How Knowing Your Grocery Store Layout Can Save You Money

Have you ever went to the store for “just milk” and come out with a cart load of groceries? I know I have in the past. You go in for a $3.00 gallon of milk and suddenly? You’ve spent $100.00 that you hadn’t budgeted for and bam, now the electric bill is going to be late, but hey! You’ve got those Oreo’s that were on sale!

There are a couple of reasons that this happens. One is that you didn’t shop with a list and got distracted. We all know that shopping with a list keeps you on task and generally can help you spend less. The other reason may be something you didn’t realize.

If you don’t know your stores layout? You will almost always spend more.

Here’s why:

Stores generally place dairy and meat items in the back of the store. This means that you have to walk through the entire shopping area to get to that gallon of milk.

As you’re walking, you happen to notice a sale on pasta, so you toss 4 boxes into the cart. Oops! There’s another sale! Into the cart it goes.

Finally you get your milk and checkout spending way over what you intended to.

The same thing happens if you don’t know your store layout. Wondering through the store looking for a specific item, causes you to see those impulse items and “sales.” That eventually leads to you spending more money than you intended to. By knowing your how your grocery store is laid out, you can really save yourself some big cash!

The best way to do this is to either sit down to write out a diagram of how your store is laid out, or you can ask the store manager for a print out of the store aisles. By knowing ahead of time where the items you want are located, you’re able to go directly to the items you want and avoid the items you don’t. By avoiding those unwanted purchases? You save big.

I take this one step further and write out my monthly grocery shopping lists in order of the aisles in my store so i can get everything in order and avoid the aisles I don't need.