By: Joseph Battista

It’s that time of the week again. The fridge is empty, and you need to save a few dollars. Let the grocery scavenger hunt commence. You start your three-part journey at your favorite grocer to get pantry essentials and cheese. Then you head to the grocery store with the supposed “best” prices on meat in town, at least according to all their advertisements. Ending the journey, at the store with the cheapest produce. Wait, the cheap produce spot’s cheese and meat is cheaper than your last two destinations, yet you already got overcharged. 

All the effort spent maximizing grocery value is wasted. You still end up sacrificing your first-born child and three fingers from your dominant hand, for groceries… How can someone possibly know the best food deals without becoming some sort of price prophet, an oracle cursed to search for the fairest groceries of thy land?

Maybe there is a solution. A remedy to gluttonous groceries demanding your monthly budget. The price prophet we the people need! A localized price catalog showcasing the lowest and average price for America’s most purchased groceries. 

A magical list of the cheapest and average price for groceries sounds great, but how could it actually work? Local governments would take the helm of this project and localize grocery price catalogs by their respective county. The catalog could be updated monthly or actively track prices with the help of artificial intelligence . The catalog could feature 50 of America’s most purchased groceries. Each product would have the cheapest price in the county along with that price’s location, and the overall county price average.

Tracking prices by county keeps shoppers informed on prices in their communities, without the necessary workload. Once produced, the catalogs would be posted online for ease of access. Shoppers could check the catalog for cheapest asparagus in the area before their grocery journey, or even see if that asparagus bundle at their local grocer is a fair deal or overpriced. 

Price catalogs inform consumers on current prices. Informed consumers make educated purchases, ideally getting themselves the best spending value. Apply this to groceries, customers save money during their shopping, either to spend elsewhere or afford higher quality foods.Shoppers have more to gain than just fair prices with a grocery catalog. It’s free advertising.Product research, aka checking the price catalog, is the second-largest motivator in purchasing decisions, even more so than company driven marketing, according to McKinsey Quarterly. Free exposure in a catalog dedicated to customer research, simply by offering the best prices. It sounds like a recipe for low price competition in the grocery industry, driving down the costs for all.

The dream to stop getting screwed over by the grocery industry exists – but will it happen? Demand catalogs and beat the grocery gambit.