Grocery Stores Teaching How To Feed A Family On A Shoestring

Home economics, that lost art in which generations of students learned to keep a household going on a tight budget, is making a comeback. Only this time, lessons in pinching pennies are being taught not in the nation's classrooms but in its stores.

While it might seem counterintuitive for stores to teach shoppers to cut their spending, several chains have concluded that providing such knowledge can spur loyalty and keep customers from trading down to cheaper competitors.

So the Stop & Shop grocery chain is offering "affordable food summits" where consumers are taught how to lower their grocery bills. Home Depot offers classes on how to cut energy bills. And Wal-Mart Stores hired a "family financial expert" who has used online chats to teach several thousand shoppers how to save money for college, whittle away debt and sell a house.

Comments

[JScott]

Of course the grocery stores will taint that info. by directing shoppers to processed foods and canned goods etc. instead of fresh produce, because they will be promoting 'convenience' and another slave to corporate food & ag. because that's 'good' and that's 'progress'.

[WorkingClass]

Cone Bread 'n Beans! UmmmUmm

[odoreida]

Stop and Shop is one of the highest-priced supermarket chains, and one that offers the least variety to their customers -- unless you like to choose between twenty brands of frozen French fries. Also, I just discovered that the store I shop at in Connecticut charges substantially more than their store that's a town away from here. It's owned by a Dutch company that believes that Americans live on fries, pizza and extruded chicken "tenders."

[dcarn2]

What's your point.....­I mean isn't that what Joe Six Pack eats? lol....and Hockeymoms love Ben & Jerry's

[SCG]

I noticed that for a while, locations where they have less neighboring competition have higher prices.

[odoreida]

You can even see the price difference by accessing the weekly fliers from the different towns.

[HemiW]

Check out Top Ten Tips for Nutritious Shopping in a Recession:
http://www.fooducate.com/blog/2008/10/13/top-ten-tips-for-nutritious-shopping-in-a-recession/

[MIKEBC]

Dont forget to check the dumpster out back if it's not one thats locked, one time i had to throw away a old box and wow, i could not believe the things stores throw away, i find things back there that are not even up to the exp. date on the label yet, too bad more of it cant go to the food shelves.

[RaraAvis17]

That is how a lot of people survive by dumpster diving. When my kids were little I always kept a nice piece of carpeting under the table for their crumbs and spills, because it was easier to vacuum than sweep and mop etc. - so I would go to carpet stores and go dumpster diving and they would have gobs of beautiful carpet that they have thrown out and then I would find a nice big piece and take it home and cut it to the size I wanted. Saves on real carpet and hardwood floors.

[joebaggadonuts]

Why not? The energy companies sometimes try to get us to cut back on power use, why not the food stores helping us to save enough money to keep coming in for more food?

[KillTheMessenger]

Can somebody please explain the compound interest formula to these people? I am sure that 99 percent of Americans could not use it correctly. And it shows...