Comments on: Scout out your grocery options http://frugalunderground.com/scout-out-your-grocery-options/ money: saving more, making more, needing less Thu, 20 Nov 2008 22:10:42 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Frugal meal planning - frugal underground - money: saving more, making more, needing less http://frugalunderground.com/scout-out-your-grocery-options/#comment-65 Frugal meal planning - frugal underground - money: saving more, making more, needing less Fri, 01 Sep 2006 18:15:11 +0000 http://frugalunderground.com/test/scout-out-your-grocery-options/#comment-65 [...] Many times I’ll just put “fend for yourself”. In my house, we do almost all lunches that way, and frequently dinner as well. Breakfasts around here are usually pancakes, fruit syrup, and some sort of soy protein on the side, so that’s easy to plan. Dinners take a little more thought, but the loss leaders can often inspire you! The key here is to look at your meal plan as a whole and aim for balance—balance of nutrition and balance of cost. Laying it out makes it easier to see if you’re setting yourself up for a lot of expensive evenings, or if your family’s nutritional needs will be met. [...] [...] Many times I’ll just put “fend for yourself”. In my house, we do almost all lunches that way, and frequently dinner as well. Breakfasts around here are usually pancakes, fruit syrup, and some sort of soy protein on the side, so that’s easy to plan. Dinners take a little more thought, but the loss leaders can often inspire you! The key here is to look at your meal plan as a whole and aim for balance—balance of nutrition and balance of cost. Laying it out makes it easier to see if you’re setting yourself up for a lot of expensive evenings, or if your family’s nutritional needs will be met. [...]

]]> By: bookchiq http://frugalunderground.com/scout-out-your-grocery-options/#comment-64 bookchiq Wed, 14 Sep 2005 18:46:50 +0000 http://frugalunderground.com/test/scout-out-your-grocery-options/#comment-64 jennifer, I definitely see your point. Some people won't want to shop at Wal-Mart at all, and definitely product brand makes a huge difference, price-wise. However, when it comes to loss leaders, I take a more free market philosophy: they wouldn't offer them if they didn't make money overall because of them, and if the loss leaders no longer accomplish that purpose, a savvy business would stop offering them. I don't feel bad "taking advantage" of businesses; they are the ones who make the terms, and as long as I play by the rules, they should be sensible enough to make money. Considering that they make the rules (and no one is forcing them to run loss leaders—the cheaper grocery stores hardly ever run loss leaders) and control all the information (ads, consumer buying habits, etc.), I have no ethical concerns. Even as I write an article like this, I'm aware that many of my readers will not go to the effort I'm suggesting (I don't even do it a lot of the time... I get lazy)—and my readers are people who are seeking out money saving ideas. How much less likely is it that the average grocery shopper will behave this frugally? I don't think the grocery stores will ever truly lose on loss leaders unless the whole mentality of the western world shifts dramatically. However, I'm often accused of being naive and idealistic, so this could very well be one of those times. I could be totally wrong on this one, and I'm very curious to hear what others think. In any case, I really do appreciate your comment and the reminder that I need to stay on my toes. :) jennifer, I definitely see your point. Some people won’t want to shop at Wal-Mart at all, and definitely product brand makes a huge difference, price-wise.

However, when it comes to loss leaders, I take a more free market philosophy: they wouldn’t offer them if they didn’t make money overall because of them, and if the loss leaders no longer accomplish that purpose, a savvy business would stop offering them. I don’t feel bad “taking advantage” of businesses; they are the ones who make the terms, and as long as I play by the rules, they should be sensible enough to make money. Considering that they make the rules (and no one is forcing them to run loss leaders—the cheaper grocery stores hardly ever run loss leaders) and control all the information (ads, consumer buying habits, etc.), I have no ethical concerns.

Even as I write an article like this, I’m aware that many of my readers will not go to the effort I’m suggesting (I don’t even do it a lot of the time… I get lazy)—and my readers are people who are seeking out money saving ideas. How much less likely is it that the average grocery shopper will behave this frugally? I don’t think the grocery stores will ever truly lose on loss leaders unless the whole mentality of the western world shifts dramatically.

However, I’m often accused of being naive and idealistic, so this could very well be one of those times. I could be totally wrong on this one, and I’m very curious to hear what others think. In any case, I really do appreciate your comment and the reminder that I need to stay on my toes. :)

]]> By: jennifer http://frugalunderground.com/scout-out-your-grocery-options/#comment-63 jennifer Wed, 14 Sep 2005 18:26:13 +0000 http://frugalunderground.com/test/scout-out-your-grocery-options/#comment-63 although i agree that there is a lot of money to be saved by careful grocery shopping i would also like to point out that it is an industry that doesn't have a lot of profit to spare. grocery stores operate on a very low net profit margin--meaning they have to sell large quantities to make an appreciable profit. See yahoo finance on <a href="http://biz.yahoo.com/p/734conameu.html" rel="nofollow">the grocery sector</a>. see <a href="http://biz.yahoo.com/p/732conameu.html" rel="nofollow">variety discount stores</a> for wal-mart. (winco is employee owned so not reported in either place.) then compare the net profit margin to the chemical industry (where i have some investments that are doing well) or suppliers to the grocery store like <a href="http://biz.yahoo.com/p/348conameu.html" rel="nofollow"> the beverage companies</a> or <a href="http://biz.yahoo.com/p/323conameu.html" rel="nofollow">personal products</a>. this shows me that the brand of the product you buy can have more of an impact on price than where you buy it. further, it is important to me to buy somewhat ethically in that i still want people to be paid for delivering goods and services to me. many argue that wal-mart is not ethical store to buy from in that case, but i'll leave that open for each person's judgement. so while the grocery stores are selling some items at a loss, is it ethical to buy just those items knowing that they aren't paying for the person who stocked them let alone the checker. this may seem to be a trivial thing, but i liken it to cutting a trail. if only one person or a few people do it, it doesn't cause erosion, but if everyone or even just a quarter of the people do it, then the whole hill suffers. i grew up in a town that was dominated by one grocer. there was very little compitition and that hurt prices even with the "loss leaders" that were still offered. although i agree that there is a lot of money to be saved by careful grocery shopping i would also like to point out that it is an industry that doesn’t have a lot of profit to spare. grocery stores operate on a very low net profit margin–meaning they have to sell large quantities to make an appreciable profit.
See yahoo finance on the grocery sector. see variety discount stores for wal-mart. (winco is employee owned so not reported in either place.) then compare the net profit margin to the chemical industry (where i have some investments that are doing well) or suppliers to the grocery store like the beverage companies or personal products. this shows me that the brand of the product you buy can have more of an impact on price than where you buy it.
further, it is important to me to buy somewhat ethically in that i still want people to be paid for delivering goods and services to me. many argue that wal-mart is not ethical store to buy from in that case, but i’ll leave that open for each person’s judgement. so while the grocery stores are selling some items at a loss, is it ethical to buy just those items knowing that they aren’t paying for the person who stocked them let alone the checker. this may seem to be a trivial thing, but i liken it to cutting a trail. if only one person or a few people do it, it doesn’t cause erosion, but if everyone or even just a quarter of the people do it, then the whole hill suffers. i grew up in a town that was dominated by one grocer. there was very little compitition and that hurt prices even with the “loss leaders” that were still offered.

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