Frugality is really about the basics: living below our means every day. And what better way to do that than through saving money at Japanese supermarkets? Today, I'll introduce six little-known shopping secrets that are guaranteed to slash your bills!
Did you know that:
1) Large-scale supermarkets discount their produce and other fresh food items sharply on weekday evenings?
While full on the weekends, many larger suburban stores are empty on the weekdays, yet must still stock enough items to fill their aisles. Fresh vegetables, fruits, fish, and meat (essentially, items with a short expiration date) tend to get cheaper as the evening wears on. You can typically find sushi, prepared dishes ('sozai'), and other foods reduced by 50%, 70%, or more past 5 or 6 PM, while many supermarkets run special limited-time deals after 4 PM.
2) Stores have a 'cycle' on which their run their specials and sales?
Most supermarkets put their best deals in their newspaper inserts, known in Japanese as 'chirashi'. Stores typically run chirashi on certain days, and saving one week's worth of chirashi from each store can give you a good idea of their sale cycle. Dividing your shopping among several stores based on their sale days (i.e. eggs at Aeon on Thursday, frozen foods at Ito Yokado on Tuesday, meats on 10% off days at Nissho) can save you money.
3) Reading chirashi is an art unto itself?
For example, did you know that the best deals are reserved not for the full-color inserts with lovely pictures, but the boring one-color chirashi? Hand written inserts might have particularly good prices. Also, the upper left hand corner of a chirashi for national chains typically has the best deals! (Hint: it's where local stores can advertise their own special low prices.)
4) Rainy days are often great steals ?
A sudden rain shower can often result in a dramatic drop in customer traffic at stores. For the truly frugal, grab your umbrella and head out to find some great steals in the fresh foods department.
5) The last day before a multi-day sale or the day before the store's holiday is the time to shop?
In both cases, you're likely to find good deals on fresh foods as supermarkets have to drastically reduce their inventories. Also, the last day of a sale is a great time to find 'leftover' bargains.
6) The best place to look for bargains is the bottom of the shelf?
It's true. Some of the cheaper products can be found lurking on the bottom rack of grocery isle shelves - where they think you'll least notice it!
There you are! So get started shopping - and saving - right away!
By Wendy J. Imura. Copyright 2007.