Just a reminder to get those Price Book Week 2 prices recorded before the Sales week at your store(s) is over.
I did 1 store so far this week but I still need to get the prices at Weis "PMITA" Markets recorded.
**A quick note in regard to sales cycles at the store for newbies**
As you go through these weeks jotting down prices you may notice that at your store there is 1 week per month where your store is advertising "house brands" mostly and not the name brand products. House brands are the store brand equivalents of all those name brand products they carry. Your store may have 1 house brand or they may have lots of house brand names they use. For example, my local Shursave affiliate market carries Shursave or Shurfine branded products. These are the brands that are always lower than the identical products that they carry under a name brand.
But if I shop at Weis or Price Chopper, both of these chains feature more than 1 name for their house brand. And then there are stores like Aldi's that only carry their house brands and Sav-A-Lot which carries their house brands and a very limited selection of name brands.
Some people can taste a difference between name branded and store branded items. I have found the quality of house brands vs. name brands range from identical to "are you kidding me?!". 8-)
You really need to try a house brands before you dismiss it as not worth buying because it tastes bad.
House brands of basic items like canned tomato products, flour, sugar, etc. are usually on par in quality with the name brand ones. Once you are into the higher priced items.....like coffee, frozen veggies, the ingredients in the house brand may be far below that of the name brand equivalent. Sometimes it IS all about "you get what you pay for".
In order to get the lowest priced of identical items, and without shopping the weekly sales and/or using coupons, you are probably buying the house brand(s). House brands don't go on sale very often usually, compared to name brands. A store will push their house brands in their sales ad 1 week of each month. Around here, that week is usually the 3rd week of the month. The "house brand week" generally will fall in your area when the majority of employees who are paid monthly or twice a month are at the end of a pay period. The assumption is that everyone runs out of money the closer to payday, so they push the less expensive brands, the house brands. "HBW" might be the last week of the month instead, as the govt. sends out support checks at the beginning of the month.
Usually, again in my area, advertising of house brands does not mean the house brand items in the ad are on sale.
If you are trying to figure out when to buy/what to buy to get the best deal, take note of when your store pushes the house brands, and when they feature the house brands in their ads, if they are actually a better deal that week compared to the rest of the month.
A favorite "trick" of grocery stores is to feature an item in a sales ad at the regular price if they need to unload extra stock of that item. You see the item in the ad and assume it is on sale, yet it is not. The store will try this trick to sell items it is overloaded with first, before it reduces the price. So when perusing your sales ads, it helps to know the regular prices of items.
I'll be back tomorrow night with my Price Book Week 2 prices.
Sluggy
I did 1 store so far this week but I still need to get the prices at Weis "PMITA" Markets recorded.
**A quick note in regard to sales cycles at the store for newbies**
As you go through these weeks jotting down prices you may notice that at your store there is 1 week per month where your store is advertising "house brands" mostly and not the name brand products. House brands are the store brand equivalents of all those name brand products they carry. Your store may have 1 house brand or they may have lots of house brand names they use. For example, my local Shursave affiliate market carries Shursave or Shurfine branded products. These are the brands that are always lower than the identical products that they carry under a name brand.
But if I shop at Weis or Price Chopper, both of these chains feature more than 1 name for their house brand. And then there are stores like Aldi's that only carry their house brands and Sav-A-Lot which carries their house brands and a very limited selection of name brands.
Some people can taste a difference between name branded and store branded items. I have found the quality of house brands vs. name brands range from identical to "are you kidding me?!". 8-)
You really need to try a house brands before you dismiss it as not worth buying because it tastes bad.
House brands of basic items like canned tomato products, flour, sugar, etc. are usually on par in quality with the name brand ones. Once you are into the higher priced items.....like coffee, frozen veggies, the ingredients in the house brand may be far below that of the name brand equivalent. Sometimes it IS all about "you get what you pay for".
In order to get the lowest priced of identical items, and without shopping the weekly sales and/or using coupons, you are probably buying the house brand(s). House brands don't go on sale very often usually, compared to name brands. A store will push their house brands in their sales ad 1 week of each month. Around here, that week is usually the 3rd week of the month. The "house brand week" generally will fall in your area when the majority of employees who are paid monthly or twice a month are at the end of a pay period. The assumption is that everyone runs out of money the closer to payday, so they push the less expensive brands, the house brands. "HBW" might be the last week of the month instead, as the govt. sends out support checks at the beginning of the month.
Usually, again in my area, advertising of house brands does not mean the house brand items in the ad are on sale.
If you are trying to figure out when to buy/what to buy to get the best deal, take note of when your store pushes the house brands, and when they feature the house brands in their ads, if they are actually a better deal that week compared to the rest of the month.
A favorite "trick" of grocery stores is to feature an item in a sales ad at the regular price if they need to unload extra stock of that item. You see the item in the ad and assume it is on sale, yet it is not. The store will try this trick to sell items it is overloaded with first, before it reduces the price. So when perusing your sales ads, it helps to know the regular prices of items.
I'll be back tomorrow night with my Price Book Week 2 prices.
Sluggy
