Supermarket booby traps
Supermarkets are traps for the unwary. They are usually owned by big corporations that can afford to spend millions on working out ways to seduce you into buying things you don't really want, and certainly don't need. They are designed with only one goal: to maximise their profits by maximising your spending in them, and everything they do is done with this goal in mind.
The products for sale in supermarkets are often highly processed, which as we saw in Lesson 1 is generally bad for the environment. They are commonly brightly and attractively packaged to seduce you into buying them. The colours and designs are carefully thought out and tested, especially for products made by large corporations (which have plenty of money for this kind of research).
Supermarkets can be beaten, and when they are beaten, they can save you money, but the first thing you have to remember is that supermarkets are war zones. They have declared war on unwary citizens (we will not use the word consumers in this course) and they have experts such as psychologists working for them, telling them how to suck you in and practically tear the money out of your pockets! They even have music experts telling them what kind of music to play through their speakers to get you into the mood to consume. Happy people are buying people.
The best option, if you live in a region where you can avoid going into a supermarket, is to support the greengrocers, the butchers, the fishmongers and all the other small local businesses the supermarket chains have gobbled up and spat onto the garbage heap in many other places. Supporting your local businesses almost always makes sense.
If you don't have the option, or if you want the convenience of a supermarket, then here are a few hints for saving money. (I call it my shopping game plan!)
* Do your thinking about what you need before you leave home, and always take a list and stick to it.
* Work out approximately how much it's going to cost to buy the items on your list before you go in the supermarket, and if possible, make sure you have enough cash to pay for the goods.
We will look in detail at credit cards in a later lesson, but for now try to limit your use of them. They are very convenient of course, but they are designed to encourage you to overspend. The credit card company or bank wants you to spend up to your limit and be in debt to them - that's how they make their money. If you use a credit card to pay for everything, it is easier to fall for the hidden booby-traps lying in wait for you in the supermarket aisles, because the money you are spending seems less real than if you are using cash. If you are going to use a credit or debit card, be especially careful to stick to the list!
* Eat before you go shopping, because if you are hungry all that food is going to be so much more irresistible.
* Look on the top and bottom shelves, because supermarkets tend to put the more expensive items on the eye-level shelves (and products for kids at their eye-level), and you'll often find bargains above and below this level.
* Beware of the ends of the aisles, as these are major weapons in the supermarket arsenal.
Occasionally (less often than blue moons) the goods at the end of the aisles really are bargains, but most often they are not. Supermarkets generally put the most expensive brands here because if you saw them in context with all the other brands, you'd buy a cheaper one instead.
* Many companies use brightly coloured packages and spend a fortune on catchy designs to attract your eye - and your money - so check out the less brightly coloured packages too, and don't be seduced by the pretty colours.
* Beware of any package that says "As seen on TV".
It's possible of course that the product is something brand new, and the company wanted to advertise it to let you know the brand new thing exists, but generally, if the company can afford expensive television advertising - guess who is paying for it!
* Try the plainly wrapped (and cheaper) generic brands. For most goods they're perfectly fine and often identical to the more expensive brands.
If you have particular favourite brands or companies, ask yourself why you are loyal to them, especially if the products are more expensive (and they usually are).
Your loyalty to particular brands is probably costing you money. Perhaps you have a real reason for your support, but perhaps instead you've been seduced by their television advertising campaigns, their catchy jingles, or their brightly coloured, well-designed packaging, and their 'image'. Just think about your loyalty. If you've tried all the brands and brand X really does taste best, or work best, then go ahead and keep using it. But maybe you could save a lot of money if you tried something else
