Grocery Stores Need to Adapt in Order to Survive

Supermarket grocery stores have been a tradition for nearly a century. Americans have made weekly trips to their local super markets to purchase groceries. Things have been changing. Many shoppers have switched to mega-stores like Wal-Mart Super Centers and specialty grocery stores like Trader Joes and Whole Foods.

The first self service grocery store to open was the Memphis Tennessee Piggly Wiggly in the early 1900’s. In 1930 Michael McKullen opened the first supermarket in Queens New York. Within a decade the Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company spread the idea across the country. At that time the chain became the fifth largest corporation in America.

Americans average 2.2 trips to the supermarket each week spending on the average $24.64 per visit. Costco and Walmart are both putting a crimp in the grocery store’s profits. According to a CBS News Poll 6 in 10 Americans buy their groceries at a mega-store now. According to CBS 15 cents of ever grocery dollar is now spent at Wal-Mart.

Albertsons has had to close many of their stores the past few months. They have closed stores in Colorado, California and throughout their market. Sometimes they don’t even give notice of the closures. They might just close the doors without any explanation.

Some analysts predicted that the grocery stores would be forced to close stores. During the recent grocery store strike in California, one of the reasons the store management gave for not capitulating to the unions demands was the increased competition.

With recent news of Albertsons woes, it appears they were right. In the past two decades 10,000 grocery stores have closed their doors. Winn Dixie is in bankruptcy and Albertsons is looking for a buyer to avoid closing their chain.

Nowadays customers demand either super savings or super service. Convenience is not as important to most shoppers anymore. The grocery stores have been trying to reinvent themselves, but they have a lot of catching up to do.

Source:
http://www.bestsyndication.com/2005/I-Q/Madison-Tom/112005_grocery_stores.htm

Home Grocery Delivery Service

Using a home grocery delivery service can be an excellent time-saver and is one of the luxurious conveniences of the modern age.

Just imagine never having to waste your time at the grocery store ever again.

Avoid the long lines at the checkout counter.

Never have to waste your time circling the parking lot looking for a parking space.

Avoid the crowds.

Never worry about food being out of stock.

No need to deal with all of the physical labor of loading and unloading your car with groceries.

No need to drag your restless, screaming kids to the grocery store with you.

No more impulse buying! Stick to your budget!

Shop anytime you want, at your own convenience, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

What would normally take at least 2 hours can be done in 15 minutes!

Automate your grocery shopping by maintaining a grocery list on file. You can schedule to have the same list of groceries delivered to your home on a regular basis.

Comparison shop easily and quickly by comparing multiple products at the same time.

Take advantage of sales and use coupons for great cost-savings as you would do in a traditional grocery store.

Even though a home grocery delivery service may charge you a few dollars for their service, you still end up saving not only time but money in the long run. You don't have to spend money on gas. You will be less likely to impulse shop. You can comparison shop more easily. You can take advantage of special sales and coupons through the delivery service as well.

Source:
http://www.ezinearticles.com/?Home-Grocery-Delivery-Service&id=1218533

Grocery Shop Online

There are numerous reasons to grocery shop online versus grocery shopping from a physical store:

1. You save time. No more needing to drive to the grocery store and then circling the parking lot fighting with other people over parking spaces. No more winding your way up and down the aisles at the store hunting for every item. No more standing in long lines at the checkout counter. No more loading the groceries into your car and then unloading them when you get home.

2. If you have a physical impairment that inhibits you from the physical labor associated with the whole grocery shopping experience, then the convenience of being able to grocery shop online will help you overcome your limitations.

3. You save money. Sure, you may be paying additional fees if you grocery shop online. But think about how much money you will save in the long run by not impulse shopping! We all have walked into a grocery store at one time or another, with a short grocery list, and walked out with a ton of other items that were not on your list! If you grocery shop online, you avoid the unintended consequences of impulse shopping entirely!

4. You free up your time. If you have an extremely busy schedule juggling your work, your family commitments, or if your schedule does not permit you to get to the grocery store during normal business hours, then you can rest assured. You can grocery shop online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, at your own convenience, and schedule to have your groceries delivered to your home at the time of your choosing.

5. You have one less chore to do. You can automate your grocery shopping experience by scheduling to have grocery items that need to be replenished at regular intervals be shipped to you.

6. If you live in a building that makes lugging grocery bags up and down flights of stores or up and down an elevator and down a hallway a difficult task, then you can have your groceries delivered right to your doorstep.

7. You avoid stress. No more hassle of having to drive to the grocery store, circle around the parking fighting over a parking space. No more dragging your screaming and restless kids with you to the store. No more meandering through the crowded isles trying to figure out where everything is. No more getting stick in grocery store traffic jam gridlock while trying to avoid a collision with other shopping carts. No more standing in long lines at the checkout counter. No more physical labor of loading your groceries into the trunk of your car and unloading them when you get home.

Source:
http://www.ezinearticles.com/?Grocery-Shop-Online&id=1208251

Also you can download the grocery list.

How to Save Money using Coupons when Grocery Shopping for Food

Oprah’s last Debt Diet show on March 24th, discussed how two families are coping with budgeting and learning to eat at home. One of the families had spent $29,000 last year eating out for all of their meals. While many of us do find our way in the kitchens more often than that there are things we can do to help keep our grocery food bill low.

One way that most of us know about is using coupons. Coupon clipping can be an amazing money saving technique. It takes organization to really save substantially with coupons. If you are serious about coupon clipping you will learn what Sunday papers have the most coupon inserts. Usually just before a holiday the coupon section is stocked full of good coupons. It can really pay to buy multiple newspapers for the coupons if you having savings on your mind.

When you clip the coupons you will need to have them organized based on the store isle layouts. You should purchase a mini expanding file folder to organize your coupons. Put paperclips on the coupons to group them even further. That way when you are in that section of the store you will be able to scan your coupons and match sale items without a lot of stress.

Usually it pays best for coupons in stores that have double coupon pay outs. These stores are on average more expensive to shop at if you are not using coupons. If you watch for the sales in the mail for the grocery stores you could preplan what items to pick up before even entering the store. This could save a bunch of time.

The reason for the duplicate coupons is that when you get one item free with double coupon, wouldn’t you want more than one for free or almost free? I remember one time getting a large size applesauce for free; it was due to the double coupons. It does add up, but it also takes more time to shop when coupons are in mind. If you have a baby it can pay to clip the coupons for the baby food. It is something that you will need a lot of and if you are not willing to make all the pureed food it will save you a lot of money.

Not all coupons are great coupons, and you will learn which coupons are good ones as well as the not so good ones. If you have favorite foods that you can’t live without then you might find some great coupons to help offset the cost.

Coupons expire so you need to be ready to get rid of the expired ones. Usually when you put in the new coupons it is a good time to get rid of the old outdated ones. You can also trade coupons with friends and also online as well. There are coupons you can print off of the internet as well. In the store those coupon dispensers that are all around the store can have some good discounts. There are also sometimes excellent coupons in the store’s flyer for the week. If you don’t get one in the mail they usually put them at the front of the store.

Learn to read the fine print on the coupons. Sometimes coupons are difficult to understand. There are so many different flavors, and sizes. Watch for coupons that specifically state the flavor and size. If you don’t get the right size or flavor you won’t get the discount for the item. Grocery stores sometimes put the non-coupon items that would be mistaken for the coupon item at the end caps of the store isles. It is common for sale items to go on the end caps. Make sure you read the coupon.

Even better than coupons is making your food from whole foods and avoid buying pre-made kits and ready to go food. But this also takes time too. If you invest in a large freezer it can help to store your homemade foods for ready to go meals for your family.

I used to do the coupon clipping until the kids out numbered my husband and I. This got us to join a wholesale club to buy food in bulk. It is not always a deal at these stores, but if you know what to look for you can save a lot of money this way as well. You won’t be able to get everything at these stores. It is a good idea to keep on with the coupon clipping at the regular grocery store as well to fill in where the wholesale club missed.

With young children it can be frustrating to clip coupons. It is helpful to either have your husband come along with to help or to leave the kids at home or school when you go to the grocery store. It is worth a try if you haven’t clipped coupons it can be rewarding to see how much you can save. You will be amazed how much coupons can discount the cost of food.

Source:
http://www.bestsyndication.com/Articles/2006/Nicole-WILSON/Home_and_Leisure/03/032706-how_to_save_money_using_coupons_grocery_shopping.htm

Grocery Shopping Online – Taking the Stress out of Shopping

Grocery shopping online has emerged as a great new way to get the household foods and products you need without the hassle of driving to the store. Internet shopping has been around for years, and it has proved to be a very popular way for people to buy a variety of items. It took a while, but grocery stores finally started realizing that they could take advantage of the online shopping craze too.

Although not every grocery store chain has jumped on the Internet bandwagon, more and more are doing it every year. Since it is clear that shopping online is something that is here to stay, grocery store chains are finally realizing that they can attract even more customers by allowing people the convenient of grocery shopping online. Since grocery shopping involves buying a lot of perishable items, shopping online for groceries is a little different than ordering products from other online stores. Instead of waiting for products to be shipped through the mail, those who order grocery products online instead get their items personally delivered to their doors, usually on the same day or the next day. Fees for delivery are usually quite reasonable, and grocery stores that provide grocery shopping online advertise occasional deals where the delivery is free. Also, all weekly sales are the same online as they are if you visit the actual stores.

Source:
http://www.ezinearticles.com/?Grocery-Shopping-Online---Taking-the-Stress-out-of-Shopping&id=267176