Best Day to Buy Groceries for a Bargain

This is not true in my area of the country at all. Our stores run Fri-Thurs, no overlap or Sun-Sat no overlap. As they start to change the signs last thing Thursday night, you may be able to pick up one or two items in the last 15 minutes before the store closes that are for the next week, but it's rare. And that's only because Mass State Law says they have to honor the posted price.

Also, markdowns happen at the end of the night, so they are out first thing in the morning. Regardless of whether it's meat or produce the best selection and the most selection is about 7:30-8:00am. By night, all the mark downs have been bought by other savvy customers.

Sorry about the multiple postings but I got an error message that said due to technical errors the times I tried didn't post, so I kept trying. Also know that I am semi-literate, there were just too many typos in my post to be acceptable.YIKES!

Hi Bobbiebench. I feel your frustrations about grocery stores. Recently moving to the south I missed the quirks of my old grocery haunts; I knew exactly what their specialties were, what to expect for average grocery bills, etc. I heard after moving to the south was to avoid Publix, but after experiencing the other stores down here... Walmart is a huge UGH!!! Kroger is right below them on the list the lack of customer service and unclear marking about where their products come from is bad. Target is okay for picking up a gallon or cleaning products, sometimes the super Targets are okay. Then there's Publix, they have great quality produce and manufacture some of their Publix brands (in Florida) instead of just slapping their name on someone elses products. Publix costs more overall just going in to shop, BUT shopping their sales and stocking up when things go on sale is value and quality at its best. I have done better price and quality wise at Publx by shopping sales than I have at all the other stores alone or combined; plus their customer service is very good at the Bakery, meat, produce and other areas of the store. It took some months of getting on a plan to ditch my old system of planning meals for the week and then going grocery shopping to a plan where I watch the sales and stock up the freezer and pantry with what's on sale, but I come out so far ahead shopping Publix ads. I am sure Publix isn't happy about my method because I don't impulse shop or buy the marked up products that are supposed to make up for the sale prices, but I think I am the exception to their rule when it comes to shoppers. Publix ground sirloin is much better flavor and quality than the local butcher shop everyone raves about. Yeah, I still go to other stores when things like cereal or toiletries are on sale, but Publix has great sales on those certain times of the year. If I can offer some advice... learn what times of the year certain items are severely reduced such as cereal which is around late summer when silos are clearing out the previous years crops for the current harvest. Baking items such as flour and sugar, etc. go on sale and are deeply discounted after Halloween and before Thanksgiving. Save money for November, for some reason a lot of foods straight across the board have huge discounts, and that's the time to stock up on items. It's not just the day of the week but the month of the year that's important when it comes to finding sales. Even cleaning supplies are on sale for spring cleaning and stores such as Target have stock up sales right before or after the holidays. You can save a lot of money by knowing WHEN to buy something instead of where to buy it. Also learning to eat what's in season is a great money saver. If you don't have a freezer it's a great investment, even if living in an apartment; the freezer will pay for itself many times over.

As someone who worked in a grocery store for 10 years let me tell you Wednesday is not the best day. Ever. We absolutely do NOT honor last week's ad. At midnight the prices reset at corporate level and get sent down in the system to all stores. Yes you may be able to scam the store into giving you last week's pricing if someone missed replacing a tag. The computer is always right, so if the tag says something different it's only policy to give you the tag price because it was our mistake for not getting the tag replaced with the correct one. Also Wednesday is a massive load day. So when someone who's already 3 hours behind on their own department is stuck unloading trucks and the front end needs more checkers guess who has to stay at least 2-4 hours overtime every Wednesday in order to not get fired for leaving their job half done because they were upfront babysitting the checkers? The only reason the checkers need help is cause it's busy. Also it's hard to find mark downs on Wednesday because of said trucks needing unloading. If someone is busy offloading trucks and checking they don't have time to fill the shelf let alone do markdowns. Markdowns are done in the mornings when the managers are there, not evenings when they've all gone home. The best time to shop is probably Sunday morning before noon. In general mornings are always the best time to shop, 8am or earlier if it's possible in your area. Sunday afternoons are totally out, Sunday afternoons are the busiest time of the entire week. As for a day of the week to save money on? Ask the managers what days they do the majority of their markdowns on. Markdowns are done daily but there's always one day a week that there tends to be more than the other days. For me it was Fridays, not sure why, but it was. Ask them what time of day they generally have their markdowns done, and I say generally because stuff happens. A truck shows up and needs offloading, the csm decides she can stand around doing nothing making other departments do their jobs for them so those departments get behind, corporate visit requires organizing or cleaning, etc, so sometimes markdowns aren't done at the same time every day.

reply to "Hello Gorgeous". I miss Wegman's!! The supermarkets here in Florida do not compare! Wegman's had the best fresh fruit and vegetables and variety of products. I tried Walmart here and they do not carry products I use and the service is awful. I guess I can try Target. Publix is the best one here but does not come close to Wegman's prices and variety.

I've know this for years. To me this is nothing new.

where's the article?????

Stores here in southeast Michigan all go by the Sunday to Saturday sales week. Not mid-week.

Shop Aldis and you won't have to worry about when the sales start. Low prices everyday and they will generally beat anyone in the area.

hi