Dick & Danny Get The Inside Scoop About

Shopping Smart At The Supermarket

 

Airdate: Thursday, March 7, 2002

Set the VCRs: Find out what time/what channel The Other Half airs in your part of the world. 

QUESTION: Club Cards...Good, bad, do they save money?
 
ANSWER: Do they save money? Yes...but for a price.  You trade your personal information about your buying habits for reasonable--sometimes significant, savings.  
 
Check out a column I wrote about this very subject: Los Angeles resident Bob Rivera learned, his personal buying habits were used against him in a legitimate slip-and-fall lawsuit he brought against Southern California food retailer Von’s.  Von’s attorneys tried to make him out to be a drunk because of the quantities of alcohol he purchased, with the shopping histories recorded through his loyal use of Von’s Frequent Shopper Program card.
 
Are the savings worth the privacy trade-off?  Sure...I bought a 12-pack of Diet Cokes this afternoon at Ralph’s and, because I refuse to use one of these loyalty cards but still want to get the savings, so I circumvented the system.  I told the clerk that I didn’t have my card with me, but since I already know how their system works, I gave them “my home phone number” which their system also keys off of.
 
So I gave them the phone number of one of my friends...he and his wife have one of the Ralph’s Club (Loyalty Cards) and collect the assorted benefits from frequent usage; a listing of the assorted benefits for using their card is listed on their website.  Wanna look at the information they’ll ask you for when signing up for one of these cards?

 

Frequent buyer/loyalty program payoffs vary from chain-to-chain around the nation.  Safeway’s Texas-subsidiary, Tom Thumb gives their frequent shoppers [known as Reward Card holders] American Airlines AAdvantage Miles as a way of hooking consumers...one mile for every dollar you spend...and it can add up quickly when you start making your pharmaceutical purchases there.  But look at the trade-off: You’re giving up extremely private information for #@$%(&*!@#@ frequent flier miles!
 
Payoff: Want the discounts but don’t want to give up your privacy?

1. Sign up for a card and give them phony information. You can’t get in trouble for this; you’re not applying for credit, so you’re not breaking any laws.  But you’ll get what you want...discounts and other perks down the road.
   
2. Don’t use a check or a credit card when you purchase...Use Cash!!!  Even if you don’t have a Loyalty Card, you’d be amazed at the “data mining” that goes on out there by the retail industry, in the name of getting any edge, real or perceived, on the competition in the marketplace.  There’s plenty of information on your checks, both printed or encoded at the bottom of the check that can still track your purchases...and that’s a no-brainer when it comes to that magnetic strip on the back of a credit card.
   
3. Use a friend or family member’s card with their permission; you get the discounts, and they get the long-term benefits: As described earlier...you’ll get the discount at check out, and whomever’s card you’re using/keying off of gets the perks associated with additional dollar volume/use on their card.
    
   Remember: Most of these retailer are extremely accommodating to consumers that don’t have their card or keychain barcode/tag and many of these systems will key off of a home phone number of a Loyalty Card member as an alternate way to “give you the discounts and benefits you deserve.” We’ll just use their technology against them!  All’s fair in love, war and at the grocery store!

QUESTION: Product Placement...it’s a science, isn't it? 

 

ANSWER: You’ll love this link that I found about the subject; it’s got some great information about cross-selling strategies that may seem obvious on some levels, but are totally designed to make you leave more of your $$$ inside their store.  What’s interesting about this link?  It’s a strategy outlined on the website of Enron’s accountants-under-siege, Arthur Andersen.

 
There’s some good, common-sense sort of ideas being promoted by Andersen that are prevalent throughout the industry. A couple of quickie examples of product placement; is it manipulative or just good business?  You decide:
 
Example #1: “For example, a supermarket may have the bakery department in the back of the store and a separate coffee concession, such as a free-standing Starbuck’s, may be in the front of the store. But if you put the coffee next to the bakery, then you have a successful cross-selling opportunity.  Coffee plus bakery equals breakfast!"
 
Exactly. That’s one approach. Solution selling is not just merchandising, but rather it’s also store placement and design. What departments are close to the front, such as the deli, bakery and coffee, so that they appeal to “in and out” consumers? Do these departments have their own cash registers, which will encourage these “in and out” consumers? One of the goals of solution selling is to capitalize on your customer traffic and gain more of consumers’ share of food sales. Retailers want to sell more, sell more profitable mixes and increase incremental purchases.”

Example #2: “Customers don’t care what department a product is traditionally sold from especially if similar products are grouped conveniently together in order to better meet their needs. One great example of this is a meal department offering, such as what is found in many delis today. What has evolved today though, is a more complete offering than just “deli” products, but now it includes salads [produce] and chips [grocery] and a drink. Everything is right there for the customer — simple and convenient! With solution selling, supermarket retailers think less about how they buy their products, but rather how they sell them and how the consumer uses the products.” 
 
QUESTION:  Okay, then what about Product Presentation: Is this deceptive or just smart business? 

 

ANSWER: You decide!

1. Supermarkets often put fresh produce near the entrance of the store and work extra hard to make it look fresh. They see the food, and their eyes are telling them that it's fresh, so all of those are good messages that they are sent to buy more.  For instance, in the meat section special lighting is routinely used to make the meat look more pink and attractive to shoppers. The light is an SP 35; it's making it look fresher, it's making it look better.
   
2. Eye level merchandising sells something like 85 percent of all merchandise.  Since three quarter of shoppers are women, a sought after spot is their eye level. Eye level for a woman is 5'6". In that band is the golden section inside the store.
   
3. Speaking of eye level merchandising: Another golden rule of thumb is eye level for kids as they ride in the grocery cart.  This may be kids grabbing from the cart because it's colorful, and it's kids orientated; it's kids height.
   
4. “End caps” are the real money makers: It's at the end of the aisles known as “end caps.”  End caps make more money for the retailer than any part of the store.  How?  Supermarkets charge product manufacturers for every shelf space, it's called slotting allowances. Typically the retailer will earn more money from Kellogg's slotting allowance than they will from selling the actual merchandise itself!  Wanna know more about slotting?  Here's a four-page report from the FTC worth perusing.
   
5. Do you take a list with you to the supermarket?  They hate you for it!!!  Grocery stores hate people who shop with lists. Research shows they are the least likely to be lured in by the store's tactics to get you to buy on impulse. If you want to save money, one way is to make that list and stick to it. Another suggestion from the experts is to eat before you go so you're not tempted to splurge.
   
6. Aside from taking a list with you to counterattack the strategies used by the supermarket industry, here’s some other shopping tips that’ll keep more cash in your pocket and keep you from impulse buying crap you’ll never use:
   

•  If doing a lot of shopping, use a large shopping cart, but if only getting a few items, use a hand-held basket.
  
• Instead of taking the cart up and down every aisle, leave it at the end and carry what you need back to the cart. Hand-carrying items will discourage impulse buying.
  
• Shop the grocery store backwards. Most shoppers begin in the produce section, allowing grocery-store planners to predict the order in which they take the aisles. Therefore, they put the items most often purchased on the left, while your eyes naturally wander to the right.
  The items on the right side of the aisle are those that produce a higher profit margin. If you start on the opposite end of the store, you will travel the aisles in the opposite direction than anticipated and avoid the trap.
  
• Planners have found that if the sections of the store containing freshly baked bread and packaged bread are separated, many people will buy two loafs. Stick to your list and only buy one.
  
• Stores often put the frozen-food section in the middle because most want to shop it last. Having it in the middle requires shoppers to go through half of the store again to get to it. This increases the chances that they will impulse buy.
  
• Another reason to be careful about buying stuff off of those dangerous End Caps? Items on the end of aisles because they are not necessarily bargains. Many times they’re overstocked items and are full price.
  

7. Wholesale Clubs...like Sam’s or Costco pose an ongoing question: Should you buy in bulk quantities? 

• Before buying a large size of any product consider whether it’s appropriate for the size of your household. Also consider your available storage space at home.
  
• If a product is one that is likely to spoil before you use all of it, you are better off buying a smaller size. You may not want to eat acorn squash or turkey breast every night for a whole week.
  
• The good news is, you don’t have to. Be an assertive shopper and ask the produce or meat market person to assist in wrapping a smaller portion of meat or breaking apart a large bundle of vegetables.

8. Other strategies:

• Pick up refrigerated and frozen foods last and check for expiration dates—especially on dairy products.
  
• Collect coupons. Buy the Sunday newspaper where coupons abound. If you don’t want to clip coupons the Internet can help. Check out www.webhouse. com or www.priceline.com or www.valuepage.com or www.coupons.com for money-saving offers. If you have a familiar supermarket you patronize on a regular basis, be friendly with the checker and ask them something like: “What day is always double [or triple] couple day again...isn’t that Saturday???” Of course it’d never be Saturday, since that’s one of the big buying days of the week...so they’re not gonna make it easy for you to save money.  Remember the old adage: "Ask and ye shall receive.”  What does the clerk care?  They’re not getting paid on the net profits of the store.  They’ll tell ya...but you've gotta ask.
  
• Finally: Purchase generic or store brands whenever possible to save money...as much as 15-25% or more, depending on the item.