Shop Smart!
£1.60
£1.00
£2.00
89p
£1.50
89p
£1.00
£1.50
£1.25
£1.35
86p
75p
32p
68p
45p
£1.70
£1.50
£1.80
90p
£1.46
60p/kg
£1.25
80p
80p
44p
90p
£1.45
£1.90
£1.19
£2.65
£3.60
£7.50
£3.00
£3.25
£1.00
£2.10
Shop Smart Activity
This activity is designed to get participants to think about their shopping
habits:
Why do they buy at particular shops?
Why do they buy certain products?
What influences their purchases?
Give participants the products list. Then give them a shopping list of products
to buy (about 6 items) – you can write the list on a flip chart.
Ask participants to write down which products they are buying and the prices.
Once everyone has completed the shopping task, ask each participant to tell
the group how much their shopping totalled.
Depending on the purchases made, there will be differences in total costs of
shopping.
Ask participants why they chose certain items over others.
Most will mention that well-known brands are better than the supermarket
own brands.
Ask participants what they do to reduce costs when shopping.
Hope they mention some of the things listed below!
BOGOF – buy one get one free
-Think about what you’re buying this way. It’s good for items such as toilet
rolls, kitchen towels, washing up liquid etc. as they are non-perishables and
can be stored for a long time. Be aware of buying food which may go off
before it’s eaten – check if you can freeze it!
Check the ‘Woops’ aisle
– Where grocery products are coming to the end of their ‘best by’ date so
prices have been greatly reduced. Often, many of these products can be
frozen once bought, to be eaten/cooked at a later date.
Don’t shop when hungry - you’ll want to buy everything!
Don’t shop with the children – they’ll want to buy everything!
Make a shopping list before you leave the house – stick to it!
Shop at the local market
- Minimum packaging and minimum overheads means that prices are kept low.
Buy supermarket own brands
They are cheaper than the more well known brands. Why? For a start, look at
the packaging. Own brand products tend to have simple packaging- less use of
colours and graphics which keep the costs down. If your family refuse to eat
the ‘cheaper’ option, do a taste test! Hide the packaging and see if they can
tell the difference. Often, it’s what the eyes see that determines the taste!
Buy loose fruit and veg
- Less packaging means lower prices.
Use money off coupons whenever you can.
Ever wondered how supermarkets get you to buy more?
Aisle be there!
You know exactly what you want to buy and which aisle it’s in. But once you’re
there, the item’s not there. In fact, the whole aisle has changed. Why? Well
we’re creatures of habit and so we automatically go to where we know our
products are going to be. But if we always do that, we never see what else the
supermarket has to offer and therefore we buy the same over and over again.
Supermarkets realise this so they rearrange the aisles hence when we
automatically go to the product we want, it’s not there but something else is –
something that now grabs our attention and we potentially end up putting in
our basket! Clever? Absolutely! And remember, you still need the item you
originally intended to buy!
Look down!
Supermarkets position the most expensive and well-known brands at eye level.
All own brand and value products are positioned at the bottom shelf.
Sweet treats!
Other items positioned on the lower and bottom shelves are sweets – perfect
eye level for kids (not so perfect for their parents!).