02111 Casino shopping

The odds of going to the store for a loaf of bread and coming out with only a loaf of bread are three billion to one. — Erma Bombeck

You don't have to go to Vegas to gamble! Just walk into a supermarket!

It's always easy to spend money in a casino. The same is true for grocery stores. Suppose you need milk and eggs. Are these items located conveniently at the front of the store? No way. You have to walk all the way to the back of the store. This isn’t an accident of supermarket planning. The management knows that if you walk all the way to the back of the store for bread and milk, chances are good that you'll end up at the cash register with more than milk and eggs. If you walk out of a supermarket with money in your pocket, you've beaten a clever scheme whose purpose is to separate you from every dollar in your wallet.

Learning how to shop at a supermarket is a critical urban survival skill.

Here are some common store merchandising tricks and how to avoid them. LET THE BUYER BEWARE!

Wall of Values. Many stores feature large displays of "special" items in the front. The only way to know if these products are really good values is to compare prices. Sometimes items up front are higher priced than other items elsewhere.

Mixed Pricing. Higher priced items may be mixed with lower priced items. Know what you buy and how much it costs.

Price Tag Problems. Lower price tags may be located a few inches away from the item they refer to. The item directly above the low price tag may be more expensive. This is a big problem in deli sections.

Missing Tags. The high price item — and alternatively — the low price item may not have a price tag. Selection is price roulette. Put those items in a special part of your basket and check their prices as you go through the checkout line. If they are more than you want to pay, tell the clerk you don't want them.

Large Sizes Aren't Necessarily the Best Buy. Carry a calculator with you (or do the math with pencil and paper or in your head) to compare prices. Figure the price per ounce or pound or whatever the measurement may be. Large sizes can be more expensive per unit than the smaller sizes.

Fiddling with the Package Size. Sometimes the corporations keep the price the same, while they reduce the amount in the bottle, can, or package.

Big Displays Aren't Always the Best Buy. A big display only means the store bought a lot of something. The price may be a big deal or it may be a no deal. The only way to know is to compare prices.

Brand Name Games. Big corporations spend billions of dollars to convince you that Brand X is better than Brand Y. In reality, the brand name and the generic or store brand often come from the same food factory, they just get different labels on their way out the door. You can pay extra for the brand name, or buy the store or generic brand and pocket the difference in price.

Coupon Games. This is the first cousin to Brand Name Game. Even with a coupon, the item may be more expensive than the store brand. If you just have to have the name brand, coupons are better than nothing. Don't fool yourself that you're getting the best deal. Stores that offer double coupons may have higher prices in general than other stores. The best strategy is to compare prices.

Look high and low on the shelf. Stores put the high-priced items at eye level on the shelf. Low-priced items will be either high or low on the shelf. Sometimes the low price item has an aisle display of something else in front of it so you can’t see the better deal.

Meat Goes Down, Canned Goods Go Up. There's no such thing as a free bag of groceries. If meat prices are low, the prices of canned goods have probably gone up. If canned goods are cheap, the meat is expensive. This changes every week. Buy extra supplies when items are on sale. If you can keep at least a month's worth of basic groceries on hand (more is better), you insulate yourself from these regular "price mood swings" at the grocery store. If canned goods are high, don't buy canned goods that week, wait until they are cheaper. One tactic to help you beat this game is to keep a price book. It could be as simple as stapling your grocery receipts in a notebook. Or you could enter the information into a spreadsheet to review before you go shopping. You will discover that your local store has a regular schedule as to when its items go on sale.

Watch out for the 1st and the 15th of the month. In the United States, many people get government benefits and paychecks on these dates. Stores nearly always have some great deals at these times, but other items may go up. While you can take advantage of the deals, you may want to wait for the rest of your list. Watch the price of powdered milk at these dates and just before. Geography counts: powdered milk is often much less expensive at suburban stores. Food storage helps you even out the peaks in grocery prices.

The Snack Food Game. The biggest money-losing games — the absolute worst deals — in the grocery store — are the snack foods. You pay a big price for a few cents worth of popcorn and sugar or potatoes, grease, and salt. No, I am not against treats. I just know that it is always cheaper, more tasty and healthy to make your own snack foods. When it gets to the point that you need a chemistry degree to decipher an ingredient list, that’s the time to learn to make your own treats.

Look for alternative ways of getting food. Shop at farmers markets, or join a food cooperative that features local producers, and maybe grow some of your own food. Gardening is like finding money growing in your back yard. If you don’t have land, learn about container gardening. Look for a community garden.

Don't blame the grocers too much. They are just trying to make a buck like everybody else. They profit from the fact that people have more money than time and/or they’ve never really learned how to cook. Some of the problems (especially in the meat and deli sections) may be caused by customers moving things around.

But don't be fooled by the merchandising games. The store has a legal right to price its merchandise. You have a legal right to buy or not buy the merchandise. The store won't go broke because you decided to get a better deal and save money. By shopping smart, you encourage grocers to offer real deals, not trick deals. Genuine deals are out there. You must look carefully, with your eyes wide open and your calculator and pencil in hand,