Supermarkets are gonna hate this…. I just downloaded two free apps (there are others) – that use the camera in the iPhone to read bar codes – it then goes into a database and shows you what the price of that item is at other retailers.
There are different ideas about how supermarkets try to make money – one model (the store I go to a lot) will mark up some items hugely on the idea that people don’t know (or care) what the item sells for at other stores. They draw you in on the cheap steak and then sock it to you on the cookies and frozen food aisle. They’ll put a “Sale!” tag on items that are selling 50% higher than their normal retail price…
As somebody who once worked in a Market, you hit it on the head. I use to do ordering and the Grocery part of the store only made a 2% profit at the most.
Your sales were your loss leaders, best thing you could do there was have some on hand after the sale so you make up the loss from the week before. Some stuff was outside vender, so you had to go by their price or take a bath.
Profit was made from the other depts. The apps. are a tool for an old habit.
I had four different stores around my old house, we would hit the stores for the sales and then go to the Shop-Rite for the best shelf price, and Kings for the best meat & produce even though they were the most expensive. Did it in about three hours on a Friday night.
Except for sale items, I never shopped in the store I worked at. But I have to tell you, we were contracted to pull from one Warehouse, so we had to go by their prices. We never did anything 50% higher stuff on normal stuff. The only way something like could have happened was if the knucklehead part timers didn’t take the signs down from the changeover, or replace the tag.
And yeah, that use to happen.
Now that I’m older and single, I just hit two markets for sales and shop at the old neighborhood butcher (yes we still have them here) for carnivor stuff.
What that app is telling me is an old saying my friend. To get the best price, you got to shop around!
This particulr store also does an annoying thing – they’ll run 2 for 1 specials…. say an 8 oz ham steak normally sells for $3.99… They’ll then have it on “sale” for “2 for 1” at the regular price of $4.99…. It’s still cheaper than the regular price, but misleading (if not outright fraud)… the problem is since I’m single, I don’t want to buy 2. If it was $2.49 each or 2/$4.99 and I could buy one, I would be happy. But I think that’s the point – they want the big family shoppers, not the singles (which is odd, since the single people are more likely to buy the high margin items)…
Having used the apps a bit more, they are annoyingly unuseful so far. Mostly they are returning case lot prices from out of state mail order companies.
What the app does that couldn’t be done up until now is let you comparison shop while you’re inside the store (in theory) – the combination of the bar code reader so you’re sure you have the same product… and the internet access to check outside the walls of the store without leaving…
It ain’t there yet, but information and competition always improves things
The Pathmark by my house does that all the time. You have to buy family-paks or a certain amount, plus have that dopey ‘club card’.
There’s a ‘Redner’s’ that is 9 miles away. No club card, if it’s 2/4.00 and you buy one it’s $2.00. The only thing they do is run ‘Meat Deals’ where $15 will get you stuff, but it’s a certain kind because they brought a huge deal for all their stores, but even there they work with ya if you are single. You just get stuff you can freeze.
I also have little private stores that for some reason are cheaper then Pathmark, it’s just they are small so the selection isn’t really there.
And then there’s always ‘ALDI’!!
There is the third option: put your store in a rural area and watch the captive market roll in. I worked at a grocery store for over five years (right up to the point where the high stress and low pay was causing me serious mental health issues and I had to quit)… this store was unusually honest. Only rarely did they ever use a bulk discount. They never, as far as I recalled, used the sale tags on items selling at retail. They even put the milk at the front of the store next to the cash registers– who does that anymore? Yet they still somehow made money. It certainly helped that we had some sweetheart deals with a few distributors and we were able to sell Doritos for 50 cents less than Wal-Mart or anyone else.
Of course, it was also a non-union shop that paid minimum wage and no benefits.