Money Magazine has an online piece about how to save money at the supermarket with the subtitle: “You’re paying too much for food.”
Essentially the argument is that Americans, by focusing on convenience-oriented and prepared foods as well as by not doing sufficient planning before going to the store – are simply wasting their money on products that are either too expensive or that they’ll never eat.
“Grocery shopping seems simple enough, but Americans are wasting more money, food and time than ever by not planning,” Money writes. “We spend more on food each year (an average of $5,340 these days) than on anything else besides our house and car…Today households on average toss 14 percent of the food they buy, about double what we threw out 20 years ago. Compare this with our parents' and grandparents' generations, when time was spent each week planning menus so that every last item that was bought was used.”
Interestingly, one of the strategies suggested for carving costs out of the food shopping experience is the use of online services such as Peapod – because they pretty much force the consumer to organize his or her thoughts and plan out meals in advance. Even with delivery fees, shopping tends to be less costly because people only buy what they need or what they can eat.
Essentially the argument is that Americans, by focusing on convenience-oriented and prepared foods as well as by not doing sufficient planning before going to the store – are simply wasting their money on products that are either too expensive or that they’ll never eat.
“Grocery shopping seems simple enough, but Americans are wasting more money, food and time than ever by not planning,” Money writes. “We spend more on food each year (an average of $5,340 these days) than on anything else besides our house and car…Today households on average toss 14 percent of the food they buy, about double what we threw out 20 years ago. Compare this with our parents' and grandparents' generations, when time was spent each week planning menus so that every last item that was bought was used.”
Interestingly, one of the strategies suggested for carving costs out of the food shopping experience is the use of online services such as Peapod – because they pretty much force the consumer to organize his or her thoughts and plan out meals in advance. Even with delivery fees, shopping tends to be less costly because people only buy what they need or what they can eat.
- KC's View:
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Now there’s a sales pitch that most online food purveyors probably never thought to make – shop with us and save money.
But when you consider it, the idea actually makes a lot of sense.
