Despite the fact that going to the supermarket is the simplest and most mundane thing, you make a number of mistakes each time and, as a result, overpay for the goods or bring home something of poor quality. Remember what exactly you are doing wrong so that the stores do not profit from your carelessness.
Take the goods closest to you from the shelf
This trick has been used for many years in all self-service stores - products with an expiring shelf life are put closer to the front edge, and behind them are those that are fresher. If you want to buy today, and not yesterday’s bread and milk, which during boiling probably will not be divided into whey and cottage cheese, take the third or fourth packaging from the window. But at the same time, check the production date and the date by which the product should be consumed.
Buy pre-packaged vegetables and fruits
Fruits and vegetables seem more attractive when lying on a polypropylene substrate and wrapped in film. In addition, it seems to you that you save time when taking already packaged and weighted goods. However, more often than not, store employees pack up broken or rotten fruits, thus hiding their defect.
Ignore the goods on the lower shelves
It may sound strange, but companies pay supermarkets to display their goods in the most profitable places - that is, on shelves that are located at eye level. Accordingly, passing between the rows and glancing through the shelves, you notice the most expensive and “untwisted” products. Always pay attention to the lower shelves. As a rule, there are cheaper, but equally high-quality products from local manufacturers and brand names.
Buy chopped cheese and sausage
If the cut is sealed in the original packaging, most likely, it does not differ (except the cost) from a similar, but lumpy product. If the sausage and cheese were sliced by the employees of the supermarket, then in most cases this was done not for the convenience of the buyer, but for the sake of selling the long-walled, long-lying products on the display case.
Do not read the information on the price tag
Trading networks often sin by posting price tags with discounts in advance. Formally, there is no deception in this, because at the bottom there is necessarily a subscript where the duration of the action is indicated in small print. But inattentive buyers rarely read information on the price tag - instead, they try to quickly take the goods with a margin before they are disassembled.
There are also “lost” price tags. They are located not where the goods are exhibited, but a little off. Thus, thinking that you are buying poppy seed filling or sardines in oil for one hundred rubles, you can put goods with the same name in the basket, the cost of which is twice as high.
If you have enough time, always check the barcode on the package with the barcode on the price tag.
Focus on the name, not the composition
Marketers are diligently inventing products with names that will stimulate consumer demand.
- When your hand reaches for the liver with the name “Dietetic”, do not be too lazy to read the composition - most likely, you will find margarine, sugar, and harmful food additives in it.
- The same goes for chocolate: they can sell pastry tiles under its guise.
- There is a catch in dairy products. Sour cream “Domashnaya” is just a milk-containing product, just like the butter cake “From Burenka with love”, which in fact is a spread.
On packages with natural products, the usual, rather than diminutive, name should be indicated: sour cream, butter.
Do not check the amount in the check
If you still count the change, without departing from the cash register, then you hardly want to check the check - you are tired, in a hurry, and the queue presses the back in displeasure. But in the store they can deceive you:
- break through the wrong names or extra units of goods (take one pack of tea - pay for two, buy pasta - pay for a bottle of expensive wine);
- break through a promotional item at full cost;
- to break through the goods at a higher price than that indicated on the price tag;
- punch goods that are not in your basket.
Is it worth buying goods manufactured under the own brand of the store?
Of course, but at the same time you need to read information about the manufacturer and the composition. As a rule, such goods go off the assembly line at the same factories and plants as the more expensive ones with a recognizable logo on the package and do not differ in quality from them.
What to do if at the checkout the goods “went up”?
According to the laws of the Russian Federation and most CIS countries, a store is required to sell goods at the price indicated on the price tag, or cheaper. If at the checkout this or that product is more expensive, you must return the difference.
If it is difficult for you to immediately remember all the nuances of grocery shopping, before going to the supermarket, make up not only a shopping list, but also a kind of check list (something that you need to pay attention to in each of the departments).