10 Things Your Grocery Store Doesn't Want You to Know

[snopes]

Grocery shopping seems like a harmless enough activity. It’s a chore, but it’s one that most of us do at least once a week, without giving much thought to what’s going on behind the scenes at the supermarket.

How we shop has become a science that’s studied endlessly.

http://health.msn.com/dietfitness/ar...ntid=100165289

[DarkDan]

In other news, water is wet.

1. The shopping carts have cooties.

Well what do you expect with grabbing a cart, going shopping, and then placing the cart back? There is no cleaning stage involved. Since last year, though, my ShopRite has had wipes by the doors to clean the handles.

2. Dates are open to interpretation.

Ugh... I hate this! Especially with milk! People seem to think the sell-by date is the date it is no longer drinkable. There was even a guy last week that pointed out he wouldn't take a carton because although the sell-by date was a week away, the "If in NYC sell by..." date was a few days before that. Hello! We are not in New York! It's just because of a stupid NY law about milk.

7. Bargains aren’t always a bargain.

I was hanging up tags for frozen last week and one of the personal pan pizza things (2 in a box) were on "Special Value!" for 2.98...
down from 2.99.

People don't pay attention. We had a dozen of large eggs on sale this week for close to a dollar. People were still buying 18 packs for $3.29. If you need 18 eggs, buy two dozen and do something creative with the extra eggs.

I wish everyone alive would work as a clerk in a supermarket for at least a month. You gain skills cleaning, organizing, and most importantly, you pay more attention to the prices of things.

8. You’ll walk the store the way they want you to.

I remember a digram in TIME showing the layout of an average store. My store, you walk in to the floral, then bakery, hot foods, produce, cards, snacks, candy, cereal, rice and grains, baking needs, Mexican, Spanish, HABA, frozen, and then dairy. The hot foods is near the front to make people buy already cooked meals (more money) and the frozen and dairy near the end so the food stays colder long.

Flies in the produce or meat departments could be depositing bacteria on raw food. Roaches scurrying across the floor could also be harboring dozens of different diseases.

Heh, we had birds flying in the store many times.

[Xia]

Originally Posted by DarkDan

Heh, we had birds flying in the store many times.

Don't forget the grain moths, and whatever larvae they metamorphose from... We had these all over the pet food aisles in two of the older chain stores that used to be in my area.

Walk in the front doors and chances are you’re faced immediately with hard-to-resist items (not on your list) like fresh-cut flowers or just-baked loaves of bread. Just try walking past them en route to a carton of milk without tossing something extra into your cart.

That's funny because the store I just went to earlier tonight has two doors. One opens into the floral section (which leads into produce) and the other is near the bakery. I've never been tempted to buy flowers or bread while passing through (unless I planned to buy bread) so I'm not sure how well this particular setup works.

6. End-of-aisle displays are there to distract you from your mission.

Makes sense, but sometimes they are really nice and convenient... Earlier I was going to get some ice cream as a special holiday treat and I wanted to get cones as well. As I walked into the store I was thinking that I had no idea where ice cream cones would be located in the store (with snacks? cookies? baking supplies?) and was happy to find them in the end-of-aisle display by the ice cream.

[snapdragonfly]

Bargains aren't always a bargain...

Here's two examples.

Ketchup - the 26 oz (I think) size of Del Monte Ketchup is the least expensive one, per ounce. The bigger sizes cost MORE per ounce.

Since Mr. SDF puts ketchup on everything except ice cream, that matters to me.

And those Swiffer dusters? Which, I hate myself for buying but I do because they really do catch the dust bunnies better than anything else - the refill packs, with just the dusters and not the wand, cost MORE than the starter pack with the wand AND the dusters.

So I just get a new wand every time. *shrug* whatcha gonna do? I'm distributing the old ones to the car, my studio, and a few places that an extra duster would be nice, but then I'll have to toss them, I guess, because I'm not going to pay an extra twenty cents per duster in order to not get another wand.

And they DO, like the article states, (and unlike the ketchup which is labeled in cost per ounce) price it so that it's hard to do any comparisons, unless you are good at math in your head, which I am NOT. I take a little calculator to the store for confusing pricing like this.

[Eddylizard]

2. Dates are open to interpretation.

With fruit and vegetables, having worked in this industry, I can confirm that the sell-by date is complete nonsense. The sell by date is the date the produce was packed, plus 3 or 4 days depending on the stores specifications. The date it is packed could be anything from three days to four months (or in extreme cases more) after it left the field or was plucked from the tree.

[Don Enrico]

I will eat (or at least try) anything in the fridge that doesn't smell bad or has funny things growing on it. The only time I got an upset stomach was from a slice of fresh tuna bought that very day on the market.

A friend of mine, on the other hand, will through away everything that is over it's "Use by" date without even checking it.

Such are the differences in life.

Don Enrico

ETA: I especially like "Use by" dates that read: "2007/8/12 13:42". Yes, of course this will give you food poisoning if consumed at 1:45 pm on the 12th of August!

[Xia]

Originally Posted by snapdragonfly

And they DO, like the article states, (and unlike the ketchup which is labeled in cost per ounce) price it so that it's hard to do any comparisons, unless you are good at math in your head, which I am NOT. I take a little calculator to the store for confusing pricing like this.

At the grocery stores where I shop, there is always a "price per ounce" or similar notation on the shelf price stickers. This makes it very easy to do price comparisons with most things, and if there are different sizes available I almost always check the little sticker before picking a size.

[snapdragonfly]

Originally Posted by Xia

At the grocery stores where I shop, there is always a "price per ounce" or similar notation on the shelf price stickers. This makes it very easy to do price comparisons with most things, and if there are different sizes available I almost always check the little sticker before picking a size.

They do that on SOME things but on others, they don't. The ketchup - yes. The dusters - no, they don't have it broke down into price per on the stickers. They have, 9 for 4.56 (or whatever.) Looks to me like if there is any way they can get out of a simple straightforward breakdown so you can compare same unit to same unit, they do.

Gee, thanks for putting that on the sticker, because it's really helpful to have exactly the same information on the sticker as on the box. It's annoying as a hangnail.

[KirkMcD]

Originally Posted by Xia

At the grocery stores where I shop, there is always a "price per ounce" or similar notation on the shelf price stickers. This makes it very easy to do price comparisons with most things, and if there are different sizes available I almost always check the little sticker before picking a size.

Yeah, but sometimes one item will be price per ounce and the differently sized item will be labeled price per pound.

[Mosherette]

Originally Posted by DarkDan

I was hanging up tags for frozen last week and one of the personal pan pizza things (2 in a box) were on "Special Value!" for 2.98...
down from 2.99.

Loose mangos are currently on special offer in my local Tesco. Those presented for sale this Sunday were small and all rock hard, but on "special offer" for two for £2.00, or £1.48 each. They were on the shelf with their special SALE stickers immediately below a packet of two, bigger and already ripe mangoes, at their normal price of £1.49.

Two tiny, unripe mangos for two quid, or two huge, ripe mangos for 51p less? Or alternatively, one tiny, unripe mango for £1.49 or two huge, ripe mangos for 1p more? Hm, let me think.

[jw]

7. Bargains aren’t always a bargain.

My local supermarket had a special offer of "two washing powder boxes for the price of one", at €5.
I had never seen this box of powder for sale anywhere for more than €4, so I figured that if the supermarket wanted to offer a two for one deal, it couldn't possibly be more than €4.

I queried it with store management, and got fobbed off. So I rang our Dept of consumer affairs to check this out.
They checked it out and came back to me, with the comment from the supermarket, that the €4 or less price was already a discounted price and that €5 should be the full retail price. I was unimpressed, but that was that. End of.

This happened about four years ago. The price of the same brand is still under €4, and this offer comes around every so often. I accept that €2.50 per unit with the offer is good value, with the typical price being about €3.50.
It's the misleading advertising that makes me

[Andrew of Ware]

In the UK items offered for sale have to have been sold at the advertised full price for - I think - about a month before it is offered at sale price. Of course, things might be different in Ireland, but I am sure that most countries have laws which say that shops cannot advertise false 'full prices' to make their sale price look a better bargain.

[jw]

Originally Posted by Andrew of Ware

In the UK items offered for sale have to have been sold at the advertised full price for - I think - about a month before it is offered at sale price. Of course, things might be different in Ireland, but I am sure that most countries have laws which say that shops cannot advertise false 'full prices' to make their sale price look a better bargain.

Oh you're right Andrew, and I think UK & Irish consumer laws are pretty standard in western EU.
The supermarket never advertised a false full price. They said the original price was already a sale price. They admitted to not selling the product at it's correct retail price in the first place.

But it would seem that Lever Bros and all the major supermarkets are all in cahoots with an ongoing wholesale discount policy, which means this type of offer can pass legal requirements.

[Eddylizard]

Originally Posted by Andrew of Ware

In the UK items offered for sale have to have been sold at the advertised full price for - I think - about a month before it is offered at sale price. Of course, things might be different in Ireland, but I am sure that most countries have laws which say that shops cannot advertise false 'full prices' to make their sale price look a better bargain.

You are right, but if it is a chain, the goods only have to have been offered at that price at one store, not the entire chain. They have to say somewhere in their advertising which store that was, but there is nothing to stop them putting up the price of product X in their West Nowhereville store for a month, then putting it down to the regular level across the chain and claiming it is a price cut.

"Box of X previously £4.99*
Now only £3.99
*Price as sold at our West Nowherevile store as at 30/6/2007"

[Chloe]

Our local store is big on "10 for $10" and you see people loading up. But if you take one item to the check-out, it'll ring up for $1. Apparently "10 for $10" sounds a better bargain than "$1."

[hambubba]

I find the difference in approach between American consumers, and Mexican consumers (in Mexico) very interesting.

Here, the stores seem to entice you with all sorts of additional goodies - the typical layout will have you walking through most of the store to get essentials, like meat, milk, and bread.

In Mexico, the typical layout, from the entrance to the cash register, in a circle around the back of the store, is, without fail:

Produce - bread - eggs - meat - cheese - milk - OUT.

All the other stuff is there, in the middle. I have a theory that they make it easier for customers to buy the only things they actually shop for, thus a logical layout that doesn't confuse the customers, and produces more sales of the main staples.

[Eddylizard]

Originally Posted by hambubba

I find the difference in approach between American consumers, and Mexican consumers (in Mexico) very interesting.

Here, the stores seem to entice you with all sorts of additional goodies - the typical layout will have you walking through most of the store to get essentials, like meat, milk, and bread.

In Mexico, the typical layout, from the entrance to the cash register, in a circle around the back of the store, is, without fail:

Produce - bread - eggs - meat - cheese - milk - OUT.

All the other stuff is there, in the middle. I have a theory that they make it easier for customers to buy the only things they actually shop for, thus a logical layout that doesn't confuse the customers, and produces more sales of the main staples.

Over here, produce is almost always the first aisle in the supermarket. Why?

Most produce is quite soft and squishy, easily damaged. This layout ensures that these easily damaged items will be placed in your basket/cart/trolley first, and heavier items will have to be placed on top of them.

I do not understand the logic.

[Jonny T]

Originally Posted by Eddylizard

Over here, produce is almost always the first aisle in the supermarket. Why?

Most produce is quite soft and squishy, easily damaged. This layout ensures that these easily damaged items will be placed in your basket/cart/trolley first, and heavier items will have to be placed on top of them.

I do not understand the logic.

I refer you to your namesake:

Oh, yes! And supermarkets, yes… As soon as you go in, have you noticed? They do psychological tricks on us. As soon as you go in, you hit fresh fruit and veg. You noticed that? Every single time! You go to France, Germany, fresh fruit and veg, and it’s psychological, you go in, thinking, “This is a fresh shop! Everything here is fresh! I will do well here…” It is, think about it! You never go in to the toilet paper section, with the loo brushes and the squeeze… ‘cause then you go, “This is a poo shop! Everything here is made of poo! I’m not shopping here, I’m… going to Azerbaijan!”

As far as I'm aware, that is basically the logic - present the (perceived as) fresh, healthy and appealing products first and leave the visibly less groovy stuff for later.

[We'veBeenHad]

Our local grocery, Shop Rite, has an ongoing habit of "misplacing" the sale stickers - placing them under the wrong items, ones that aren't on sale. When you get the item up there, they say "That's not on sale," and then call a manager to go check. She confirms that indeed, that item is NOT on sale and you, stupid consumer, didn't read all the (extremely) fine print or compare UPC codes to make sure. Now that I have 3 member families who work there, they say it's all the time, with every sale - no accident there.

[mizzie]

Originally Posted by Eddylizard

Over here, produce is almost always the first aisle in the supermarket. Why?

Most produce is quite soft and squishy, easily damaged. This layout ensures that these easily damaged items will be placed in your basket/cart/trolley first, and heavier items will have to be placed on top of them.

I do not understand the logic.

That has always, always blown my mind as well. And I worked in a grocery store for 7 1/2 years! I asked a few people and got that "you aren't making any sense" look. And yet, it makes perfect sense to put my bananas, grapes and lettuce under my canned goods and milk. -_-


Oh, and far as that article... DUH! Seriously, I realize that I worked at a grocery store, but come on. Do people really not know that stuff? They didn't even get into the things you really don't want to know. O_o Like DarkDan said:

In other news, water is wet.