Confessions Of A Supermarket Brand Disloyalist

Let's hear it for Costco where you can get industrial quantities at comparatively low prices. Unfortunately, some of us need a calculator to figure it out! Okay, its anal but it's worth it! And so it goes Reply

Whole Foods & Walmart better watch out this may prove to be a huge trend, I support what you do Jim & try to be frugal using only generic food items unless Brands are on sale and cheaper that generic items Reply

COOL BUZZ Reply

#8
More t han half of them already are, CityVP \ud83d\udc1d Manjit Reply

#9
I totally agree, my friend. Reply

#6
Jimbo, my motto is "Be more anal, eat better and more frequently." :-) Reply

#6
It is a good thing to be anal retentive about the future because at some point in the future Americans are going to be shitting themselves. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/aug/16/retail-industry-cashier-jobs-technology-unemployment Reply

Wow. This really seems to have brought out the op/ed in a lot of people. That's great. Reply

#5
I know. Although I was nowhere near as anal about it. LOL. Phil Friedman Reply

Okay, so here's a secret. You can achieve ten times better investment return by investing directly in commodities at your supermarket than you can make in a bank account or CD. 1) Invest only in non-perishables. 2) Buy only items and brands that you like and would consistently use otherwise. 3) Stock up, especially on genuine two-for-ones and bogos (buy one get one free), whenever the bargains are being offered (which is why the items you "invest in" must be relatively non-perishable). Out of curiosity, I kept a rough tally for last year and found that my wife and I achieved a 16.43% annual return on our grocery expenses -- or about $1,900.00. Without doing or eating or using any product that we wouldn't otherwise buy. And that is without clipping coupons or -- heaven forbid -- holding Manjit up at the checkout line. Cheers! Reply

I would consider brand loyalty to stores that did not cater to price-matching morons that hold up the checkout line. At the heart of my brand disloyalty is that feeling that allowing people to wave their coupons and cellphones to the cashier is a deliberate ploy to persuade us to go to self-check out machines that do not need a cashier. I will pay for the experience of using a cashier because I am not going to employ myself as the cashier. A part of the trade we make is not create super-profit for corporations but to create the flow of wealth required to sustain a healthy and prosperous market system. If we don't have people who have money (wages) we don't have customers (people who can pay for stuff). It used to be that only in the third world was where that system was broken, but now corporations who think that profits drive the economic system are killing the goose that lays the golden egg - and that golden egg should be the "loyalty". Another aspect of technological invasion is the right for a store to film us, but not for us to film the store ! Take a camera into your store and see how fast security notices a person taking pictures rather than a person shoplifting ! I got surrounded by three security guards when I decided to take pictures of the cameras that were videoing me - and when stores become blindsided by technology that much, rather than use technology to elevate my customer experience, then screw loyalty and screw the marketers who create this disloyalty more than they are championing my user experience. Reply

Although I work from home & have done for 10 years, I guess I am the opposite to you Jim Murray I try to shop as little as possible. For dry goods once every 4 to 6 weeks. For consumables once every 2 weeks I still drive to the grocery store & usually go to the same one that is the smallest out of the closest 10 ! It has almost all the products I want but I go to a bigger store every 2 or 3 months to get the products it doesn't have e.g. hairspray I have fav products that I have bought for decades I only change to a new product when the grocery store no longer stocks them e.g. Twinnings Darjeeling leaf tea But some of those products have changed in ingredients & therefore in taste, so I no longer buy them even though they are still available e.g Cadbury's chocolate. I now buy Lindt I tried going to Aldi as it's supposed to be cheaper but I found it disconcerting as I didn't know where the items were While their fruit & vegies are good their meat is terrible. Some products are usually there but others are only there for a very short time Their product range is also limited. They have a range of organic products. I tried the muesli but it was awful worse than the "no brand" from the store I always go to I guess I like to get my shopping done quickly & don't worry too much about deals Although if a fav product is on special I will sometimes stock up on it e.g. crackers, tissues, canned food I have a lot of things to think about & I guess my way of grocery shopping is one way of cutting down on those things Reply