Comparison shopping
I live 60 yards away from a grocery store. Small, convenient, cheap, but not my favorite since it doesn't have stuff like corn tortillas (only flour), assorted types of beans (like black) and a variety of other foods (like organic milk and Hellman's mayonnaise) that I prefer. The other store, a 10 minute walk away and on my way home from work, is therefore my preferred store. So when the online survey from my neighborhood store came in my e-mailbox today, asking, among other things, what percentage of my budget do I spend at said store, I was about to tick off the 0-25% box. Then I started wondering just how close to 25% I was.
I shop using a debet card and so that and bill paying come out of what would be the equivalent of a checking account. I rarely pay with cash. I enter all movement in said "checking" account in separate software that I have. It lets me create filters, so I made one showing me all shopping done at my neighborhood store for 2006: 29 visits so far, and a total of NOK 10,423.94 spent. I then searched for all shopping done at my preferred store so far in 2006 and surprised myself: 23 visits, and a total of NOK 13,041.77 spent. I had no idea the figures were that close.
The above figures include some cash withdrawals, making the actual shopping totals in each store much closer to each other. That I visit my local one a tad more often, makes sense, since that's the one I go to for stuff I've forgotten. The average amount spent per visit to the stores, was higher at my preferred one, but that's also the store with the specialty (and often costlier) items. I was nevertheless a bit surprised by the statistics: I prefer shopping in the other store, and view my next-door one as a "back-up", so I assumed I was spending way more money and time in my preferred store.
I ticked off the 25-50% box.
Comments
I'd be lost w/o my ATM card!
Do they do the cell phone thing in Norway like they do in Finland?
So which market is yards away from you, Keera? I guess I'm a dope for my Kiwi shopping. I do the majority of my shopping there because I know everyone so well, and the manager let's me know about all the deals, expiration dates, etc. in advance. Otherwise, we shop at Rema 1000 and (gasp) Lidl for those "special" products.
I hardly use my cell phone, but that may change if my plans of consolidating my PDA and current cell and pocket camera and iPod into one pan out. ;-)
Tim, it's a Kiwi. My other preference is a Meny. I don't like "pallebutikker".
I'm not much for the newest wave of mobiles, either. All I need mine to do is make a call or ring when I really need it. I actually have an old Nokia that's six years old, and I get strange looks!
Although, I wouldn't mind having one of those nice digicams.
I hate taking the public trans, going to the movies or sitting down for a nice meal in a restaurant and the general environment being interrupted by Pink or that bloody crazy frog on every kid's card-sized mobiles.
My wife says I'll be one of those wild old coots in the nursing home driving the staff insane listening to classic rock and wondering where my cassette tape collection is. Yes, I went cd and mp3 years ago, but there's something about a cassette. Maybe it's the size, or maybe I'm just a fool for nostalgia. :)
I still write checks.
Wow, using checks isn't from the jurassic period, that's from the age of primordial soup. :)
(In my other life, I'd be a bad-ass CPA.)