Saving Money At The Supermarket

April 23, 2009
Interview with Leslie Ware, Editor-at-Large for Consumer Reports Magazine, www.consumerreports.org

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Mike Carruthers:
The average American family spends about $5,000 a year at the supermarket. But you can reduce that amount if you arm yourself with a few techniques. Take for instance, milk…

Leslie Ware:
Even where the milk is placed - for instance often the closer-to-expiration-date milk will be in front and if you reach in the back you'll get milk that will last longer.

Leslie Ware, Editor-at-Large for Consumer Reports Magazine which has an article on this in the current issue, says understanding how supermarkets operate is helpful.

The best selling space is really in the middle at eye level on those shelves. Vendors will sometimes pay the stores to get those prime locations at eye level. But if you look above and below that eye level, you may find better deals.

How produce is packaged can have a big effect on the price you pay.

Some produce is much cheaper by the bag than by the pound. So at one store we went to, we found a five-pound sack of potatoes for about $3 compared with about $1 per pound for loose ones in a bin.

And realize that the same item can be at a different place in the same store at a different price.

We found Swiss cheese on sale at the deli for about $7 a pound and then you look right nearby in a refrigerator case and the same Swiss cheese is far less per pound. And then a chunk of the same cheese is even less per pound in a different spot.

Full length interview not available.