How a chef shops for groceries-As food professionals, one of the main things a lot of people have asked over the years, is, “do you have any tips or tricks on the best way to shop, based on a food budget, and on best value?”. The answer is, “do we ever!!” In this article, we will not only outline the best practices for any grocery shopping trip, but also a little about the sales tactics at work in the store. Knowledge of these "tricks" can really work to your advantage in the long run!
Jump to:
- Spend Less Money, Eat Better
- Taking Stock- Proper Shopping Begins At Home
- Making the All-Important List
- Grocery Store Marketing Psychology
- Supermarket Layout
- Shop the "Edges"
- Keep an Eye on Seasonal and Local Items
- Shop Positively
- Set a Budget, Keep a Tally
- Avoid Overly Processed Foods For Health
- Sales, Coupons, and Other Discounts
- How a Chef Shops for Groceries
Spend Less Money, Eat Better
Think about how much money it costs to go out to eat, or even to get take out, delivery, or fast food. While this convenience is definitely worth it on occasion, it's a bad idea for your bank account. If you want to maximize your budget, a great way is to cook your own meals at home.
Not only is cooking for yourself and loved ones almost inevitably less expensive, it’s also healthier! You don’t really know for sure what’s in the food you go out for, where as you’ll always have full knowledge of the healthy meals you prepare yourself, having had control over the whole process.
Unfortunately, the supermarket is trying to turn a profit just like the rest of us. If you just go to the store and assume that it will be cheaper and healthier without any thought or preparation in mind, they can easily take control of your experience. You may find yourself with bags of stuff that you paid too much for, wondering why you’re still not saving money or feeling any better about it the next day.
That is why we’re sharing these tips and tricks that we’ve learned along the way, both as a professional chef, (with inside knowledge0, and just from trial and error over the years. You see, one of the biggest central skills to success in food, whether it is as chefs or as home cooks, is wisdom in preparation and organization.
Taking Stock- Proper Shopping Begins At Home
When a chef shops for groceries, they begin by taking inventory. It’s easy to pull some easy recipes from online, (maybe even from season two taste?), and just make a list of the items, and go to the store. More often than not, though, you probably have some of those ingredients already, right? Wait, you don’t know? That is why we have to start in your kitchen before we even get the car keys.
We would challenge you to go through your refrigerator, freezer, and food storage, both to clean, organize, and sometimes purge, (have you looked at the expiration date on that jar of jelly?), in order to create a running inventory of your stock items. This can be as detailed and thorough as you’re comfortable with, but remember that the more detailed and thorough it is, the easier and more efficient this whole process will be, resulting in higher savings, and better, healthier meals. At the least, keep a reminder of some sort, (post it notes, black or white board), somewhere obvious where you can write down when a typically stocked item is running low, or is out, so that it can be added to the list.
Making the All-Important List
Ok, so now you've figured out what you have on your shelves at home. It's time to make the list. If there is one habit that you learn from this article, it should be this; always shop with a list!! The grocery list is your guideline, rule book, map, and budget all in one. The key once again is to stay tightly organized.
How far ahead are you shopping for? A good rule of thumb is to stay about one week out. Most perishables last a minimum of 5 days, and most commonly around 7 to 10. Shopping too frequently will almost invariably cause impulse purchases, food waste, and make it very difficult to keep everything organized. Only going to the store on rare occasions can cause spoilage issues, as well as making what should be a relatively pleasant errand into a giant chore.
We suggest using one of the many shopping list apps that are available, as they have all of the categories built in, even breaking it all the way down to the actual aisles products are located on.
One thing that I like to do to really minimize my time spent in the store is to organize my list based on the geography of the store itself. That way I never have to back track, I can move from the front, around the market, and back out again in one trip.
Make a checklist of your typical pantry items. Of course we want you to use our recipes to populate your list, but make sure that you’re getting staples that you consume or use regularly. If there are certain quick and easy meals you and your family enjoy, try to keep those ingredients on hand.
Grocery Store Marketing Psychology
Before I get started with this breakdown, I want to clear the air a great deal about the food industry as a whole. Very often, food businesses are vilified for their sales practices, “taking advantage”, or "contributing to bad health", by selling sugary products, or charging expensive prices, being the most common criticisms. Something that most of these accusers don’t take into account is that these are businesses, and as such, need to make money in order to exist. A business using creative techniques to maximize profits would ordinarily be applauded. Obviously, if a food purveyor is not adhering to food safety practices to make a buck, that’s terrible. But the things that I’m about to talk about are just good business practices. Having said that, we can come a lot closer to good value for each dollar spent by being aware.
Supermarket Layout
Have you ever noticed that all of the major grocery stores and supermarkets are essentially laid out the same way? On one hand, this is in order to provide a familiar experience so that customers are comfortable and can find things that they need. This is also due to the organic process of doing business and the ongoing struggle to improve sales and profits. The standard layout represents about a hundred years of business evolution.
There are core items that almost all shoppers will go to the store to purchase. Produce, meat, bread, and dairy, (think food groups), are the main ones. Because these fresh foods are inherently more perishable, this is what keeps customers coming back more often. In order to sell more impulse buys, these core groceries are placed mostly in the back. This way a shopper will pass the other shelves to access what they really came to the store for, maximizing the potential for those coveted "impulse buys".
The fresh produce department is the exception to this layout rule, as it is always near the entrance. Some analysts have suggested that this is because what you put in your cart will get smashed under everything else. This would make your fruits and vegetables more likely to perish more quickly. I prefer to think that supermarket chains are not this evil, or foolish. It's just a good idea that the most perishable thing in the entire store should be right up front.
Shop the "Edges"
The center aisles of the store are where you will find more specialty, and impulse buy items. It's almost impossible to avoid these shelves entirely, (we all need toilet paper!), but heading down them without a target in mind is not a great idea. If you've ever found yourself just wandering through the snack or ice cream aisles, you know what we mean.
We suggest shopping around the perimeter, or "edges" of the store. Use the periphery as your home base, and only shoot down the middle when your list targets an item in particular. This way you can drastically minimize frivolous or unnecessary purchases.
Keep an Eye on Seasonal and Local Items
When focusing on how a chef shops for groceries, seasonal and local become two very important descriptors. There are many reasons for this. The most vital ones are simple, freshness and quality. Due to modern technology, one can find most everything in the store today, regardless of these parameters. The drawback to this is that in order to achieve this convenience, often the products must be shipped in. Shipping incurs handling and timing issues that are usually detrimental to quality. Buying local and seasonal is a win-win, as the items you purchase are fresher, and they help to support and grow the local economy.
The supermarket model can only support local products to a small degree, due to their larger scale. This is why going to local farmers markets and small businesses are vital to understanding how a chef shops for groceries.
Shop Positively
If you don't have the right mind set for shopping, you're bound to make mistakes that will be frustrating at best, or costly at worst. Remember that the store itself is set up as a sort of psychological trap with the goal of getting you to buy more. Try as hard as you can to never shop hungry, tired, or stressed. All of these issues are easily exploited by the supermarket sales model.
Set a Budget, Keep a Tally
There are many things to consider when it comes to a grocery store budget. How much you can or are willing to spend, how much your list costs, (plus any leeway given for unexpected or unforeseen purchases), and finally, a tally of what is actually being spent are the most important ones. Be realistic in these expectations, or this entire exercise is one of futility.
How much you can, or want to spend is the bottom line. This number should never waver. It should be based on where your trip to the store factors into your total household budget.
Calculating how much your food costs can be very tricky. Having even an approximate price off the top of your head for each item and then adding it all up can be very difficult. This is where we suggest using a shopping list app. There are many out there, but in order to have the most accuracy, see if your store has a proprietary one. That way the prices are going to be most accurate. Using an app, getting a total cost of your list will be done for you rather easily.
While you are at the store, try to keep a tally of what you are spending. You can usually do this within your app if you're using one. The method I like using is decidedly low tech, but still effective. I round up to the dollar every item I put in the cart, and just keep adding it all up. I've found that this method usually helps figure in the taxes pretty well. I'm usually below the tally on my actual receipt.
Avoid Overly Processed Foods For Health
Part of getting value for your money when buying food is making sure that you're getting healthy nutrition out of it. If what you buy makes you feel full, but in the end creates problems with your overall health, where is the bargain in that?
We're big believers in the "all things in moderation" motto at Season Two Taste. Denying yourself foods that you enjoy entirely is no way to live. If you are only eating junk, though, "you are what you eat" is another adage to remember.
Two good rules of thumb to consider are sugar content, and convenience factor. Try to limit your cart to less than 30 percent food that is highly sweetened, or doesn't require any real preparation.
Sales, Coupons, and Other Discounts
If you can purchase something at a lower price, why wouldn't you do it? Always be aware of signage in the store, ads online and in the in-store pamphlets. If something is on sale and you can store it in bulk, by all means take advantage. We have an extra freezer just for this purpose. Looking out for coupons is very often worth the effort involved also. Most stores offer some kind of "membership" rewards program. They will track your purchase history, but most of the time this works out well anyway. Just remember to never buy something that you normally wouldn't just because it's on sale.
Store brands are quite often your best option. They used to be referred to as generic brands, until the last 15 years or so. These are typically pantry staples, and are most often made by the same companies that make the brand names of the same products.
How a Chef Shops for Groceries
Those are our pro tips and tricks for how a chef shops for groceries! Keep an eye out for more shopping tips and tricks, and bon appetit, friends!