‘Everything’s wicked expensive’: Shoppers are using a new strategy to save money on groceries

Inflation is starting to cool down according to the latest numbers from the Federal Government.

While that’s good news, it doesn’t change the fact food prices are high – up more than 20% over the last three years.

“What I used to buy in two bags would come to $20, $25, $30 and now it’s $60 or $70,” said Virginia Luisi, a shopper from Hyde Park.

Experiences like that are causing more shoppers to change the way they buy food.

“I don’t shop at one grocery store,” explained Kim Waldmann, also from Hyde Park. “I look at the sales for each week, and then I decide to where to go based on what’s on sale.”

Each week she goes to three different stores.

We found Waldmann at Lambert’s in Westwood because she likes their deals on produce.

“I’m going to get those $1.99 blackberries.”

This approach to shopping is called “Treasure Hunt” or “Cherry Picking” grocery shopping.

A data research firm found shoppers made 8% more trips to grocery stores in 2023 than they did in 2022.

For example, a shopper might go to Stop and Shop to stock up on a sale on canned goods, and then head over to Star Market to take advantage of a good deal on apples.

“You can absolutely save more money by shopping at multiple stores,” explained Edgar Dworksy, the founder and editor of www.consumerworld.org.

He’s a big fan of cherry-picking sales, as long as a consumer is smart about it.

“If you live in Boston you don’t want to shop at a local store here and then schlep out to Framingham to buy coffee because it’s on sale.”

He says to start with circulars to compare prices and upload digital coupons.

For example, he cited a recent sale in which ground turkey was $1.99 a pound at Stop and Shop with a digital coupon.

That same week, a 20-ounce package went for 3.99 at Market Basket – almost twice as much per ounce. Dworsky also recommends using www.flipp.com. It’s a site that aggregates circulars based on a zip code.

By searching for egg prices, he quickly found that his local Market Basket was selling them for $2 a dozen, about ½ what the competition was charging.

Being in all the stores can be tempting, however, so it’s key to maintain strong discipline.

Its good to remember why stores have sales to begin with – which is to increase foot traffic.

“Stores really tempt you to buy stuff you see in the aisles or the end displays, or maybe they’re giving out samples,” added Dworsky.

Still, shoppers like Zach Vaswani of Foxboro say going to multiple stores works for them.

“We sometimes go to Trader Joe’s to get some other things, and sometimes we’ll hit Stop and Shop up for a hamburger sale or something like that, but yeah, we kind of bounce around a little bit.”

Dworsky told Boston 25 News it’s important to become more educated about the costs of the things you buy.

He says when you become more price-conscious, you’ll really be able to know when to pounce on a sale, or whether to look around a little more.

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