Making Cents: Sensible shopping can save you up to €2,000 a year
Ken Hughes is an expert in marketing to shoppers and the customer experience and he believes Irish consumers could make major savings on their weekly grocery shop with a little effort, writes .
Normally focused on maximising how people shop, he is currently working with SuperValu to educate shoppers: “Usually I work on the other side of the equation. As a shopping psychologist I design stores and brands to make people buy more, so SuperValu have brought me on board to do the opposite.”
In bad news for shoppers who like to wing it, Mr Hughes said: “The worst thing you can do is arrive at a supermarket without a plan.
“Only buying what you need sounds so simple but the majority of shoppers don’t check their fridge and freezer, their presses, they don’t actually have a plan of what they are going to cook for the week,” he said. “Then when you walk into the store environment you tend to walk up and down the aisle and grab the things you always grab, you tend to overbuy. Even with this tip alone, you could probably save 15% to 20%.”
Checking what you already have is a good start but sitting down with a list of the special offers available that week and making a meal plan around them will take savings to the next level.
“It depends on how regimental you want to get as a consumer. You can take stock of your food at home, check the promotional leaflet for the meat and veg offers and decide, based on the offers, what you are going to make for the week. Then you only buy the bits that you need. It can be very productive.”
Mr Hughes also believes that when it comes to grocery shopping, it is best to ignore the consumer finance mantra “shop around”.
“There is a myth that if you shop around you get better value — you hear it a lot about insurance and utilities,” he said. “It does make sense if price is the only issue, but psychologically you buy more when you visit stores more, because every time you go into a new store you are tempted by something new at some point.
“If you are jumping into a couple of stores, a bit here and a basket there, basically you are exposing yourself to temptation more regularly. We are only human so every time you go, you might be a bit hungry, or you might have the kids with you one day, there are going to be purchases that you didn’t necessarily need.”
Instead, he favours the tradition of the big weekly shop. His next tip is to actually have a budget, something he believes the majority of people claim to have but actually do not.
“They have an idea of what they should be spending but a budget is something that you won’t go over. You wouldn’t let a builder doing an extension in your house work away and spend whatever — it should be the same with the food budget. If you want to save say €2,000 on your budget this year, for whatever reason, you need to be a bit more regimental.”
He suggests leaving the cards at home and bring only the cash you have budgeted to the supermarket. The possibility of having to return something because you do not have enough when you reach the till will force you to keep track of prices. Make sure to include treats, having a budget does not mean no indulgences, it means allowing for them in the plan.
“Another thing to think about is own brand,” he said. “We have a culture of thinking of own-brand as cheap and nasty but those days are so far behind us now. In SuperValu some of the range have won Blas na hÉireann awards. The own-brand can be as good or better than the branded alternative.”
If you find sticking to your list difficult, or have to shop with the kids who push for impulse purchases, he also recommends shopping online.
SuperValu has announced its new lower prices initiative ‘Make Savings’ which sees prices drop on hundreds of own brand products. Mr Hughes suggests shoppers can keep an eye out for green and yellow stickers in store: “It all adds up fast, switching products could save you up to €40 on a full trolley shop.”
