Convenience shopping – The enemy of savings
Convenience has become a dirty word. We all know it’s something that pretends to make your life easier and instead makes us more stressed and probably more wrinkled.
When a store tells you something is for your convenience, you can bet your house on the fact that it doesn’t really assist your convenience at all. Or, the very idea of convenience stores themselves- ostensibly built to provide you with all the things you need, and yet mostly provide confectionary, cigarettes and slurpees and yet seem to consistently be out of bread.
Proof of this is in the IBIS report, proving that cigarettes constitute over a quarter of convenience store sales.
Convenience shopping at a supermarket has two major forms:
- Easy access convenience: This kind of convenience is where you really should go to the next store because the item is cheaper there, but it’s really too far to be bothered so you buy the more expensive version
- Convenience items: These are your convenient items, like your frozen meals and canned soups. They pose as a threat to your resolve, where you can buy an entire meal in one swift move as opposed to scouring three aisles and then realising you’ve forgotten an item as soon as you get home.
Both forms of convenience shopping can be dangerous. There are great elements to both – 7/11s have on occasion saved me from near-starvation in the pitch hours, and some convenience items (like popcorn) are now an established part of our existence. Usually, however, convenience is not really all that convenient.
The numbers have it
According to research,consumer behaviour is shifting. As our schedules become increasingly flexible, we are less likely to plan meals over a week and shop accordingly.
At your convenience:
As much as is possible, plan your meals over the week, or if your schedule is moving around dramatically, spend a ay off making meals to put in your freezer. They’ll have all the convenience of a store-bought meal, without any of the cost.
Time is money
It’s not really surprising, but as shown in this article, if you can afford the time, you will save the money. Buying the ingredients for a meal from scratch is cheaper than buying a frozen meal with the same ingredients. Nothing can be quicker than fish fingers, but with a tiny bit more time, meals can be made in no time and for very little money.
At your convenience:
Convenience meals are a result of an increasingly frenetic pace, but a little bit of planning should make it fairly easy to get them out of your life. You’ll see the results on your food receipt.
Want, not need
Convenience shopping satisfies the needs of a generation used to Facebook and online news- it satisfies our needs immediately, whether a close store or a meal that averts all need to cook. It caters to wants, not needs.
At your convenience:
Ask yourself if you need or want it. Do you need to stop off and buy a chocolate or a late-night pack of cigarettes at the store? Do you need that 20 minutes it would take to make pasta, has your life really gotten that frantic?
Do I need it- this is our mantra. You’ll earn yourself a more convenient life, and some savings in the bargain.
How do you avoid convenience shopping?
Drop a comment below!
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