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it's not like you're going to save a fortune by not getting beat by grocery stores - maybe a few hundred a year - but its nice to know their tricks didn't fool you



trick 1:


most of the time you get a better deal on the larger size. but not all of the time. sometimes the smaller size is the better deal and if you don't pay attention to the small print on the price label - the per ounce or per pound stat - you can end up paying more by buying the larger size. Utz potato chips used to sell a tiny bag that was a much better deal than the large bags. lots of other examples. they know lots will automatically go for the larger size and they'll make more profit



trick 2:



not totally fair to blame the stores for this one, more the factories - but the stores are surely complicit:
the price stays the same but the amount of food in the package is less than last week or last month
many times, if the food is sold in a carton the carton is the same size - its just the food inside the carton that is less
ice cream is a good example of this - ice cream used to be sold mainly in half gallons - then maybe 30 years ago the cartons started shrinking - now its nowhere close to a half gallon
Breyers is the worst with this: their cartons are tiny maybe only 1.5 quarts - as their cartons shrink their price stays the same



trick 3:



bait and switch. of course just about all retailers do this so its not really fair to just point at grocery stores. but they do it often with their meat showing a sale price and then when you go to look at the meat it can be seen that its low quality stuff - particularly beef



trick 4:


showing a very low price or a sale price on store brands
store brands are usually significantly inferior to name brands
there are a few exceptions where the store brands are pretty good


trick 5:


my store does this. a sale item is shown at 3 for $6.00 and that usually means you can buy 1 for $2.00
but sometimes you can't. in very small print it says you must buy 3 to get the sale price
but you didn't see that and you're already at the register with just one - and you don't want to buy 3 - then you say what the hell I'll take it - so you didn't get the sale price








one more that relates to quality, not price - not a trick but something they have to do:


all grocery stores instruct their stockers to rotate the stock
this means that when a new shipment comes in before putting it on the shelf they pull out the older stock out first and put it on the floor
then they put the new stock in the back and the older stock in the front
this way they don't get stuck with out of date stuff on the shelves that they have to throw away


so, if you're going to buy a box of cereal - if you take the time to move the boxes and pick one from the back - a lot of the time you will get a much fresher product

Eh, this isn't really a trick, I don't blame anyone for this. The cost of **** goes up over time. So if they're going to raise the $/oz, they can either increase $ or decrease oz.

Some states, like Mass, actually have a law preventing this. If a store offers a 3 for $6 deal, they MUST charge only $2 for 1.

All obvious stuff and surely the wrong forum

I first saw trick 1 in the 90s. I bought a box of laundry detergent and saw it was labeled "Convenience Size!" instead of "Economy Size!" I thought that was a weird change and investigated. I saw that the big size cost more per ounce. I called out the manager on it, and he went through some lame spiel that they were harde to stock etc etc. I gave him The Look™.

Grocery Store tells, and sales tells in general, have always been easy to read.

Is it? I thought that pretty much any subject other than poker (and politics, for obvious reasons) could be discussed here.

From the Sticky:

thought this was more of an OOT thing

When I replied I actually thought I was in OOT.

here's the real trick... OVERSIZED shopping carts

When shopping wear very soft-soled comfortable shoes, easy on the feet and you can sneak up on other shoppers and steal things from their cart.

It's more fun to add things to their carts.

Plus, they're looking for suckers and if you want to be a poker player, you can't be the sucker. The Poker Gods are testing you when you walk into a grocery store. Do not fail them.

These stores start with their youngest customers. They put toys and candy on the lowest shelves near the checkout so toddlers will see them. They figure that if a toddler grabs or destroys something, the parents will feel obligated to buy it. Parents are not obligated morally, ethically or legally to shell out for this junk. It's an attractive nuisance. Shrug your shoulders, shake your head, express your regret that a store could be so stupid as to put stuff where kids can get at it, but never pay for it.

when we were kids we used to shake up the bottles of Coca Cola so when the lady got home (at that time it was mostly women shopping in grocery stores) and opened it the legendary Coca Cola would spurt all over the place

mean but fun - I have an excuse - I was just a kid

(c-:}

My friend used to be a manager for Stop and Shop. He said hundreds of thousands of groceries went unaccounted for every month. They knew people would take them but were making good enough money that they didn't care/wasn't worth a lawsuit with a security guard going rogue.

Don't forget about the pallets. They are just props to make you think you are getting a good deal.

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on another forum a guy posted that he saw this at his store:


the regular price of one frozen dinner was $2.50


the sign said:


SALE..................4 FOR $10.00


suckerizing those challenged by simple math

When I worked at a grocery store we had a guy that would, one by one, switch the small and extra large eggs and pay for the small carton with the xlarge eggs in it.

What a ****

When I worked at a grocery store I accidentally reduced some pies from £1.39 to £1.69 instead of £0.69.

They flew off the shelf at the new price. Only the last customer with the last pie queried it and got them at the correct reduced price.

Once I was buying a few things including a dvd box set. The cashier struggled to get the security tag off and once she eventually did she forgot to scan it.

I said nothing

I don't agree that store brands are usually significantly inferior. It depends on the store and the product.

I once saw a guy do this - and I've only seen it once

he bought some stalks of celery but before taking it to the cashier he pulled off the inedible tops and threw them away so it would weigh less









this is kind of fun - those self serve cashier machines offer the opportunity for the perfect crime - and I'm not recommending anybody do this - I don't do it - just pointing it out for kicks - also, it's a very small gain

it happened to me by accident - I went to punch in the code for white potatoes but by mistake I punched in the code for russet potatoes - I caught the error after I had left the store

russet potatoes were $.99 per pound - white potatoes were $2.99 per pound
I bought about 5 pounds so I gained about $10.00

if somebody were to do that on purpose they couldn't possibly get caught - first they're not watching the screen that closely - they're mainly watching to see if a customer doesn't ring something and puts it in his bag

and also, if they did catch you which is unlikely, you could simply say you made a mistake - what could they possibly say? - they could say nothing - after all, you're not a trained cashier - they're the ones that put the thing out there to save themselves money on labor

but it is a chump change move

My buddy got a job doing pricing at Amazon right out of college.

They had the trilogy box sets coming out and they wanted to price them at a loss to bring people in.

He entered them wrong so the extended cuts were given normal price and normal ones had extended price. People had bought thousands before they noticed the mistake and they refunded the difference to those who got the regular set and let those who got the even better discount on the others keep it.

Cost Amazon a few extra million on some items they were already selling at a loss to begin with.

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a couple of tricks I played on grocery stores:


before Covid the upscale groceries near me had pretty good hot bars
if purchased separately the price of the items ranged from about $.99 per pound to about $16.00 per pound

I only scarfed up the stuff worth about $16.00 per pound.............(-:}




before Covid the grocery near me made some excellent self serve chili
chili is normally about 20% meat and 80% beans and sauce
I tilted the ladle so I got chili that was about 80% meat and 20% beans and sauce................(-:}