Top Five Tips -Food Shop

Olliebeak

Hey Wiggly_Worm - another one to add!

Leave the OH behind when shopping as well - but make sure you get his wallet off him before leaving home.

Mine accompanies me all around the shop and then disappears when it's time to go throught he checkout. He's absolute rubbish at packing bags and gets told to leave them alone in no uncertain terms! Checkout girls usually give him glares as he's just standing by, but I have to explain that he is totally barred from packing. We would have eggs and/or biscuits underneath bags of spuds and tins of catfood!

valiant

1) Cleanse yourself of brand loyalty

It sounds easy, but we've all been conditioned by a barrage of advertising to accredit brands with levels of quality that they don't necessarily deserve. In recent years cut-throat competition in the grocery market has meant that producers have had to seek every last penny of savings available to them from economies of scale. This means that the market in most foodstuffs can no longer support the existence of large numbers of competing production facilities and most brands share production lines with competing brands. In lots of cases, you're seeing the exact same product in different packaging.

The next time you walk down a supermarket isle and pass a display of competing products, analyse your thoughts. You may, for example, have already convinced yourself that the supermarket own-brand baked beans are 'just as good' as Heinz. But how convinced are you really? Don't you still harbour the niggling feeling that Heinz is probably ever so slightly better? If they were exactly the same price as the own-brand wouldn't you throw the Heinz can in the trolly? Kill that thought! What is the justification for it? Unless you've actually done a comparative tasting you can't know. And even if you've convinced yourself that the Heinz offering tastes different, there's still another condition to satisfy. Is it different-better or just different-different......or maybe different-worse?

2) You don't necessarily 'get what you pay for'

MSE is full of posts by people who trot out the line "You get what you pay for". The implication is that there's a direct correlation between the quality of a product and the price you pay for it. The trick is to understand that while there may be some correlation here, the bottom line for any company wanting to stay in business, is that they charge what the market will bear. They're under no legal obligation whatsoever to create any correlation between quality and price; and you make a big and costly mistake if you shop on that basis without having evidence to support it.

3) Supermarket tricks

TV documentaries and newspaper articles constantly trot out the same tired old cliches regarding 'supermarket tricks'. You know the stuff; high margin products displayed at eye level, basic-needs products placed diametrically opposite the entrance so you have to walk through the entire supermarket to get to the bread and milk, sweets at child head level at checkout etc. etc. It's all good and interesting stuff but there are far more important wallet-emptying tricks that the supermarkets use that few people are aware of:

a) Snobbery

Supermarkets don't want you to buy their own-brand 'value' products (see below). Own-brand 'value' items will always have distinctive cheap-looking packaging. You can spot it a mile off. That's intentional. Other shoppers are going to see it in YOUR trolly; especially when you check out. One way that supermarkets hope to steer affluent customers like you away from value products is by appealing to your small-minded snobbery and embarrassment. Remember that snobbery costs....and a good thing too! To a lesser extent snobbery operates in the opposite direction when it comes to premium own-brand products where the equally distinctive packaging on the conveyor belt is something to be proud of. Dyed-in-the wool snobs are best advised to use the home delivery service for 'value' items.

b) Market segmentation

Supermarkets recognise that not every wallet is created equal. They need to attract both the single mum on benefits who watches every penny and the affluent CEO who sails down the aisles throwing everything that takes his fancy into his trolly regardless of price....and everything in between. The big problem for the supermarkets is how to ensure that they keep prices low and competitive for the former while steering the latter towards the higher margin stuff. Supermarkets like M&S (and Waitrose to some extent) have abandoned the low-income shopper altogether so they don't have a problem but the others do. They've come up with some VERY clever strategies that every MSE shopper should be aware of.

Their main strategy is the creation of three quality levels of own-brand products, variously named, but for the purpose of this article let me take Tesco's convention as an example. Tesco have 'Value' own-brand products at the bottom end on which their profit margins are low. Then comes the standard own-brand, and at the top end they have "Extra Special' on which they charge the highest margins. Their goal is to maximise the sales of 'Extra Special' and minimise the sales of 'Value'. Their problem is that it's very difficult to justify three tiers of quality for some products. It's hard for me to come up with one example that demonstrates all the tricks they use to differentiate products but let me take potatoes as a reasonably demonstrative one.

Potato varieties are seasonal. When a particular variety is in season the wholesale market price falls. At other times of the year the market price for that variety increases. The problem for Tesco is that market price doesn't correlate well with quality. But that doesn't stop them forcing potatoes into their value/standard/extra special quality categories. At any one time of the year, their 'standard' bags (which have the highest volume of sales) will typically contain a variety that is in season and whose market price is relatively low. At the same time the value bags will contain another variety (it wouldn't do if they looked the same!) but it's important to remember that the choice of 'Value' variety is dictated, not by quality, but by availability, price and demand. The net effect is that over any period of twelve months there is hardly any overall difference in quality between Tesco 'Value' and 'Standard' potatoes. This is one of the reasons that you will never see the variety name printed on Value or Standard bags. If this information was provided the secret would be out! In the case of potatoes the 'Extra Special' label isn't used. Instead, that segment of the market is catered for by bags with the variety name printed on them. At the time of writing Tesco 'Value' potatoes are actually far better tasting than the Standard offering.

There are lots of other examples. Sticking with vegetables for the moment, lets take bog-standard onions. The problem for Tesco with onions is that there are no varieties that they can source that are cheaper than the bog-standard variety. So what they do is to fill the 'Value' bags with smaller sized onions of the same variety as the Standard bags. The thing MSE shoppers should ask themselves is which size is more useful in the kitchen. Are larger onions necessarily better? Many would argue that smaller onions have more flavour. At any one time, how many fridge doors in the country contain half a large decaying onion in cling film?

Another example is butter. Butter is butter. There's nothing you can do to it to differentiate it in terms of quality. All you can do is to change the source of the milk you use to make it or vary the level of salt you add to it. It follows that there can't be any difference in quality between Tesco Value and Standard butter...........but that doesn't stop them trying to give you the impression that there is.

The bottom line is that MSE shoppers should remember that quality is NOT the main driving force behind what different own-brand packaging contains. The real driving force is the need to create market segmentation and to extract the maximum profit from each category of customer.

c) Pricing

This is another minefield. One of the worst tricks that the supermarkets play on us is their use of 'reduced' pricing. (I'm taking about straight price reductions here, not BOGOF or multi-buys). Unfortunately for the supermarkets there are very strict Trading Standard rules on the use of words like 'sale' and 'reduced'. The law states that 'sale' or 'reduced' items need to have been on display at the original price for a set minimum period of time. So that stops supermarkets doing the obvious and falsely increasing the original price so they can pretend it's been reduced. Instead what they will do is to increase the price a little (perfectly legal) but then do a multi-buy offer (buy more than one and get some money off) on the product. Some people get a bargain but the cost to the supermarket is is somewhat offset by the small hike in price that applies to single purchases. But the real sting in this tail comes next. After a period of time (dictated by Trading Standards) the multi-buy offer is withdrawn but remember that the original price was increased a little while the multi-buy offer was on. Now the supermarket will mark the price down to its original level but because that price is lower than the multi-buy promotion price for a single product, they can legally advertise the price as 'reduced'!!!

The bottom line is that MSE shoppers should be VERY dubious of advertised straight price 'reductions'. In lots of cases there is no effective price reduction at all. Additionally, be very careful when buying a single product that carries a multi-buy promotion. Very often the single price will be higher than normal.

shandella_2

My tip is:-

Look for bogof's and buy 2 for a reduced price, i then keep one and then give my mum the other one to keep in her garage. It stops you/hungry husband's raiding the cupboards, fridge etc (especially if it's "treats"). It is surprising how much you can accumulate over a month and it really cuts down your shopping bill for subsequent weeks.

Hope this helps.

irchy_mum

My top tips are:

1)invest in breadmaker if possible, the price of bread is horrendous at the moment & also much tastier, goes for slow cooker too
2)shop via mysupermarket.com-you don't 'impulse buy' and save a fortune
3)have a delivery every 10 days, so you only shop 3 times a month, instead of weekly
4) if possible buy free range eggs from farm shop (ours are £1.50 a dozen)
5)if you go to the shops take cash only-very scary but it works as you mentally add up in your head

HTH

craigpugh

My tip is shop at Netto. All the things that you can get in the main supermarkets' 'value' ranges are there but usually cheaper, the standard items are a lot cheaper, and we have been also getting lots of pretty high quality stuff there too like smoked salmon, mackerel fillets, the fresh chicken pork and lamb, sausage bacon etc is the same quality as in mainstream supermarkets, the cereals are all brand name, they have wines that my parent get from asda at about £5.50 for around £3. They also have a pretty decent cheese selection, mozarella for my home made pizzas, etc. The tinned and bottled stuff is cheap as chips, we get olive oil about half price as tesco. The 'junk' is not as good quality 'junk' as in some other places- ready meals, biscuits cakes processed crap etc, but then that stuff is not really very good health or wealth-wise any way!

Craig

chloebelle

1. Don't be a snob - there is often nothing wrong with basics/economy ranges, particularly with tinned or dried foods. In my local sainsburys onions are 99p for 3, or the basics ones are 88p for a huge bag! It is actually cheaper to buy the bigger bag and if necessary, chuck away what doesn't get used (not that I ever do that).

2. Keep an eye of fresh veg which may go off and soup leftovers and odd bits at the end of the week rather than throwing away.

3. For items you use regularly, BOGOF is a great offer. Forget the brand, whenever I need shampoo, deodrant etc... I get whatever is BOGOF.

4. If items you use a lot ever go on BOGOF or a great special offer, buy loads and stock up.

5. 3 for 2 is a deceptive offer as it entices you to spend double the amount if you only wanted 1. If you only need 1 of the item and won't use the other 2, don't waste your money on 3 for 2, however good it sounds.

fidesmond

Hi there,
there is a book that i love called 3 and 4 ingredient cookbook, and it really only has 3 and 4 ingredients. I tend to go through book and see what chicken dishes etc I can cook and maybe freeze if necessary, so that i am buying chicken or herbs or potatoes at once rather than wasting.
A really good buy that my mum told me when i was poor at uni was TVP textured vegetable protein, can get in sainsburys and holland and barrett shops. Use half mince and half TVP and add chopped tomatoes so it soaks the juices up. Can be then used as mince with mince so not so rich and much cheaper way of filling people up-its about £1.50 for a big bag and this can be kept for ages. Always use left overs-chicken can be used in sandwiches or make a pie with roll out pastry and add spinich and baby tomatoes.
Which also brings me to always make your lunches its so much cheaper making and saves time having to find and wait for lunch.
Hope this helps
fi

Olliebeak

A couple of posters have mentioned large/small onions. Having been on the receiving end of 'very large/dodgy onions' I can honestly state that I much prefer the smaller ones. Hate to think of the number of times that I've cut into an onion and had to throw it away due to it being manky in the middle.

I am a total tart when it comes to brand loyalty and the more 'green and white' items in my trolley at the checkout the better! Just have to be very careful to read the labels before opening tins !

Monster03

I got fed up with buying veggies & fruit from supermarkets that go mouldy within a few days (strawberries especially:mad: ). I bought some Stayfresh Longer bags from Lakeland recently & they are great.

schoolfundraiser

Set up a storecupboard of all the things you can use to make quick/cheap meals which you replenish when individual items are on offer eg cheap tuna, pink salmon, cook in sauces, condensed soup, pasta, lentils, rice, flour, suet, dried milk, tomato puree, chopped tomatoes, beans and tinned and bottled veg (eg peppers) and fruit of all kinds etc

Do the same with your freezer.

Find a good greengrocer who will sell you sacks of onions and potatoes etc only buy stuff in season when it is cheap and freeze surplus when you have bought in bulk. Frozen mushrooms, onions, peppers are good add ins to meals. (Sweetcorn in season can be cut up and frozen in chunks - blanch in a steamer and cook again the same way for best results)

Online shop once a month for basics if you can (not always possible as these services vary from area to area unfortunately)

Cook at least three meals a week using your storecupboard or freezer ingredients. Soup with tomato puree scone loaf for instance, pasta dishes, stews with dumplings, suet puddings, pancakes, meat loaf, sausage casserole, cassoulet, fruit cobbler, fruit crumbles, rice puddings, savoury rice, etc.

Cultivate a neighbour with an allotment (I know that's 6 things but not everyone can do this)

That's what works for me.