Are you a ‘professional’ supermarket shopper?

Supermarkets are easier to beat (for want of a better word) than most people realise. They are not your friend, they do not have your best interests at heart and should be viewed with contempt.

As much shopping as possible should be done BEFORE going to the supermarket. Supermarket shopping should only be for a last few bits each week.

Visit local markets for fruit, veg, fish (from an actual fishmonger!) and pick up toiletries etc, cheaper in price, negotiate discounts if you buy say 5 of a product, it may only be 10p per item, better in your pocket.
Call in at your butchers (an actual butcher!) longer lasting, cheaper, often locally produced and fresher meat than any supermarket shelf, less packaging/waste as well. Whilst you’re there, pick up fresh eggs (if you don’t have a milkman), often locally made cheeses, even locally made sauces are available at our butchers.

Shopping this way BEFORE arriving at the supermarket, means I can walk right past whole departments, I can get around fast so I’m in and out quickly, grabbing the few remaining bits of shopping I need for the week.
This way always saves my household money.

Supermarkets are not the customer’s friend at all, many branded goods can be bought cheaper at the local corner shop – who buy in 12 tins at a time – than a supermarket which buys in by the pallet load, how is this possible? Huge profits every six months shows what the big four are doing.

One example of supermarket’s utter contempt for the people of Britain, for me, came as times started to get difficult back in Sept/Oct 2008 – with reports all over the news of desperate times for households to come and people would significantly need to cut back their spending – two of the big four supermarkets in my area, slapped an extra 20% – 30% on the prices of most of their branded tinned goods, the exact products that people were starting to buy to save a bit of money.

Over the past 12 months, our house has been working on eliminating the need to visit any supermarket for our weekly shop, we are almost there, just a few bits to source elsewhere and we’ll be there. The money we have saved each week has been significant, eye waterwing when added up over a month/year.
We have an abundance of fresh seasonal fruit and veg always on hand, our recycling bins have never been more than half full each fortnight. It is even quicker to visit a neighbouring town and back than it is to do a shop at the supermarket.

I may paint a rosey picture, that’s because it is, other than carrying the shopping back to the car I cannot find any other negative point about shopping locally. The added bonus of course, is that I am not lining supermarket shareholder’s pockets, I am putting money back into my local economy which can only be a good thing.

I roughly know what shops to go in for the cheapest products. Go to the market/Turkish supermarket for cheap fruit and veg, Lidl for cheese and ham, the butchers for meat and I make my own bread. I order online for bulky stuff and make sure I buy in bulk if, say, dishwasher liquid is on special offer.

If you don’t have any local shops and don’t/can’t order online, then you are at the mercy of your nearest supermarket. I wonder if local councils take this into consideration when they give permission for yet another large out of town supermarket to open up.

hate supermarket shopping. I dislike the lighting the checkout, and the fact that you often find items have been moved round to different aisles on different visits. It feels to me as if I am in some sort of maze like psychology experiment – which I probably am, for the interest of marketing people.

Since I live on my own, many of the special offers are irrelevant anyway, as there is too much for one person. Why don’t they offer half price, instead of bogofs? Doesn’t it come to the same thing?

I buy an organic veg box which is locally produced, and transported, and that saves me having to think about what veggies to buy and I can spend less time in supermarkets.

I purchase bulky and heavy items from supermarkets. And also lemons/oranges/avocados, which obviously can’t be locally produced. But I always make sure I have made a list and buy only what is on it. The advantage for the supermarkets is that they usually provide free and easy parking, which does encourage people in.

Of course, there is the fact that some people just love shopping – they love the whole experience of seeing everything before them on the shelves and “finding” a bargain.

As to Morrisons – like Tesco – however much they manipulate shoppers, they don’t like it when people play them at their own game do they?

Agree with many of the previous comments. I would add that there are all sorts of ecologically-sound & economical ways to avoid or at least reduce the amount of time/energy wasted on supermarket shopping. Online & local shopping are good examples; alternatively, invest in greener ways of living, e.g. instead of spending money on endless packs of washing powder all year round, use eco-balls in your washing machine (a set will last up to 3 years for a one off purchase), or try to grow fresh herbs on your windowsill – they smell & taste much better than the dried stuff & are so much cheaper if grown from seed! With such tough economic conditions facing many families, maybe we need to re-consider not just our shopping habits, but our whole value system? Smart shopping is just the beginning…smart living should be the goal.

Don’t waste your money on eco-balls. They don’t work.