6 Strategies for Better Grocery Shopping

Grocery stores and Supermarkets are an inescapable entity in the culinary landscape. Most adults unfortunately are not shopping for ingredients however recent trends show, and the value added sector of the food industry is replacing  cooking at home. If you are a grocery shopper, here's 6 tips for a more successful and enjoyable outing:

#6. Make a list. - I made this number six because it seems the most obvious. 84% of us who grocery shop do it according to a recent survey by Acosta Sales and Marketting. But what are the lists like? Just check out the collection of over 3000 at grocerylists.org to see for yourself. Making a proper list is the most effective tool for avoiding crafty and often times harmful food marketing. Spend atleast 15 minutes carefully designing your list. Look at our other blogs, and elsewhere online for ideas and templates.

#5. Keep your meals in mind. - Building on strategy #5, it is important to plan ahead before you get to the store. Develop a general plan for a week's worth of meals. Finding an old agenda or calendar to dedicate to this task is very helpful long-term. Under each day write a dinner choice (ex. Sunday-Pesto Chicken and Fettucini, Tuesday- Fish Tacos with coleslaw.) Use the notes when making your list.

#4. Stick to the perimeter. - Take a walk around the outside of your favourite grocery store, and more likely than not you will be going through produce, butchery, fish, bread, and dairy sections. It is wise to have these items making up 70-80% of your grocery list. Towards the middle you will find more aisles of frozen, processed, and packaged foods. (Avoid those)

#3. Get it from the source. - We all have an equal responsibility to feast sustainably, but unless you live in Napa Valley it is difficult to abide by the strict laws of "eating locally". However, take it upon yourself to visit your farmer's market whenever it is in season, on as regular a basis as you posssibly can. There you can find ingredient quality (and prices) that surpasses all corporate grocery chains.

#2. Just get what you need. - A popular trend growing throughout the supermarket industry is an urging for shoppers to buy a whole lot more than you meant to- and save! When SuperValu, the parent of Cub Foods and other grocery chains, tested 10-for-$10 deals versus 5-for-$5 on the same items and in the same markets, it found that people usually bought atleast two more items when the promotion was 10 for $10, said Tom Lofland, Supervalu’s director for sales and promotions. Pay attention to the promotion because more often than not the discount for buying 10 items is proportionally the same for buying any number of items.      

#1. Make the time. - Interested in a feasible and pragmatic service you can perform that will help rescue the environment, solve world hunger and improve the economy? When you take the time to plan and execute sustainable grocery shopping, you are doing something real. If it seems like a challenge, that's because it is.