I live in a HCL area and trying to be pretty intentional with grocery spending, buying healthier food when I can, but still paying attention to value.
One thing that’s been bothering me is how hard it is to tell what you’re actually paying for. Some products are cheap but questionable quality, others look premium (nice packaging, “organic,” etc.) but it’s unclear if they’re really worth the higher price.
So I had a random though the other day and I’m curious how people here think about this:
If a grocery brand showed a clear cost breakdown, would that actually help you decide? For example:
- Raw cost (e.g. $1/lb for tomatoes)
- Logistics + overhead
- Final price (e.g. $3/lb)
- Their profit margin (say ~$0.30/lb)
Would that make you more likely to trust or buy the product? Or would you still mostly judge based on price per unit and quality?
Also curious, what kind of info actually matters to you when deciding if something is a good deal?
What kind of pricing information actually helps you decide if a grocery product is worth it?
byu/Admirable_Medium7797 inFrugal
Posted by Admirable_Medium7797
9 Comments
I want to know price per X. Whether it is per kilo or per litre or per bottle etc. The more processed the food, the higher the cost but I still need to be able to compare. E.g. sometimes the smaller size us better when on offer than the bigger size, sometimes not.
Profit margins etc do not matter to me because bigger companies have vast economies of scale and often own whole swathes of production, from farm to factory to table, so that does not really give me insight or help when comparing a Unilever brand to a local dairy place etc.,
Having all of that info would simply increase the cost of everything. I’ll do without, thank you.
No, I wouldn’t trust it more. Food has many costs and many levels of profit. Are you going to say the farmer gets 2 cents profit, the processing plant gets x, the trucking company, the grocery store, etc? Are they all going to be honest? Are they going to constantly recalculate and update the information? The farmer, the first level would be the only one who could potentially do the breakdown but his costs can vary wildly.
All I care about is unit price. If a store doesn’t display unit price, I’m far less likely to shop there. I can’t remember off the top of my head because I rarely shop there, but I don’t think Walmart displays unit price. I’m not trying to do my own nut math out here.
I just look at the cost/standard measurement on the store shelf label to decide what’s the best price.
That’s not quite the way grocery stores work. Some companies are paying for shelf space, and paying even more for premium space. Some products are stocked by grocery store employees and others are stocked by companies like Pepsi. And for those who wonder, there’s very little in the back. Inventory is kept on the shelves.
The only things that matter are final cost and reliable unit costs…in this day and age everything else is too variable and volatile. Recent example: tariffs and fuel prices drastically change the overhead cost and profit margin and have even incurred price hikes between a company’s order and the sale that have led to more companies adopting dynamic price labels just to reduce manufacturing and labor costs and protect profit margin. But those price changes are not changing in a way that matters if you as a consumer are in a store looking at prospective grocery options: the fact that it went up or down and why doesn’t impact if you buy or don’t buy the item – you accept it at that cost or you decline to buy it at that cost.
Yes, deceptive marketing (packaging or photos that make the item look higher quality) and lifestyle marketing (all natural, etc) exists. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t folks for whom that purchase holds it’s value even if it doesn’t for the next person, or that they were swayed by that particular marketing vs some other attribute of the item or just convenience.
The only thing that I really dislike is unreliable unit prices – toilet paper for example has been shrinking in width which is not necessarily a bad thing but some places will still list TP by ‘sheets’ vs ‘square foot’ which can become deceptive or not depending on how you use toilet paper, lol. Similarly, pizza: if you eat pizza by the slice you’re unlikely to consciously change how many slices of pizza you eat when going from a 14″ to a 12″ pizza but the volume of pizza you eat may change. You can use that to your own advantage if you wanted to, although it won’t always be much of one, lol. Having a consistent real-use unit price comparison still helps make purchasing decisions.
You really think adding that level of complexity is possible, or even advantageous? Seems like you’re overthinking.
When it comes to organic, it worth it knowing if paying that premium is worth it. Because you peel a banana to eat it, it doesn’t matter if it was spayed with pesticide. Look into the dirty dozen/clean 15 list.
Apart from that, you might want to look into compiling a price book of the products you buy so that you’re aware what is actually a sale price and the sale’s cycle. Compared to that, the elements you put down would be worthless. An example is peanut butter priced at $6.99 for 3 weeks out of the month, but comes on sale at $3.99 one week.
For food, cost per ounce. I do the math. For cleaning products, I use generic dawn dish soap, bleach, water and elbow grease.
Laundry soap, generic unscented whatever. I don’t go much beyond that. Organic is just a fancy term for grown in the same field costs five dollars more.
I used to Organic garden. No produce comes out that pretty without either being grown in a glorified tent away from bugs or being treated somehow.