What Is Your Grocer Not Telling You? Here Are Some Secrets

Do you walk into the supermarket to pick up just a few things but leave with a trunk full of food, an eye-popping bill, and an urgent need for a nap? It’s no wonder. With about 40,000 products in today’s typical grocery store, the industry is using more tricks than ever to get you to buy more than you had planned. And if you know what to look for, you might find that food safety and hygiene have fallen by the wayside in some stores. Reader’s Digest asked 16 grocery experts, including industry analysts and store employees, to share their insider strategies to save money and beat supermarkets at their own game. Some surprising secrets include:  Over 60 percent of shoppers off-load products as they check out, so supermarkets started making checkout lanes narrower, with less shelf space, which means it’s harder to ditch goods at the last minute.  Deals may not be deals: The ten-for-$10 promotion is one of the most effective. When a store does it, volume takes off, even if the promotion raises the price of something. We’ll take an 89-cent can of tuna and mark it “ten for $10,” and instead of buying six cans for 89 cents, people will buy ten for $10.  Grocery stores usually don’t have the best milk prices. The milk at drug¬stores and convenience stores is typically priced 30 to 50 cents less per gallon; it may even be locally produced and hormone-free. One of our best-kept secrets is that you get filet mignon much cheaper by buying whole T-bone steaks. Every T-bone has a small filet mignon on the bone, and a New York strip on the opposite side. The price difference can be $3 to $5 a pound. To read the full list of secrets,  visit: http://www.rd.com/slideshows/supermarket-tricks/.