items at the sale price. So in addition to making sure you don't get ripped off, you can get free stuff.

Check expiration dates. Last week I found some frozen gourmet sausages tucked away in the freezer section of a local market. The sell by/freeze by date was Jan 2007. Now technically they were frozen, but the freeze by date is meant for the consumer, not the store. I pointed this out to the manager.

Use momsview.com for coupons. There are a lot of coupon sites on the net, but I like the variety and quality there.

Happy Hunting

:vomit:
I don't think I have anything to add to my previous rant on the subject.

'twas a lovely rant, Steve!

Sometimes, for me, there's the thrill of the hunt--finding good stuff, on sale, even if it's just eggs. It's almost an atavistic feeling, like I'm doing the gathering for my family.

The funniest thing, I think, is people randomly wandering the aisles (mostly men, sorry guys) talking on their cell phones. Do we have sugar? What kind of oil should I buy?

and Rich, I agree with you. Pay attention the marked prices and watch the ring up. One of the things that makes me mad is misleading sale labeling: In the wrong place, so you identify the wrong item as being on sale, or obscure conditions--yes, you really do have to buy 10 of those to get the discount price; that expired last week, etc.

And check your receipt before you leave the store!

Sigh. And now for the part I hate the most--UNLOADING!

I used to experience that sometimes. These days, time is so limited, I just want to get in and out as quickly as possible, so I don't have time to enjoy the pleasure of the hunt.

I've done this many times, and so has Mrs. Dallas. What did we do in the pre-cell phone days??? Usually I know what kind of oil I want. For me it's usually more "they don't have the brand of whatever that you like. Do you want me to just not get it, or take another brand?" or "They have frozen buffalo chutney on sale... if I buy six boxes of it, do we have room in the freezer for them?"

If you didn't see it, I'm sure you'd enjoy the commercial for digital cameras and printers (from HP I think, but I'm not sure) that featured The Wife going to the store and taking photos, which she then used to print up a visual list of Here's What You Need To Buy for The Husband.

I've gotta say, for the most part I consider coupons to be too much of a hassle (my ego insists that my time and energy are worth more than 15 cents...) but I have found that I do have to watch to make sure they don't ring stuff up more than once. On three separate occasions, I have had the checker have a hard time scanning the UPC on the shiny diaper packages, and in the process of swiping it again and again it will ring up twice. 15 cents may not be worth watching closely, but $10 sure as hell is.

The problem I've seen with coupons is that they're getting chintzier. You used to get 50 cents off an item or something like that. Now it's just as likely to be 35 cents off FOUR of them. It's seemed progressively less and less worthwhile to bother with them over the years.

Here in MI, items still have to have paper sticker prices, and if they ring up wrongly, you get up to 10 times the difference plus $5 back :D I always take a minute of two to check my receipt ;)

We haven't had stickers for years, but I've been toying with the idea of jotting the price on the package with a grease pencil to check against the tape, instead of relying on my aging memory.

that's a nifty idea! also good for when you get up to the register and your item does not have a UPC.

I'm afraid it won't help there, they won't sell it if it won't scan.
I remember being in a home store, where the price was marked on the package, and they wouldn't let me buy it because the register wouldn't read the damn UPC. The girl even called the manager over and he wouldn't let her ring it up manually. Idiots.

Sometimes (not often) they will. Happened to me today in KMart, which is why I thought of it.

I wanted to buy one of those little doggy toys--like the mini daschund, but the tag had fallen off. I told the clerk it was $3.99 and she entered it like that, somewhow. Sometimes it depends on their frustration level. :)

*thread hijack*

I'm a bachelor and find it annoying that the cheapest grocery stores bundle their meats and produce in mega-family-econo-paks. I'd prefer to shop the grocery store in my neighborhood instead of driving to the Stop'N'Shop 10 miles away. But I don't want a pound package of Serrano peppers when two are plenty enough. Maybe I'm odd in the fact that I'm the only bachelor that likes to cook and doesn't live off of Hot Pockets and frozen pizzas. Why can't grocery stores be more accommodating towards bachelors?

Oh, check expiration dates. Do not trust the stockers to rotate items like chips and dressing.

Damnifino. Or single people. I have the same problem. I guess the food stamp folks have given them some kinda mind set. WTF do I need with 30 lbs of chicken leg quaters?