I learned [from a readers digest article] that the average shoppers know only the prices of 4 items. These four items are: Milk Bread Bananas Eggs They don't know the prices of other items which makes it hard for them to know whether whatever they are buying is marked up or not. If you don't know the prices of items you regularly buy, create a price list. Compare prices each time you go shopping and it will save you some money because you won't buy anything that is being sold at a higher price than it should be.
Reader's Digest needs to be up-dated. People know more than four items for prices. I know more than four item's prices and always shop for the cheapest prices to stretch my budget. People have a wonderful & natural way to remember and we know that the longer we live the more everything costs and we know more prices too! I don't believe that Reader's Digest article!
Perhaps some of us have a better memory than others, but I have (perhaps unfortunately) committed to memory the prices of the majority of my regular shopping list. It means that I end up shopping in two or three major stores in order to get the best deals, and a busy shop is my nemesis because I cannot so easily keep a track of what I already have purchased and what needs to be bought. My memory for prices is better than my memory for what is in my cupboards already is!
Like Krissttina Isobe - I too would agree that Reader's Digest ought to seriously consider updating their article - as apart from the fact - that after many. many years of grocery shopping - most people are generally so familiar with the prices of the majority of the things that they buy - that they would for sure notice any price increases. But also with the economy as it is these days and many trying to survive on a strict budget and therefore having to make savings in anyway that they can - I do think that the majority of people nowadays - would know or at least be aware of the cost of most things that they regularly purchase and not just those four items - particularly as - with food prices continually rising - its very often a case of having to look for a cheaper but satisfactory alternative in order to make ends meet.
What a load of rubbish. I make it my business to know the price of everything I buy at the supermarkets - because I'm always looking to get the cheapest price possible. I think this is true for most people these days.
The thing is these days you can go online and check the prices for things in each store. I do that before I leave, and so many sites have comparison charts and also highlight specials. Most shoppers do know the price of bread and eggs, but then you look at vegans, do they? I don't drink milk so when a friend asked me to get a pint of milk, I wasn't sure if I had paid more than I should have.
It is advisable to keep tabs of the prices by also keeping the receipt when you go shopping so that it will be easier to compare prices the next time that you buy. I always do that although it can add to clutter inside the house.
I actually don't know much about the prices of items. That's why I am surprised when my husband would say that we buy chicken in the small market instead of in the town market. Naturally, the bigger the market, the better the prices. But it isn't so in our town although most vegetable items in the big market are cheaper. What I only remember with the prices is the cost of 1 sack of rice and a kilo of beef.
I am guilty of this too, I'm afraid, although I don't really shop for other items all that much and if I buy anything with any regularity I tend to pick up on what the average price should be and what the potential cheapest prices could be since I do tend to try out different stores just to experiment. I think that is the most any of us can do aside from looking it up online because chances are finding out what is available to you locally will still be the most accurate method than just relying on what people say online.
I will admit that I don't know really know how much eggs cost because I don't eat them, but I do know the rest of them because they are all on my shopping list on a regular basis. I think that it is very important that you know how much things cost, because then you will be aware of whether you have a good deal in certain places or not, and if you can get things for cheaper elsewhere.
I know the price of everything that is on my shopping list on a regular basis and won't pay more than I have to for them. For example I recently noticed that from one week to the next the price of many things I buy regularly doubled. So much for there supposedly being loads of price cuts on items. The price cuts were on all the branded items (which I can't afford anyway) and the cheaper products I usually buy had doubled! I usually spend £0.29 for a small bag of pasta that will last me a week. This has gone up to £70 recently. And I definitely noticed it!
I know the average prices for those four items and a whole lot more. I shop at least 3 times a week and I know what month items go on sale. Reader's Digest needs to get with the times and realize that the average consumer is not a dimwit.
I know the prices of most of the things I buy because I buy them often enough to have committed the prices to memory. I don't know who they polled that can only remember the prices of 4 items. That seems abnormally low.
