Consumerist usually does an excellent job as an unapologetic advocate for consumers’ interests in increasingly tough economic times; for instance, the Gawker Media blog has a whole series on the stealth-inflation-causing “grocery shrink ray” even though it’s more or less an invitation for “lazy fat Americans DESERVE to pay the same amount for smaller packages” moralizing. But this list of “Easy Ways To Save Money At The Supermarket” is something of a disappointment. With tips like “Make a list and stick to it,” “[U]se a basket, not a cart. Empty space cries to be filled” and — seriously — “Eat a meal before shopping,” the implication is that trips to the grocery store are expensive because stupefied, stomach-led shoppers mindlessly load up their carts with impulse buys. Some of the advice is completely inaccurate, like the suggestion that the perimeter of the store is “where the healthier, cheaper items hide.” Healthier, probably, but fresh fruits and vegetables are hardly cheaper than processed food. Let me know when one of these lists is written by someone who actually cooks.
{ 2008 07 07 }
Andy | 07-Jul-08 at 2:41 pm | Permalink
Consumerist is sometimes interesting, but more often really annoying. No one there apparently understands basic economics. The price of X went up? Well you don’t *have* to buy it. And producers have costs too, if they were just raising prices to screw people over then they would have done it earlier.
this blog is overrated | 07-Jul-08 at 2:50 pm | Permalink
Well, they don’t usually try to explain why prices are rising, they just point it out when prices rise in deceptive ways (smaller packages, extra fees.)
tjj | 07-Jul-08 at 5:04 pm | Permalink
I actually think the basket suggestion is really good. Otherwise, Trader Joe’s would now own my first born.
this blog is overrated | 07-Jul-08 at 5:09 pm | Permalink
I always carry a basket unless I’m at a store where they have those new smaller carts, in which case I do buy more, but buying more isn’t necessarily less economical. In terms of time, it’s probably more so.
Young Urban Amateur | 08-Jul-08 at 2:16 pm | Permalink
Actually this isn’t bad advice for the most part. But yeah, that basket thing really doesn’t work–I just end up stuffing the basket full and piling things on top, so I have to carry it w/ two hands and end up looking like a crazy homeless collector guy and then I’m like “Uhh, I need a cart” and so I just head back to get one.
Cat | 09-Jul-08 at 8:55 am | Permalink
Yeah, I never got the perimeter of the store thing either. The perimeter of the store I shop in has produce, a deli case full of nitrate rich lunchmeat and fatty cheese, a case with prepared sandwiches and lunchable type crap, bread loaded with high fructose corn syrup and other fillers, dairy products, bread and cookie dough in tubes, eggs, bottled water, beer, chips and candy.
Hardly enough for a balanced diet.
Your best bet is to cook from scratch and to get your produce locally either CSA style or from the farmer’s market.
my name don't fit | 09-Jul-08 at 3:22 pm | Permalink
Actually, Cat, your BEST bet is to have your nanny or your butler or your chauffeur or what have you instruct your gardener to grow nutritious and tasty vegetables organically, harvest them in hemp baskets, and deliver them to your personal chef for preparation sans fructose. That way you can be certain you don’t ingest any cookie dough or beer accidentally. And even more crucially you can make certain your wet nurse doesn’t ingest any either.
That’s your BEST bet. Me, I shop at Meijer.
Cat | 09-Jul-08 at 3:43 pm | Permalink
Eh, none of that nanny, butler, chauffeur stuff for me. I do grow my own garden, but I just harvest the veggies in a big bowl that was made in the 1940’s out of something called Pyrex.
The chef (me) already cooks sans fructose and sans partially hydrogenated oils and from scratch.
And trust me, beer doesn’t get ingested accidentally, I drink that on purpose!
Oh, and I was my own kid’s wet nurse…
But I don’t spend a lot on groceries, even for a family of 6.
hector | 12-Jul-08 at 8:46 am | Permalink
I’m with Cat on this one.
Bookmarks about Consumerist | 13-Jul-08 at 1:16 am | Permalink
[...] - bookmarked by 3 members originally found by ivannieto on July 12, 2008 Don’t Go Posting When You’re Hungry for Blog Material http://www.thisblogisoverrated.com/2008/07/07/dont-go-posting-when-youre-hungry-for-blog-material/ [...]
Doseepisa | 01-Dec-08 at 3:15 pm | Permalink
I am here at a forum newcomer. Until I read and deal with the forum.
Let’s learn!
GapTuptamalty | 19-Dec-08 at 1:40 am | Permalink
Hello
As newly registered user i just wanted to say hello to everyone else who uses this forum