As you may recall, last week I decided to start an experiment to see if I could save money at the supermarket by attempting to out-think the industry and to work counter-intuitively to how the supermarket wants us to buy; in other words, I would compare prices on products located at eye level with those in less than ideal locations on the assumption that the supermarket industry wants us to buy at eye-level and price accordingly. The full post, the products chosen as part of this experiment and my rules are found here.

I have had to make some adjustments on the fly based on the fact that my local Soeby’s actually has a pretty poor selection of some of the products I selected. The largest issue was that I could not compare apples to apples in tissue; the brand at the ideal location was 3 ply and there was no other 3 ply brand name tissues to compare this with-all that was available was 2 ply. Thus, across the street I went to the drugstore- this is the only product I compared at another location. I also could not find 2 name brand baked beans. I had to compare a no-name brand vs. a named brand.

I also added the following rules:

1. I compared the same size of product except where the difference was not negligible. For example, I compared 330 ml bottles of shampoo against 350 ml bottles given that the 25 ml difference was quite small (as a side-note, as a guy with short hair, this is the most I have had to think about shampoo in years).
2. I am calculated savings as an absolute dollar figure (ideal location price- less ideal location price) and as a savings % which I calculated as (difference between ideal and less ideal location pricing)/(ideal location price). Where the price of the less ideally located product was equal to or greater than the ideal location product, the % savings is expressed as 0.

Here are my results for week one:

Baked Beans (398 ml can)

Ideal location- $1.19 (Heinz)
Less ideal location- $0.89 (Compliments)
Difference- $0.30
% Difference- 25%

Olive Oil (1 Litre bottle)

Ideal location- $12.29 (Bertolii)
Less ideal location- $7.99 (Canaplli)
Difference- $4.30
% Difference- 35% *

I am putting a huge asterisks here though- the products have no ideal or non-ideal location- located on same shelf

Snack Bars (175g box)

Ideal location-$3.19 (Kellogg’s Nutri Grain)
Less ideal location- $2.99 (Quaker Chewy Bar)
Difference- $0.20
% Difference- 6

Shampoo

Ideal location- $2.19 (Finesse, 330 ml)
Less ideal location- $1.99 (European Formula, 350 ml)
Difference- $0.20
% Difference-9

Tissue

Ideal location- $2.69 (114 sheets of 3 ply tissue by Kleenex)
Less ideal location- $1.59 (140 sheets of 3 ply tissue by Royale)
Difference- $1.10
% Difference- 40

There is a difference is product size so the % difference is greater if you calculated it per tissue.

I only have one week’s results in so its too early for me to draw conclusions. Let me know how I can make this experiment better or your comments early on. Thanks and have a great weekend grocery shopping!