This full cart of groceries that cost just 400 shekels was filled with loss leaders. Today let’s talk about what loss leaders are and how to take advantage of these amazing prices.
A common strategy is to offer very discounted prices on select items to get customers into stores. It’s known that once the shoppers are there, they’re likely to buy other items to fill in their shopping, items that are full price and have a high profit for the store. So they advertise the sales items that they don’t make money on, and maybe even lose money on – the loss leaders – to get you into the store.
Last week, loss leaders were carrots, onions and cabbage at 1.90 a kilo, and I bought a lot of them all. This week the onions and cabbage remain on sale, and fennel has been added to the sales line up so I got a big bagful of fennel.
They don’t usually have fruit as loss leaders in this store, but this week they had oranges and clementines on sale for 1.90, so I got two bags of clementines. The kids love having these in their lunch for school. (I have clementine and orange trees but the fruit on them isn’t yet ripe.)
When you see a loss leader, how much do you buy? I try to get as much as I can realistically store and use before they go bad. Most produce stays fresh much longer than people think.
How did I store what I bought last week?
Cabbage has a long shelf life in the fridge, and can stay fresh for weeks out of the fridge if it’s super hot that time is obviously less.) I bought four large heads to make a big batch of sauerkraut with. Even though I didn’t have room for them in the fridge and haven’t yet gotten to making the sauerkraut, even with the hot weather we’re having (in the 90s), they’ve stayed just fine.
Carrots also store well in a cool and dry spot. I keep the bags of carrots in the fridge.
Onions store well in a cool, dry location. I have a four tier storage basket system in my kitchen where I keep produce that doesn’t need refrigeration, and now one and a half of those baskets are filled with onions. Onions last such a long time – months. Even in super hot weather, I’ve been able to keep onions without any special storage for weeks, though I did keep an eye on them in case something got soft so that it didn’t spoil.
Here are the sweet potatoes that I bought last week at 3.90, now 9.90. Sweet potatoes last a long time stored in a cool, dry place. One of the baskets in my stacking system is filled with now filled with them, all bought at a discount. .
Here are the avocadoes this week, also 9.90:
We love avocados and eat a lot of them when they come into season. But not at this price point. I bought loads last week when they were loss leaders at 3.90 a kilo. I chose avocados that were rock hard; I keep in the fridge until I’m ready to take them out to ripen, a few at a time.
Whenever you see a loss leader, think about how you can integrate them into your budget to maximize your savings. You’ll probably have to shift your way of thinking about grocery shopping, but it’s worth it – your home can be well stocked with groceries for much less than most people are paying.
Avivah
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