- These are 10 secrets grocery stores
do not want you to know.
How some numbers are manipulated.
The sections you should not be shopping from,
and how to read a very important barcode tied to freshness.
Welcome back to the channel.
I'm the YouTube Deal Guy, Matt Granite.
By the time this video is done,
most major grocery store chains will hate me.
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Alright.
The first thing I'm going to recommend
is bringing luggage scale into your local grocery store
and I'm gonna take you inside my store to show you
where a lot of the mistakes happen
and how you're overpaying.
And as absurd as this the sounds,
if you guys ever see those multi pound bags
of potatoes, onions, apples,
the bags where the items are already pre-measured
and pre-tagged, and they're not weighed again.
When they are rung up at the cash
to check out and complete your purchase,
this is where a luggage scale comes in.
Weigh your bags.
As absurd as it sounds, you'd be amazed at how many
of those eight pound bag of potatoes or onions
are not even close to the indicated weight.
It's not because people are trying to trick you,
but these are often bagged in a rush
and often at the detriment of the customers.
I'm sure there's possibly some type
of profit margin built in
but I haven't been able to prove my conspiracy theory.
I've checked most major grocery stores in my community
and almost half of them on a regular basis
have those bags measured and off by as much as a pound.
If you expand the video description box, right under me,
I have a link to really handy luggage scale
that you could pack in your purse or your man bag
or your pocket.
I do use affiliate links to so I benefit monetarily
if you're kind enough to use one of my links.
And if your a grocery store
has those old traditional scales
that you can use on your own, all the power to you
and my local grocery store that does not exist.
So I use this handy scale which is also really good
to prove your point if you are in front of a cash register
before you pay.
But either way, just make sure you weigh before you pay.
The second secret grocery stores do not want you to know,
before you get into how to read some of those PLU codes tied
to your freshman produce, stick to the exterior
or the perimeter of your grocery store,
whether it's Walmart, Target, Giant, Publix
or other major grocery store chains
that include whole foods.
Most of these stores are organized
with how long it takes to restock the freshest areas
of the store.
Stores have done these really weird mathematical equations
where they pay their employees by the hour
and they look at how long it takes to restock
the most frequently restocked shelves, fridges and freezers.
So when you enter a grocery store, the freshest
and most cost-effective options are the unpackaged foods.
That means produce, dairy aisle, bakery
and the butcher counters
if you had to hit them in order of importance.
Well, that might not have been an eye-opener for you.
Perhaps number three is, and that's,
like I need to do this so you know where I am in the video,
the PLU codes tied to the products.
In particular when you are shopping for organic produce,
take a good look at the PLU codes.
They're found on the sticker.
A four-digit code generally indicates
that the produce was grown traditionally, not organically.
And that will mean a lot of things are actually mismatched,
again, not intentionally by the store
but I've seen avocados that are supposedly organic
in the regular section, lettuce,
and all of these other mispairings and mess ups.
If you see that five digit PLU code
and it begins with the number nine,
it almost always means it was grown organically.
There are going to be some exceptions to this rule,
but you'll see just how quickly you can see
when things are mislabeled or misadvertised.
And the number four spot of what you should not be buying
and of course, whenever possible through this list,
I'm gonna take you into my local grocery stores
but guys, please feel free to comment, share your insight.
It's not just about me.
It's about you guys and saving money.
And if you do regularly shop the cultural or ethnic sections
of your grocery store, well, these are great ways
to discover new food items.
These are generally one of the worst areas
of the store to buy anything tied to food prep.
Skip that special soy sauce or Hoisin brand,
the seaweed or the kimchi in that aisle
in exchange for what you could easily find
at an Asian grocery store or any other ethnic grocery store
of your choice depending on
what's available in your community
and you will save substantial amounts of money very quickly.
In addition to that, if you guys like those seaweed snacks
that happened to be my wife's favorite thing right now,
if you go directly to an Asian grocery store,
even versus Amazon or Walmart,
where you can purchase in bulk,
the quality is a lot better at those specialized stores.
In the number five spot of grocery store secrets revealed,
something the average shopper does,
which I know you guys don't do
because nothing about you is average
and I appreciate you watching this channel,
but the average store shopper
will generally avoid paper products from the major brands
assuming they're gonna get a better deal
from the store brands.
And this is actually a bad move.
Many of the major grocery retailers
have exclusive partnerships with brands like Kleenex, Puffs,
Cottonelle, Sharman, whatever it is you are looking for.
The store brand alternative is often of inferior quality
and not much of a better deal.
So buy the items you like when it comes to paper products.
There are a few exceptions.
If you're a frequent Aldi shopper, like I am,
that Willow brand title, their toilet paper was a hated item
in my household that I got into a lot of trouble for.
Their new Papia brand is a lot better.
When it comes to Amazon,
their in-house Presto toilet paper brand
is a very high quality, but some of these rolls
that they make now are manufactured so large,
you cannot get them into the regular toilet paper dispensers
in most bathrooms.
So go with the brands that you love.
No need to be experimental if you don't want to be
and you're at a major grocery store.
In the number six spot of secrets grocery stores
do not want you to know,
do not shop right before lunch or right before dinner
and that's not for the obvious reason you think I'm saying.
Stores would love for you to shop just before your meals
so you buy double what you need.
It's the same thing if you ever tried
to do an Uber Eats order when you're hungry.
You order 5,000 things you don't want
that are never that good when they arrive.
But the reason I'm telling you to shop
in the very early morning or at the very end of the day,
for highly trafficked grocery stores,
the produce is generally restocked overnight.
That brings the freshest produce into your hands
first thing in the morning.
And then again, toward the end of the day,
right at the dinner hour, when everyone else is eating,
you make your way to your grocery store
if your schedule allows for it specifically
for my fellow shift workers out there
and you will get a whole new level of freshness
at your fingertips late in the evening as well.
And the number seven spot, don't fall
for any of those 8 for $8 options, 10 for $10 options.
You know what I mean.
10 items where you get them for $10 at a dollar each.
If you look very closely at how they're priced
and how they will be rung up by the cashier
or even at a self checkout option, you can usually score
that $1 per item price for however many you buy,
you do not need to buy all 10 or all eight
to lock in that so-called discount.
I've also seen many grocery stores offer
those buy one get one offers with absolutely
no discount whatsoever for buying the second item
passed along to the consumer.
So do keep that in mind.
And the number eight spot of secrets grocery stores
don't want you to know, consider using a cash back app
like Checkout 51.
Grocery stores want you to believe
that the whole world starts and ends
with their cash back rewards programs.
But if you're not just sticking
with their in-house programs, an app like Checkout 51
will reward you for all of the purchases you make
from major brands like Nestle, Kellogg's,
Johnson and Johnson, Proctor & Gamble and more.
All you need to do is watch out for the various offerings
for your grocery store.
And as you shop, you stay cognizant
of where you can get your cash back.
You upload your receipt
and then you will legitimately be rewarded.
Sometimes it's just a few dollars per grocery shopping trip.
Sometimes you can make as much as 20 bucks depending
on how much you buy by simply uploading your grocery receipt
to Checkout 51.
In the number nine spot,
and there will be some fellow couponers
that disagree with me,
but in the two decades that I've been working
as a consumer advocate, I stand by this piece of advice.
Do not buy in bulk from your grocery store.
Grocery stores are not designed for bulk buying
and there is an exception which I'm gonna get to
in a moment, but the best incentives tied to bulk buying
are passed along in relationships that brands have
with warehouse clubs like Costco, Sam's Club, BJ's.
And if you don't have a membership anywhere
and you can tolerate a trip to your Walmart to buy in bulk,
please do so.
An exception is when you see things advertised by the case.
So soups, canned food, canned fruit, things like that.
Whole foods will give you a 10% discount if you buy things
by the case and other grocery stores
will give you a 5% discount in most of my checks.
But again, for bulk buying things,
specifically paper products, toilet paper,
there's no advantage passed along to you guys stocking up.
And then the number 10 spot before I get to a secret tied
to cereal, pay close attention to your freezer sections.
Freezer sections have not only been given an overhaul
across the country, but with the way people are purchasing
their groceries in 2021 and a lot of us hoping
to avoid going out of the house
and making unnecessary grocery store trips
that we don't need to, your grocery store's freezer section
is no longer about pizza puffs and microwavable dinners
and ice cream.
The fresh fruit and vegetables that can get you
through your week for when you run out of fresh produce,
can sometimes cut down on your frequency
to the grocery store.
You're gonna find some unbelievable
high quality grocery store items at grocery store chains
in the Midwest like Heinen's, Wegmans in New York State,
Aldi, Trader Joe's, fruit for smoothies,
vegetables for stir fries and things
that often taste way better than canned vegetables.
Bonus secret number one, before I get to the cereal
is if you are not a couponer, don't worry,
stores expose many of their best offers
in their digital flyers.
Trader Joe's and Publix, Giant and other grocery stores
will put their best coupons and offerings
into the Sunday newspapers.
But if you are not a newspaper reader, stores like Aldi
and Whole Foods will actually pass their best savings
to you along in the form of a newsletter
or the digital flyers that you can find
and easily access from their websites.
And as a final bonus for my fellow cereal lovers,
you do not need to settle for the generic alternative.
If you are not shopping at Aldi, Trader Joe's
or Whole Foods, which are the exceptions,
your favorite cereal whether it's Cheerios, Rice Krispies,
Frosted Flakes, Fruit Loops, Raisin Bran,
or whatever it is your heart desires,
the major cereal brands from folks like Kellogg's
are actually the better bang for your buck
from your local grocery store.
Your grocery store chain would love you
to buy their generic alternative, but with few exceptions
where that quality is not necessarily better.
So the branded cereal better than the generic alternative,
the same advice that I passed along on the toilet paper.
Not that you wanna have toilet paper and cereal
in the same sentence.
I probably just should have said paper products.
Anyhow, thanks for watching.
If you guys liked this content again,
please feel free to subscribe, turn your notifications on.
I promise to be your hookup on all sorts of stores secrets
and regular deals.
And again, the phone number
to my insider deal guide texting club (440)-298-2181.
Thank you for watching. Bye-bye.