Saving Money On Your Grocery Shopping

Where do you do your grocery shopping?

If you live in the UK, you probably go to Asda, Sainsburys, Tesco or one of the big name supermarkets.

If you're outside the UK, I don't know. In France, maybe your local Carrefour. In Canada, you probably go to Dominion or Loblaws (that's where I went when I lived in Canada) - Toronto, if you must know :-), actually, East York if you know the area and you really want to know :-).

It was in Canada that I was first introduced to the concept of the no-frills supermarket, when I paid my first trip to Knob Hill Farms.

Forget the soft lighting, the muzak, the corporate branding on the shelves. Knob Hill Farms had a very simple approach - sell it cheap. And they were packed!

Here in the UK, we now have stores such as Aldi, Lidl, and Netto - all of them are no-frills supermarkets, and I reckon they're going to give the big names a really tough time over the next couple of years. Their basic strategy is to sell food really cheap and to sell it in large baskets or on wooden pallets rather than on shelves. For the most part, you don't see big brand names in these shops, so you're not paying for the name and the advertising that goes with it. Lidl also seems to have a pretty standard sort of layout in it's shops - which means they don't pay consultants or managers to design a layout so that you have to wander around the store to find what you want. It's just straightforward food at reasonable prices.

In the U.S. there's a new name that's opening up a store somewhere every few days - Fresh and Easy. They reckon you can cut your grocery bill by 20% by shopping with them. Not bad - instead of paying $100 for your shopping, you can do it for $80. Prices are generally cheaper than in other stores, the layout is different from what people are used to, the checkouts are all manual (cuts down on labor costs a lot) . Reaction so far seems to be an either you love it or you hate it sort of thing. But the ones who love it are saving money hand over fist.

So, depending on where you live, why don't you find out who are your local no-frills supermarkets? Whether it's Knob Hill Farms, Aldi, Lidl, Netto, or a Fresh and Easy, give it a try. See how much you can save on a normal week's shopping, and then decide whether you prefer to keep the sdavings to yourself or "donate" it to your normal store.