The Grocery Store, The Most Dangerous Place You Will Ever Walk Alone By The Virgo Avenger
Just a male Virgo’s point of view – Part One
Going to the grocery store is the Highlight of my life, because for me it’s like being in a schoolyard fight, you study your opponent look for the opening and strike.
I have memorized every aisle; I know all the tricks they use, from wholesalers paying top dollar to put their products on the middle shelves, because that is where our eyes go first.
Keeping the store at the right temperature, for a sense of comfort, to the choice of music, high tempo in the morning through elevator music in the evening.
I know that most stores vent the bakery exhaust through the store to make you hungry, because when you are hungry you buy more and you buy fast and of course lets not forget the lighting, soft and just below the mid ranges of our ability to sharpen our focus.
Now once you know how they manipulate your experience before you even enter this paradise of endless choices, you then have to protect yourself from the actual “Stuff”
In a typical Grocery store the first items up are the fruit and vegetables, not much fear here. All the fruit is so shiny, because it is washed at the processing plant with a non-toxic “wax”. The veggies are all stored in nice cold bins along the wall with a fine mist that sprays them every five minutes, if you are lucky your store even plays the sound of thunder and a strobe light for a lightning effect.
It looks so good you just don’t seem to know or care about the prices. So remember all the freshest fruit and veggies are up at the top and to the bottom of the bins, always pick up containers and look under them for “fur” (mold). And “baggo” lettuce, grab from the back but always check the date. As a side note: The Deli with all their lovely salads and sides are comprised of all the fruit and veggies that have reached phase 2….Phase 1 still has customer appeal. Phase 2 can be blended into something more appealing. Phase 3 given to the soup kitchens. Phase 4 off to the pig farms.
The middle: this is the area between fruits and veggies and frozen, it has everything from can goods, meat and poultry, dairy, healthcare, pet food, and so on.
Rules here are simple; all things cheap and / or inexpensive are on the bottom shelves. All things the wholesalers have paid top dollar for are on the middle shelves. And the top is all things that just could not afford the middle.
Size matters: Your only worry in this section is size, boxes, bottles, and containers are shrinking in size, but the price remains the same.
Toilet paper is gold, but who are they kidding. I look at ply and number of sheets, but even that is getting “thin” My mom would buy a 12 pak for two adults and four kids, it would last the month now it would not last a week, because for the same price they are giving you less sheets and thinner ply. Have you noticed that you can wrap your hand around a single roll and a double roll is what a single roll was and a triple roll is……well you get it.
I buy this 24 pac of 3 ply and pull the 3 ply’s apart, each ply on its own is see through, it really is one ply that has been beaten into submission.
Boxes of cereal are getting smaller by the ounce, glass jars are thicker so they hold less but maintain the same weight, big bags of chips are full of air, they are packed by weight not volume so you never notice.
This illusion plays out through out the whole store all items get smaller and smaller and prices remain the same or rise very little, but the reality is the store and the manufacturer are making money hand over fist because we still think we are getting a bargain.
One example I can give you is this; A typical box of cereal at 13.5 oz (5 years ago was 15.5 oz and ten years ago was 18.5 oz) cost the manufacturer $1.01 to produce, they sell it to the store at a 35 to 75% markup so as to make a profit, so lets say the store gets it for $1.61. They then put it on their shelf at a 350% markup, let’s say $ 5.63. That’s a $ 4.02 profit for the store, and when they put it on sell for you at $ 3.99 we stock up because hey, they want to help me save money.
More to come next time….
Hints and tips:
Most grocery stores have a reduced or damaged shelf towards the back of the store. Take a look. A can has a dent or a box has a rip on the label makes no difference in taste.
Also look to see if they have a reduced price meat section, this would be meat that is about to meet its USDA and FDA regulated shelf life date, “for the store”, not for you or your freezer.
After you wash your fruit and veggies put them in containers with paper towel on the bottom to absorb liquid and gasses, also place veggies on the top shelf and back of your fridge, this will add 4 to 7 days to the life of your produce.
25 Responses to “The Grocery Store, The Most Dangerous Place You Will Ever Walk Alone By The Virgo Avenger”
Great tips here, thanks.
Oh yay! Someone else who is passionate about grocery shopping! It’s one of my fave things. 
Protips regarding storing produce: try not to store fruit you don’t want ripened quickly with apples, even in the crisper. Apples give off ethylene gas, which promotes fruit ripening. To ripen a fruit more quickly, chuck in bag with apple. Also, you CAN store bananas in the fridge, the skin will rapidly turn brown, but the bananas are still delicious. Om nom nom.
I know all about the stuff above, and it aggravates me. Though I do work in a store that changed some of that – they have lots of non-waxed local produce – yup, you can buy dirty potatoes, deformed apples, cukes of all sizes, and pumpkins with warts at my grocery store! The damaged/overstock goods are in the front of a store in a 50% off bin. Their store brand is almost always cheapest and just as good as a mainstream brand (also note – many generics are actually the same as a mainstream brand, just with a generic label!). My store also plays elevator music/oldies in the morning and up-tempo stuff at night, but that’s probably because customers complained so much about the reverse ahahaha.
Another lil tip: when choosing packaged deli meats and dairy, look at expiration dates and always choose from the back – those items are newer, and sometimes customers keep a cold item in their cart while spending an hour browsing the store only to decide they don’t want it and put it back. Yuck. There’s no way us employees know, except that I’ve seen it happen while shopping.
Shop by unit price, not the price staring you in the face. It requires math, but you find out really quickly that the deal you thought you were getting was a rip-off. You can sometimes buy a ton of smaller packages and make off like a bandit while that larger package gives you less item for more $.
“After you wash your fruit & veggies put them in containers w/paper towel on the bottom… also place veggies on the top shelf and bak of fridge…”
This is great! Now I don’t have to pay extra for those green ‘breathable’ veggie bags.
Thanks for all the tips Elsa. This was an interesting read.
Thanks for the info Elsa, I didn’t know all of that, really interesting! I will certainly be looking at the lower shelves a lot more.
Oh I see. I guess I just didn’t understand the title, my apologies!
Virgo? We could have guessed 
. Thanks a lot for that very useful and down-to-earth first post, virgo! It´s a lot like that over here in Germany too, so i´m already keeping my eyes open a lot, but it sure helps to read about all those tricks again, just to stay aware. And at last now i know WHY the toilet paper goes vanishing so fast nowadays. Never thought of them making the layers thinner!
I also consder shopping a very serious experience. Additions to what has already been said:
Find a fruit and vegetable market in the area. It will be highly likely that the price and choice of fresh produce will be better than at the grocery store.
As has already been stated, store brands are generally just as good as name brands. Often, regular prices of store brands will still be better than buying the name brand with a coupon.
Organization is key. Make a list and stick to it. Get in and out with your shopping. 30 minutes to pick your groceries should be more than enough.
If you can get the organization down, you’ll be able to move on to one of my best tips. My husband I get paid on the 15th and 30th of every month. I do major shopping only at those times. I may pick up more produce and milk in between, but I organize my pantry and meals around 2 shopping trips/month.
Some veggies keep fairly well (think romaine lettuce versus leaf lettuce) — if you eat a lot of salads, buy a mix and eat the more perishable early in the week and the less perishable later in the week.
Less processed means cheaper (usually- think applesauce versus plain apples). Plus, less processed usually means more nutritious (the exception is, surprise of surprises, tomato sauce products, which increase in certain nutrients with processing).
Speaking of which, take advantage of sales by stocking up on those tomato sauces.
Bulk bins! if your store has them, take advantage of them to buy rice, oats, flour, beans, lentils, and nuts. It’s nearly always cheaper. You can also save a lot of money by learning to cook dried beans, and pairing them with grains to make a complete protein — this is what the bulk of the human race lives on, with a little meat or fish on the side to complement it.
Just my two bits’ worth.
yay for fresh blood…. like the perspective.
wondering about top back of fridge… that’s where things go to freeze in my fridge… make it any warmer and things get to warm elsewhere. so maybe top front….
i’m curious what the produce bins are actually good for 
bulk bins in the store are often really good deals… and it’s often much easier to compare price per quantity…
In my store some of the most affordable arthritis meds are on the bottom shelf…where it’s very difficult for people with arthritis to reach them. Makes me so mad.
If I see them or they ask me for help I find them the least expensive and bend down to get it for them.
Generics folks…same ingredients at the same strength. If we have to fill a scrip with over the counter meds, guess what you’re getting? And it works just fine. After all, there aren’t store brand factories that makes these products. So who do you think makes them? Yep. And they’re not inferior stuff that wouldn’t pass. At a certain time, they change the labels. That’s all. Oh, and the price. $Cha-ching$.
I NEVER go to one grocery store to do all of my food shopping. This is because the supermarket is only cheaper for certain things.
There are farmer’s markets/stores near a restaurant districts that cater to them which sell produce for cheaper and better tasting than I get in the grocery store. If it’s better tasting and the same price, I count it as savings. :-p (I miss the restaurant district in my old city.)I get my bulk pasta, rice, and flour from a wholesaler.
All the above assumes you have a nice roomy fridge, and a car to transport all of your stuff.
Yay! Welcome Mr. Virgo. Great stuff!
Grocery prices are one of my pet peeves. I am a Virgo too and more and more annoyed by every trip to the grocery store. It’s highway robbery personified. I outright refuse to buy most stuff unless it’s on sale and even they they have these 3 for 5.00 sales that sound good but still are a major rip. I dunno how large families manage it.
Thank you all for a great first article welcome and thank you all for “your” great tips as well.
Im new at all of this but the world is full of stupid, sneaky, and corrupt people and practices and I hope to write about them all, so thank you again and take care….P
Look for coupons everywhere! They’re even sometimes just in the store! Some stores still have those little coupon dispensers in the aisles. Manufacturers sometimes put sticky coupons on products themselves, you can peel ‘em off and use them at the register. Look inside boxes for cut-out coupons. One day I also noticed a new flavor of Kellogg’s corn flakes, that is free after a mail-in rebate (good thing, those boxes are $3-something). Beer boxes often have a mail-in rebate stuck to them.
thanks
oh, and re: prescriptions – ask for generics, always. And some of the “box stores” have entire lists of “$4 generics” — things for which a Rx costs only four bucks — everything from antibiotics to blood pressure meds. Talk to your doctor about it – sometimes the best meds will be one of these (not always, though). I was shocked to discover this.
@Virgo Avenger- Great advice! Thanks for the tips! Looking forward to more Virgo-y good tips. You and hq are on that shit today!
Oh my!! Thanks for hooking us up Elsa! Dang, so very thorough he is! Printing this puppy out.
OK how could I not love the Virgo Avenger? <3
Also, to this:
Now I don’t have to pay extra for those green ‘breathable’ veggie bags.
I use regular zip top type bags, the heavy freezer gallon size ones, and stab several holes in them with my kitchen shears. Works like a charm.
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Wow, thanks for this. I never knew that about storing your produce on the top shelf.
I consider myself pretty savvy (I shop in a lot of small markets and don’t buy a lot that’s packaged) but anything you have to say in this regard is helpful.