What the Supermarket Won't Tell You -part1

1. "You feel the pressure? In fact, we, too."

When the economy slows and companies start to feel the heat, food stores are often exceptions to the rule. This is because when consumers fell in luxuries like eating out, tend to make more trips to the supermarket. However, all bets could be off after the accident in 2008.

Citi Investment Research analyst Deborah Weinswig forecast drop in same store sales growth in many major chains in 2009, one that is top performer Kroger experiencing a decline in store sales of growth of around 5 percent in 2008 to 4 percent next year. Meanwhile, supermarket chain Supervalu its own forecast of sales growth over 2009 levels.

Even big-box-now contenders in the supermarket sector is facing tough headwinds following the merger of the market. Weinswig said he hoped the same ups and downs in sales growth in the store BJ's Wholesale Club, 11 per cent in 2008 to less than 7 percent in 2009 and a decrease of 8-6 percent growth over the same period Costco. In short, it is difficult to pass through higher costs when consumers have a laser-like focus on price, "said Mitchell Corwin, senior analyst at Morningstar equity.

2. "You're getting less for the same price."

When Linda Edwards, a nurse in East Windsor, NJ, picked up his usual $ 4.99 pitcher of orange juice in the Shop Rite this summer, she was surprised to discover that it contained 7 oz usually less than what he did. A few months later he realized his Skippy peanut butter and chicken strips were also slight, but not everything is cheaper. "Everything seems to be shrinking, but my family has not fallen," said the single mother of five children. A spokesman for Unilever, owner of Skippy, said that the reduction in size of the product is one way the company is coping with increased costs of fuel and food.

Manufacturers know that a strong economy, consumers are driven by higher prices, so quietly shrink products, hoping a few oz. here and there not to be missed, said Alexia Howard, senior research analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein. But it is counterproductive from, said Ben Popken, editor of Consumerist.com, which says that more and more complaints from readers about the decline of products. "People are very sensitive to any decline in their purchasing power," he says. Popken recommends checking the unit price of the marks to see if you're paying the same price for less food.

3. "It takes us to raise prices when you are least likely to notice."

When times are hard, super-markets buyers know vigilant even notice tiny changes in the price of foods like milk, cereal, bread and cheese. In fact, there are about 500 such products, stores and raise prices in these commodities at your own risk.

How to deal with rising markets in food costs? To play with the price of the approximately 45,000 items people do not usually buy enough to have a fixed cost of tacking on 3 and 4 per cent to special products such as gourmet pasta sauce sweet or squeezed juices without consumers noticing. "There is an opportunity to make some room on those issues," said Jim Hertel, managing partner of Willard Bishop, an industry consultant.

But do not expect the savings to be passed on to you when costs are reduced. Many manufacturers lock in prices ahead of time, and often hold out the prices down to compensate for losses, said Howard. One way to ensure you are getting the best deal when prices fall: Stick to the basics. Products like coffee and meat is likely "that reflect their underlying costs faster than most other foods," says Howard.

4. "You can not always believe our nutrition."

It seems people are more concerned about their health these days, but the nutrition labeling on most foods can be difficult to decipher. Hoping to bridge the gap, the supermarket chain Hannaford Bros developed a program called Guiding Stars that posts nutritional ratings of one to three stars on the shelf labels for some products. "We would like to see FDA approval of the national program," said Bruce Silverglade, legal affairs director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Sounds great, but according to a report by the Government Accountability Office, the FDA has not verified the accuracy of random nutrition labeling of more than a decade, and the products has tested due to the obvious flags red, more than 20 percent had errors. (A spokesman for the FDA said that the random sampling is not needed, the FDA testing of products according to guidelines set by the Office of Regulatory Affairs.) With little oversight, consumers can not rely on manufacturers labels nutrition or any system of classification based on that data.

"It's the manufacturer's responsibility to provide accurate information, that's all we can use to evaluate products," says Julie Greene, director of healthy living for Hannaford Bros.

5. "We will not take your coupons."

The newspaper on Sunday used to be the power source for coupons. But now they are increasingly available online, sites like Coupons.com and manufacturers and supermarkets' own Web pages. The problem is not always easy to use. More than 10.6 million Internet coupons were redeemed last year, according to Carolina Marketing Services. While that amount is expected to increase, it is still a fraction of all coupons redeemed, and many shops are still unfamiliar with them.

That's what 61 years old, retired CJ Shearrer discovered when printing about $ 30 worth of coupons and took them to a Wal-Mart in Midwest City, Oklahoma Shearrer said the store manager told him not to accept Online coupons and only when he showed him a copy of Wal-Mart coupon policy, said Shearrer made the director agreed to take. (He says a company spokesperson Wal-Mart accepts an Internet coupon per item per customer, to the extent that the legitimate and explorations in the record.) Stephanie Nelson, founder of CouponMom.com information site, suggests what to do Shearrer made: Bring along a copy of a coupon in the store policy, which should be found on their website.