129 Supermarkets

Supermarket Savvy

As I was dodging a determine male grocery-cart pusher in the supermarket the other day, I thought about the different styles of supermarket shopping.

He-Man Buy Food Fast!

This guy with whom I was playing dodge-cart has the same style as my husband:

Rather than chase him down the aisles, I try to send him on a specific quest and meet him at checkout, but since he shopped so fast, I can only send him to find the usual things. If not, I will find him speeding down the wrong aisle, nowhere close to the desired item!

When I do by myself, I usually go down almost every aisle. It is fun to see the new stuff,  read the ingredients on new products, and then usually reject it for too much sugar or salt. By the way, did you know the average supermarket has over 38,900 different products? That is a 2016 number from the Food Marketing Institute. In 2014, there were 35,372.

I believe! Today I counted 27 different Oreo cookie types (excluding Oreo candy and family versus regular-size packages). There are minis, thins, regular and double stuffed in an amazing variety of flavors. I don't eat Oreos, but if I did, I would have to buy a lot of different ones 



It seems everything is like that. I don't dare send Harry to find something so mundane as Triscuits ("Honey, the aisle with the sign that says, Cookie and Crackers.") ("You know the signs up above at the end of the aisles?") ("Don't bother, I'll go.") because there are so many flavors of them!

Maybe that is why the average shopper buys 270 different products in a year--a whole year! That is 1.7% of what is available. But everyone's 1.7% is different. Advertising works very hard to be one of your 270 products. When you think of it that way, how discouraging it must be to bring out an entirely new product line--a new salsa, a new line of cleaning products, etc.

Another statistic from the Food Marketing Institute: In 2106 the net profit, after taxes, for supermarkets was 1.1%. That is not just the difference between what the store paid for the product and what we pay for it. but it includes all the costs of running the supermarket. And yet, 1.1% seems low; the margin for department stores is 3.2%. Supermarkets rely on volume to achieve their profit.

I cannot figure out why the stores within the same supermarket chain and in the same city arrange the stores so differently: produce on the left, produce on the right, cosmetics and sundry at the entrance or the middle, etc. Do they hope you will buy something different by serendipity? I make my grocery list in the order that you find items in the store so I have to know which one I am visiting before I make the list. I find myself heading directly to the wrong spot (the right one for the other store) when I am trying for a quick in and out.

The average shopper spends 41 minutes in the grocery store and visits 1.5 times per week. Remember when mom used to go once every two weeks? I Think I average 3 times a week. We always forget something! I knew someone who had an office in an awful out-of-the-way place. When I commiserated with her about her office, she told me she tried to imagine that she was on a top-secret mission and was eluding pursuers. 

Guess I will be crossing treacherous territory when I go to the deepest, darkest supermarket to snag my wild groceries!

Trish