Fooled by WalMart?
Someone just asked me about shopping at WalMart instead of her local supermarkets, which are Albertsons and Safeway. It got me thinking it’s time for another tutorial on EDLP vs. Hi-Lo marketing strategies.
WM has the #1 market share in the country for groceries. So, that in itself proves that they have the public believing that they are the lowest. Lowest overall? Depending on where you live, maybe. But no matter where you live, being the lowest overall is not important to those winning The Grocery Game. Shopping at WalMart will lend some level of savings on all categories at all times = EDLP (every day low prices). However, when those same items go on sale at a hi-lo supermarket, such as Albertsons, Safeway, Kroger, etc, the low end of the Hi-Lo sales will most often dip lower than WM’s EDLP.
But wait! You’ve been told that WM matches the sales of their competitors! Tricky wording indeed…
Yes, WM does match sales, but not all sales. I’ll say it this way, “Only some sales”. And the ones they skip are costing you big time! They don’t match the BOGOs or % off, or any UN-advertised sales. BOGOs are “buy 1 get 1 free”, which is half off. That’s a biggie. And your local Hi-Lo major supermarket probably has twice as many UN-advertised sales as they do advertised. So when a Hi-Lo store hits many of those rock bottom sales, WM doesn’t match them, and that’s when we get the better deals. (And that’s why the Hi-Lo stores are The Grocery Game’s playing fields for those who want to save the most with the least amount of time invested.)
While many of the Hi-Lo stores’ rock bottom sales do beat WM’s EDLP, you don’t get all categories on sale every week at Hi-Lo stores. But that’s the basis of playing The Grocery Game. It’s like a game that we love to win… Hi-Lo stores run in Categorical Sales Trends. There’s about 15 major categories… Each category usually cycles through about once every 12 weeks, and each category stays on sale for about 1-3 weeks. By investing in those categories and items that you eat or use in your home when they are on a rock bottom sale and with a coupon at the Hi-Lo supermarket, you should be beating WM’s EDLP (every day low price).
The Grocery Game does work, if you are using it as intended. The blue items are expected to beat WM and warehouse club stores. So, if an item is blue or green, and if it’s something that you ever use, you should invest in it, whether you need it now or not. That way, when you run out of it, you don’t have to buy it at full price, or at a sub-standard price at WM.
We do offer WM LISTs in some areas, because people ask for it. Not because it’s the best place to save.
The Grocery Game is designed to save you the time of putting together the best weekly savings plan. You need to stay with it for twelve weeks, and invest in blues and greens to experience maximum savings. Then, you should begin to see that you are spending less money and less time on your grocery trips. And you’ll be shopping at a lovely store where you get great customer service. How nice is that?
