Dec 08 2008
Does Grocery Shopping At Wal-Mart Really Save You Money?
Wal-Mart has been airing a large amount of commercials saying that if you grocery shop at their stores you will save a large amount of money. This statement bothers me. Yes most of their prices are lower than the average supermarket. I am not going to disagree with that statement. But do you really save money?
Most Wal-Mart stores have the grocery section on one half of the store with the general merchandise in the middle, and the health and beauty products on the complete opposite sides of the store. So let’s say you enter the store to do your grocery shopping, you are first bombarded with tons of marked up baked goods, that are too yummy to resist. You look to the right and see adorable children’s clothes that you have to buy. Have you noticed the kids clothes are almost always next to the food section?
Okay so you avoid those two money pits and load up your cart with your groceries. Now you need some shampoo. You must pass by the electronic section, the home section, and the clothes section on the way to get your shampoo. Your cart is now filled with tons of stuff you would have never bought at your neighborhood supermarket. This is Wal-Marts plan.
Sure your groceries were a few cents cheaper, but now your bank account is missing tons more dollars.
