Essay about Supermarket

How to Go to a Supermarket and Buy Only What You Planned to Buy

Shopping is one of the many activities Americans pride themselves in. It has evolved from the simple act of just going to buy items from a nearby grocery shop, and has become one of the multimillion dollar industries driving the all-powerful American economy. Supermarkets have grown from the basic markets they were before. In the past, fish, fruit, diary, and clothing markets were not all in the same place, and an entire day could be spent trying to get all these basic commodities (Dean, 2008). The whole idea of supermarkets was created to bring these separate entities under one roof for easier access for the customers. Supermarkets began opening their doors to Americans in the 1920s and 1930s. Chain stores were the immediate ancestors to the modern day supermarkets.

Supermarkets are remarkably different to their earlier forms. This is evident by the various businesses running in these stores. Service industries have also penetrated these super stores in a quest to cash in on the increasing human traffic traversing the massive store square footage (Humphery, 1998). Research has shown that customers in a supermarket are highly likely to deviate from their shopping errands and venture into the service industry stores. This research took into account barber salons, acupuncture, car detailing, restaurants, opticians, and various fun inducing activities, for example, roller coaster rides. All these have become part and parcel of modern day shopping malls.

With all these distractions on the rise, it is essential to create a shopping list to avoid overspending and indulging in activities that will deter the shopper from achieving his or her objectives. A list is often used for groups of products and services to be purchased by the individual who wrote it. List creation quantifies the money needed to purchase the products on the list. It is also an excellent budget planning device, as it helps examine the amount of money spent on every shopping excursion, and forecasts the future spending trends of that household. A list should be flexible to accommodate the various variations of products with the ever changing consumer market (Stahlberg & Maila, 2010). That is to say that product introduction, or withdrawal, from the consumer market happens every other day; the list should have a monetary tolerance for those variations, as a similar product might be more expensive. With shopping, it is also common knowledge that a desire for a certain product may arise when an individual is within the confines of the store. This feeling is impulsive pleasure. This is a common occurrence amongst shoppers. To avoid this condition ruining the budget, it is standard practice for an individual to add extra money into the budget to cushion the rest of the list from these unforeseen expenses.

To protect one’s self from overspending, it is also crucial to try to keep to the budget as much as possible. This tends to keep unnecessary expenses to a minimum, which is essential to maintain the purpose of a budget. This is also crucial because the market is full of products that may not be necessarily what the customer needs. A list may also be broken into related products so as to allow another individual to carry out the product search. This minimizes shopping time and deviations from the shopping list of items for purchase.

References

Dean, A. (2008). Shopping on a budget. London: Flame Tree Pub.
Humphery, K. (1998). Shelf life: Supermarkets and the changing cultures of consumption.
Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.
Stahlberg, M., & Maila, V. (2010). Shopper marketing: How to increase purchase decisions at
the point of sale. London: Kogan Page.