Studies have shown that the longer you stay in a grocery store, the more likely you are to spend money. it may surprise you to learn that consumers spend as much as 50 cents more each additional minute they remain at the grocery store after the first 30 minutes. That's right. if you can get in and out of a grocery store quickly, you are much less likely to spend extra money, but if you stay over thirty minutes, each couple of minutes after that is going to cost you $1.00. If you can cut the time you spend in the grocery store from an hour to 30 minutes, you will save yourself approximately $15. There are a variety of ways to decrease the amount of time you spend in the grocery store, but one of the simplest ways is to focus on the time of day that you shop.
A simple way to accomplish this is to go to the grocery store during non-peak shopping hours. Since there are more people in the store during peak shopping hours, you'll spend more time in the store than when it is relatively empty. This will especially help in decreasing the time you wait in the check-out line where the dreaded impulse purchase items are calling at you.
If your grocery store is open 24 hours, the best times to go are before 8:00 in the morning or after 9:00 in the evening. If your store isn't open 24 hours, shopping when it first opens in the morning is best. If that is not possible, right before it closes is next best. If you can remember, make a note the time when you enter and exit to see how much time you spend inside (a stop-watch is handy here if you happen to have one and makes it sort of a fun game). The goal is to get in and out in under 30 minutes each time you visit your local grocery store.
If you can arrange your schedule to shop when it's least crowded, you will save well over $100 in shopping expenses during the year. An added benefit is that you will free up more time to do other things since you'll spend less time shopping.
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