Do You Compare Prices First Before You Buy Or Shop?

Yes but sometimes quality can't be sacrificed. Like produce...I would rather pay more if it looks good. Places in my area that are super cheap have bugs surrounding their produce.

 

I compare the prices and weight of things like you do as well. I do it because I look for value. If the food that I'm wanting to purchase is good, I will just go by the price when doing comparisons.

I like checking the weight of the products as well. I have a perfect example of why I look for value in the price and weight.

I found a 4oz bag of chips in a gas station for $1.49, and a 5oz bag for $2 dollars. They were the same brand of chips. Where I found the value is that the bags that were $1.49 also had this deal where you can buy 2 for $2 dollars which was the same price as the 5oz bag.

The only difference was that I got 8oz for the same price as the 5oz bag. Gotta pay attention to the price and weight. That's value to me.

 

Yes, I do that when buying drinks and food, I also look at the weight and the contents of the container and do my calculations. But sometimes I just simply buy the cheaper brand, like cola for example, rather than compare prices when I'm in a hurry.

 

I have a pretty good idea of what prices should be for an item, but I usually check offers online before I go out. With regards to items I don't buy often I will take my time and compare, for example buying frozen prawns for my dad, I don't have a clue what is a good buy or not, so I will shop around for him to get the best deal.

 

Generally speaking, I don't bother when it comes to groceries because for me it's about the overall experience. I have two main supermarkets I shop with and they just about cover all my needs. Even though I may find there are things that do cost less elsewhere, there's not much in it anyway because as they say, it goes in swings and round abouts really.

With clothes and everything else, I do make a big effort to shop around, though. I always compare online and high street prices, too.

 

Everyone should set aside some time every month or so to see how the stores they regularly buy their stuff from price everything they sell. This way you can find out which products you should buy from which store and plan your "shopping trips" accordingly so you'll save money each time you go shopping.

 

Its quite normal to compare prices when you are shopping. I usually do extensive window shopping in different addresses to make sure that I get a bargain. Not that I am mean, the fact remains that you can buy a product at double the price depending on the address you are operating from.

 

If it is a major purchase, I do compare prices. I make it a practice of at least checking both Amazon and Walmart.com before I lay down my money. And it is about an even split. Amazon comes out the winner, about as often as Walmart.com. And I can often save several dollars on even $30 purchase.

 

I do compare. Online, I will jump from store to store seeing who has the best deal.. it can take a while, but I almost always save a lot of money this way. In store, same thing.. compare stores and even product within the same store. Gotta do whatcha gotta do lol

 

I compare the price of everything I buy because money is really tight and I need to make it stretch as far as it possibly can. I'll compare even the smallest of purchases. For example I needed dish soap and bread the other day and found that dish soap was £0.01 cheaper at one shop than the other and in the same shop bread was £0.03 cheaper, so I chose to go to that shop for the £0.04 saving. It may not be a lot, but when I was going on foot anyway it wasn't like I was going to be using fuel to get to either and the slight saving seemed worth it to me. I know many people don't bother with such small savings, but every little bit really does help!

 

I usually compare prices when I am in the Sunday market where I buy fruits, vegetables and other food items. My trick is to scour the place for similar items. Let's say mangoes, I would ask several stalls how much for a kilo of mangoes and compare. Then I go back to the most timid vendor to haggle my price a little lower. It always works because I know the standard price for that particular fruit. It also works for other items like clothing as long as the items are similar in other stalls. You get a sampling of prices so you will know the standard price before you can freely bargain.

 

I would compare prices when shopping but I do not do this for every item. When grocery shopping I prefer not to spend a great deal of time in the supermarket so even though I would compare prices, I do not spend a great deal of time doing so. I would just do a random check and move on. Also, I am accustomed to buying certain brands for some items, so I do not do comparisons for these items since I would already know what I would be spending on them. I also go for quality when shopping, especially when it comes to meats, vegetables and juices.

 

Oh, yes, I do. It's like a hobby for me. I would just walk slowly down the aisle looking at the prices and making mental calculations comparing them. Very often I would also compare the prices of different packs. Like I would mentally calculate whether it's cheaper to buy the one-kilo pack or the five-kilo pack. Strangely, in Thailand, where I used to live, bulk packs are more expensive than the smaller packs. I did once ask a shop keeper about it. She explained that the smaller packs are usually bought by the poorer people so they are cheaper. The bigger packs are usually bought by the richer people which makes it alright to make more profit out of them. That's a rather compassionate business policy, I think.

 

Here in Hawaii we have another newspaper called Midweek, that has weekly ads from supermarket, like Safeway, CVS, Times Supermarket (local store), Foodland (another local store) too. Then we have Sunday ads in Sunday newspaper from Walgreens, CVS, Don Quiote (local store), Target or Walmart when they got ads, K-Mart (they have their both for our Midweek and Sunday newspaper) so we have a good thing to compare prices and items. But, I do find at Don Quiote a 16 oz. tortilla chip for just 1.49!!!! Love it! I love window shopping and do it both online and brick and mortar.

MIdweek is from our local newspaper that carries different local news only, plus ads that breaks on Wed. locally. You can check online at the stores sites for national stores like CVS, Safeway or Ralphs or Walgreens, get their cards for more savings too, open a free acct. for the store you shop at and get digital coupons which brings more savings! Happy shopping!

 

For small things like food, I usually don't mind if things are a few cents more expensive. I mostly compare prices when I'm purchasing something more expensive than 30 dollars and especially with electronics. Same with clothes too and especially with the most expensive ones like thick jackets or shoes.

 

I do compare prices if the products are side by side as in supermarket. I don't make extra efforts to compare prices at each purchase.


If I had randomly bought from somewhere at cheaper rate I might want to check it out the next time I shop.

 

Personally I never compare prices when I go shopping. What I do is to haggle or ask for the la.st price. If I am not satisfied or convinced I never buy. My wife is a very good shopper. She knows the prevailing prices or the market price than me. She always got a good buy. My late mother, I remember, was a good bargain buyer.

 

I sometimes buy in haste without doing a price research. Fortunately I haven't experienced buying items with a wrong price. But my wife is a model when it comes to shopping because she never fails to make a research of prices before purchasing. In fact she would inquire from her shopping buddies on the correct prices. And so I always consult her when I have plans of buying something.

 

If I'm buying something expensive like a graphics card, then yeah I check every detail there is to it. I check every store to see if the price is the same, and check other similar products that are the same but the other one is cheaper. If it is something that is cheap or I buy it everyday I don't really check it, because the prices can't vary that much, or if they do I will ask my friends about it.