What To Look For

With all the preparation taken care of, now it’s showtime. The trip itself is naturally the most important part of this sequence. A lot goes into the grocery store experience—whether you notice it or not.

Store Layout

A grocery store is extremely intentional with how their store is arranged. This starts with each department, and it goes down all the way to where products are placed on the shelf. A video done by upnextLAB, a design thinking YouTube channel, they explain that flowers and produce are usually placed at the front of grocery stores which conveys a message of selling fresh products. This type of strategy allows stores to build a sense of trust with their consumers. In this same video, it’s explained that the bakery, deli, dairy, pharmacy, and other such departments are located towards the outside of the store. This creates the need to travel across the entire store to be exposed to the greatest number of products possible.  

Shelf Layout

On a smaller scale, the shelf layout is just as important as the layout of the store. In a video done by the New York Times, Michael Pollan and Michael Moss remark, “Behind the shelf is the most fiercely competitive industry there is”.Behind the scenes, companies are constantly at odds over their spot on the shelf. Hiranmayi Srinivasan with Real Simple explains each tier of shelving’s intention. The top shelf is usually home to smaller, regional, and gourmet brands to help set the tone. The second and third shelves (known as the “bull’s eye zone”) is going to be the most expensive placement from a brand’s perspective. These products usually have the highest sales or markups. Products directed towards kids will take their place in the lower shelves due to the lower eye-level. Lastly, the bottom shelf usually contains store brands or bulk products—more practical use than anything.

Eye Candy

The classic move groceries stores pull here is placing snacks, candy, and magazines by the register with the hopes that customers will purchase these products off impulse. However, there is a lot more visual detail effort placed into the store aside from this. Krystyna Huang, a manager at Mariano’s grocery store pointed out, “Our stores convey the image of quality from the front of the building to the very choice of martial we use for our displays”. Every grocery store puts forth effort to make customers feel a certain way. These feelings help reinforce consumers purchase decisions. As a college student, be sure to recognize these differences to set some expectations for a prospective next visit.

Labels

Diving even deeper is the information wrapping the products themselves. Investigating a product’s contents can help you justify purchase decisions. Registered Dietician, Tracy Lockwood-Beckerman, explains in a video from Well+Good that above all, protein, fat, and sugar content should be the biggest figures to look at. College students should target low sugar products and value items high in protein. The idea is to keep you full longer and sustain higher energy levels. Not everyone will always read the labels, but it never hurts to do so.

Stick to the Plan

To finish off the in-store experience, make sure you stick to the plan that you set in place to begin with. Executing a grocery store as planned is crucial for a college student. This keeps your budget easy, mind clear, and pantry full.

Evaluate

The final step to the grocery store trip is to see how you did. Often this includes double-checking to make sure you retrieved the items you set out to grab. Other times it could be a regret for an impulse purchase. Eliminating the desire for impulse purchases can be difficult. In a study by Rice Business, reflection is one of the most effective ways for anti-consumption. A reflective thought process often used to help redirect the impulse desire to purchase a product. For example, if you have an urge to buy a pint of ice cream but realize you already have chocolate protein muffins at home helps rationalize the restriction to purchase.

Make Note of Unused Product

Another good practice is keeping track of product-gone-bad. This should help eliminate any unnecessary purchases or motivate you to finish the product you bought next time. In an article from Supermarket News, the Associated Press designated that “best before” has nothing to do with food safety, while “use by” is more pertinent to perishable items. Food distinctions should be ideally made while in the store, but definitely take note of these distinctions at the very least when you unload your groceries. Taking a simple note down to remind you of these details can result in money saved.

Keep the Receipts

The last part of a grocery store trip is when the receipt pops out of the printer. While it might seem gratuitous, that small piece of paper can contribute a great deal to the standing of your online bank statement. A good idea might be starting an excel sheet with all of your grocery purchases to help with organizing your financials and to keep track of items that have worked well or not-so well. US News explains the use of receipt scanner apps that help with organization and getting cash back at select stores. This resource sounds like the perfect idea for a college student to utilize. Most of the apps seem easy-to-use, and they give you free money back. If anything, this should help with planning for the next trip.

Conclusion

With all these tools at your disposal, we hope that you can improve your trips to the grocery store when that dining hall food just isn’t cutting it. Being able to gauge what you need and what to make with the food you have is a skill that develops with time. Understand that it won’t be perfect every time, but there are things that can be done to make the stops to the store more efficient.