Comparison shopping

“Comparison shopping” just means comparing prices to get the best deal on the items that you buy. There are a few different ways to comparison shop:

• you can compare prices between items at the same store,
• between items at different stores, and
• between deals offered at different stores too.
  

This article covers four different kinds of price comparisons. Dedicated bargain shoppers will use some mix of all four strategies. If comparison shopping is new to you, this can be very overwhelming. Try picking just one strategy to start with and, once you're comfortable, try another!

When you go to the store to buy an ingredient, you usually need to choose between many different products offered at different price points. To get the largest amount of the ingredient for the lowest price, you’ll need to find out the unit price of these products. This is the cost you will pay per unit (grams, litres and so on) of product. You can find it by dividing the total cost of each product you are comparing by the same unit of measurement.

For in-store shopping, the unit price is usually listed on the price tag on the shelf. It is circled in red in the image on the right, which shows the price tag for a 1.18 L bottle of canola oil. The total cost of the bottle is $10.49, and the unit price is $0.889 per 100 mL.

The image on the left shows three bottles of canola oil, packaged in different sizes by different brands.

To find the best deal:

First look to see if the unit prices have been provided. In the image they have been, and are underlined in red. If there are no unit prices, divide each price by a common unit to calculate them yourself.

Next, check to make sure that the unit prices have all been calculated using the same units. The ones in the image are all given as dollars per 100 mL, so they can be compared directly. If different units have been used, you'll have to do unit conversions to get a fair comparison.

Finally, compare the unit prices. In this image, the largest and most expensive bottle has a unit price of $0.39 per 100 mL. The next largest and most expensive has a unit price of $0.80 per 100 mL. The smallest and least expensive has a unit price of $0.84 per 100 mL.

This means that the largest bottle is by far the best deal of the three, with each 100 mL of oil being sold for less than half the price as the other two. The medium sized bottle is a better deal than the smallest, but not by much. Buying the medium sized bottle will only save you $0.04 per 100 mL of oil, which will not have a big impact on your grocery bill.

Considerations other than unit price will impact which items you buy. If you have a very limited budget, paying more up front for a good deal on a bulk item may not be possible. If you're carrying your groceries home, a big bottle of oil may be too heavy. But checking unit prices is a good habit to get into, especially if you are considering stocking up on bulk or sale items. It may be that the bulk or advertised special is a worse deal than a different item on the same shelf!

 

The price of food will vary based on how it’s processed, packaged, and marketed. If you need a particular ingredient, it’s worth it to look at how much it costs in different forms, and different areas of the store.

• Canned, dried, or frozen items are often less expensive than fresh, and just as healthy

• Raw ingredients are often less expensive than ready-made meals, and more versatile in recipes
   
• Items sold in bulk bins or one large package are often less expensive than those sold in single portion sizes, because they use less packaging.
  
  
• Products in the basic baking, pasta, and global foods aisle are often less expensive than those in the health and wellness aisle, because they are less likely to be marketed to high income customers.

 You can still use unit pricing to find the best deal, but this can be tricky depending on how the products are processed.

Here are four kinds of black beans that are being sold at a major grocery store. Two products are cooked and canned beans, and two products are dried and bagged beans. With a quick glance at the unit price, it appears that the topmost canned beans, which are sold in the pasta aisle, are the best deal since they cost only $0.28 per 100 mL. The bottommost dried beans, which are only sold in the global food aisle, have a unit price of  $0.33 per 100 g. This seems like a better deal than the other bag of dried beans, but not as good as the least expensive canned beans.

To get a fair price comparison however, we need to look again at the units used. The unit pricing for the canned beans is by volume, or how many millilitres of cooked beans are in the can, while the unit pricing for the dried beans is by weight, or how many grams of dried beans are in the package. When the dried beans are rehydrated and cooked, they will swell up to around three times their size, producing a much greater volume of beans than you'll get from the can.

If you wanted to, you could calculate the unit pricing of these two products in terms of dollars paid per cup of beans. There are about 2 cups of beans in a 540 mL can, and one kg of dried beans will make around 13 cups of cooked beans. So:

Unit price of the least expensive canned and dried bean products, in dollars per cup:

Canned beans: $1.49÷2 cups= $0.745 per cup

Dried beans: $6.00÷23.4 cups (13 cups per kilogram, multiplied by 1.8 kilograms of beans in the bag)= $0.256 per cup

This calculation shows that the dried beans are a much better deal, but you don't need to do all of this math in the grocery store! It is clear from comparing the size of the bag of dried beans to the size of the can that you will get many more servings of beans from the bag, and it is likely a better deal.

To pay the least amount of money possible for an ingredient look for it in different aisles, and in different forms at the store. To compare two different forms of an ingredient, consider how many serving sizes you'll get from each, instead of only the unit prices listed.

You may still choose to pay a little more for something like the convenience of the canned beans, which don't have to be rehydrated and cooked before using. But knowing all of your options will allow you to make informed choices, and get more food for the absolute lowest price when necessary.

The average pricing of products can vary a lot between stores. If you’re able to get to several different locations without spending too much time or money on transportation, it’s worth it to know what stores offer the best prices on the items you buy regularly.

To do this, you can check:

• Online: It used to be that you’d have to physically visit each location to investigate the prices, but these days it’s often a lot faster to look online. Most major chains have websites with product prices listed for your location. Alternatively, you can search for products on grocery delivery sites to compare the prices at several retailers at once. The image below shows a price comparison of three identical boxes of oatmeal, which are being sold at three different prices at three different stores in Saskatoon.
  

Smaller locations: These would be dollar stores and small independent outlets like bakeries and ethnic grocers in your area. They may offer less selection than a large box store, but they often have lower prices on what they do carry.

Wholesale outlets: Warehouse stores that charge membership fees usually have low prices on bulk items, which is great if you’re able to purchase, transport, store, and use large quantities of goods. If you're not, it may be worth it to get together with family members or friends to share costs, and divide large bulk purchases between households.

In addition to regular price variance, different stores offer different discounts and specials that you can take advantage of. If you’re only able to visit one store for groceries, it’s a good idea to look into all of the ways you can save money at that location. If you’re able to visit several stores, knowing what deals are available can help you to make decisions about what products it’s best to buy where.

One caution; deals aren’t good deals if they convince you to spend more than you otherwise would, or purchase items you wouldn’t buy if they weren’t on sale! It’s a good idea to start by getting a sense of the regular prices at the stores in your area, so you know if an advertised special is still more expensive than something that you can buy elsewhere. It’s also important to only buy things that you are able to use- if a discount convinces you to buy more food than you are able to eat, share, or freeze, and it goes bad in your fridge, then it is costing you more money than it saves.

Some examples of store discounts include:

Markdowns:

Stores mark down food that is nearing its best before date, or to clear out excess stock. What gets marked down is somewhat random, but there are some predictable patterns you can take advantage of:

• Bakeries often clear their stock to offer fresh bread and pastries every day. If there’s a bakery in your neighbourhood, it’s a good idea to visit them and ask what happens to their day-olds. Some businesses donate them to community organizations, while others offer steep discounts at the end of the day, or first thing the following morning. You can do the same thing with other kinds of small specialty stores like butchers in your area; even if they’re usually out of your price range, they may surprise you with markdown deals.
  
  
• Supermarkets have different policies around what gets marked down when, but generally there will be department discount racks, as well as clearance bins near the front of the store. Supermarkets that mark down more of your staple foods may be worth visiting more often.
  
  Departments that sell a lot of fresh food, like meat, produce, deli, and bakery are usually good places to check for discount racks. Sometimes there also is a specific time of day, or a specific day of the week that the staff do markdowns; if you can figure out when that is, you can plan your shopping trips to get the best selection of discount goods. Different departments will handle markdowns differently, so try finding an employee who works in that part of the store and asking if they can help you find the clearance section, and let you know when items are usually moved there. If you can’t find someone to tell you, just pay attention when you visit the store, and see if you notice days or times when the discount rack is really full.
  
  Grocers also often over-order for holidays, so the week after big family meal holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter is usually a good time to stock up on marked down goods.
  
  
• Discount food apps allow retailers to offer markdowns and discounts online, so you don’t have to visit the store and look for them in person. They won’t cover every store in your area, but they’re worth checking out.

Specials:

Most grocery stores offer specials that run from Thursdays to Wednesdays every week, and sometimes there are limited time only sales events as well. These specials are usually released in store flyers that you can pick up at the till, or they are advertised online. Deals comparison websites and apps compile flyers from major grocery chains, which makes keeping track of and comparing the specials offered at various stores much less of a hassle.

Loyalty Programs:

Store loyalty programs offer points that can be exchanged for cash, or special deals for members at the store. They’re often free to sign up for; instead of charging money, retailers reap benefits by harvesting consumer data and encouraging customers to shop at their stores. Some loyalty programs are large and very well known, but others are not. It’s a good idea to ask customer service at any store you visit frequently if they have a loyalty program or membership option, and what it entails.

Demographic discounts:

Groups like students, seniors, and veterans or active service members and their families may be eligible for discounts at specific stores and restaurants. These may be available all of the time, of they may only be offered on certain days. To find out, you can check with your institution, or ask at the store to see what their policies are.

The sorts of tips covered in this article are often described as "smart shopping", but that doesn't mean that it's foolish to grocery shop by quickly filling up a cart with whatever products you usually buy and getting on with your day. We all have limited time, energy, and ability, and there are many things demanding our attention other than the unit prices on different bottles of canola.

That said, if you are shopping on a very low budget comparison shopping really can help stretch your grocery dollars further. If any of the tips on this list are new to you and seem doable, try them out and see if they save you enough money to be worth the effort going forward.

 

Food is Too Expensive! was funded by the City of Saskatoon through our Healthy Yards partnership, the Cyril Capling Trust Fund of the College of Agriculture and Bioresources, and the Department of Plant Sciences. Focus group research to inform this work was collected by CHEP. Thank you all for helping us make healthy food more accessible!