Phone in your grocery order

I ran across this article InsideBayArea.com regarding the future of grocery shopping. A lot of what I am reading is positive now about online grocery shopping. The question still is will consumers use it to replace the local trip to the grocery store or supplement their grocery purchases?

There is certainly a trade off in convenience and money as the consumer at this point is not able to do price matching or shop local grocery sales. Coupons are also more of a problem to use with the online services.

What do you think? Read more.

Salt Lake Tribune - Coupon clippers bring food costs down

The Salt Lake Tribune offers some helpful advice but misses key elements. Clipping coupons and having lots of coupons to clip creates a sense of power but a truly savvy shopper knows that this is just one part of winning the grocery game. The article failed to mention the most commonly mentioned issue in grocery shopping, the Price Book. A shopper must know whether an advertised price is truly a value or just made to appear as such. Having a price history makes using those coupons much more meaningful and planning more successful.

Read more at www.sltrib.com/business...

Generics heat up battle of brands | Chicago Tribune

So is this another example of listening to the consumer or just an alternative to the pricing game?

I remember reading a couple of years ago how the Wal-Mart private labeled dog food Ol' Roy (named after founder Sam Walton's bird) had become the number #1 selling dog food in the US.

Brand loyalty seems to have taken a back seat to price and or quality. While I cannot vouch for the quality of Ol' Roy, I can say that there are private label products that I specifically seekout while shopping because they are better and often cost less.

Read more at www.chicagotribune.com/...

In shadow of grocery giants, smaller stores thriving | The Star Press - www.thestarpress.com - Muncie, IN

Yesterday while visiting with one of the nations largest food distributors I learned that there is a push to localize both the store and the products on the shelves. It seems that while the lure of slick national advertising and huge mega size stores has had an effect on many shoppers there is a growing push away from these types of stores to smaller, more community oriented styles and product offerings.

Many people are trying to find something different in the shopping experience and or the product offerings. This "difference" is often hard to create when you have hundreds of stores that are fed by large regional warehouses. So, will we experience a return to the old style corner grocery store? Probably no better chance of that than a return of the old local radio station DJ but for those whom have experienced either, it's nice to remember.

Read more at www.thestarpress.com/ap...

NBC 17 - Money - Woman Turns Grocery Shopping Into Science

Too often the savings and process for achieving the same on grocery purchases are over simplified. It takes a weekly commitment, time and planning to save money save.Most people simply do not have the time and knowledge to save significantly at the grocery store.

With thousands of products and weekly prices to keep track of plus coupons (newspapers, online, store shelves, packages and so on it) it takes a large time commitment not found in many consumers to harvest the savings bragged about on many websites.

By using a FREE service such as GroceryGuide.com you can achieve the same kind of savings you read about without all of the time investment. Here you will find the tracking of prices and coupons done for you. Further, this site will even great your shopping list with coupons and send it to one of several cell phone numbers that you can setup (great for those spouses with memory lapses) and store.

Read more at www.nbc17.com/money/915...