A Good Word: Bargain Shoppers Beware! 

I recently read a blurb on social media about how local folks are travelling out-of-area to get grocery bargains and were complaining about prices locally being too high. If you buy the same items per week, as I do, you get to know your prices. When you walk through the doors of a “bargain store”, it’s essential to KNOW YOUR PRICES. Knowing your prices is the only way you can determine whether their claim is true or false.  

I recently decided to do a little research and put “pen to paper”. I made a list of items that I regularly buy. Some I buy weekly, others twice a month, while others I may buy monthly. 

I looked up my purchases online at our “out-of-area” grocery store. Then, with pen and tablet in hand, I took that list down to our local grocery.  

After some sleuthing, I added up the costs of these two stores: Locally, my total was $60.71 out-of-area, my total was $58.69. 

Before the price of gas skyrocketed, I thought nothing of taking two or three trips to Poplar Bluff or Pocahontas per week. However, now I am wise to “figure in” the price of arriving at my destination. As part of my investigation, I let the trip odometer record the amount of miles there and back. I travelled 62 miles round trip.  My vehicle gets 19.5 miles per gallon of gas. Figuring in the distance, the price of one gallon of gas $3.70, and miles per gallon, I used 3.18 gallons of gas. It cost me $11.73 to shop at the out-of-area store and save $2.02. 

Out-of-area total groceries $58.69 + cost of driving there $11.73 = $70.42. 

Of course, there are other factors to consider as well. Perhaps you live closer than I do to out-of-area shopping, and you may live farther away from local shopping. 

Just sayin’, that even when lower prices are claimed, it doesn’t always mean you are saving money. 

Do the math!