![\"Shopping](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/circulars.jpg\" "\\"Shopping")
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Shopping the circulars is a smart way to save money.<\/p>\n
Deke Farrow<\/p>\n
jfarrow@modbee.com<\/p>\n
Time is money.<\/p>\n
The simple phrase generally means time is a valuable resource and wasting it is like throwing away money.<\/p>\n
But in this time of high prices for everything from groceries to gasoline, let\u2019s take it as meaning something else: Taking time to make smart choices as a consumer will save money.<\/p>\n
That means shop the circulars before you shop the stores. Use apps and customer loyalty reward programs. Make a list, both to ensure nothing is forgotten and to avoid impulse purchases. It means look not just at the price of a food product but its price per ounce. Compare prices of major-brand vs. store-brand products<\/p>\n
Consumers are really \u201cgetting hammered\u201d by high prices at every turn, Stanislaus State University\u2019s Foster Farms Endowed Professor of Business Economics G\u00f6k\u00e7e Soydemir told The Bee in a recent interview. Consumers have to fight back, he said, \u201cand one way to do that is to shop at different places and find out what\u2019s cheaper in one store and cheaper at another store. I know it\u2019s more cumbersome to do it, but the feeling that high costs are being passed onto you as a consumer is terrible.\u201d<\/p>\n
G\u00f6k\u00e7e Soydemir is the Foster Farms endowed professor of business economics at California State University, Stanislaus. California State Univ, Stanislaus Stanislaus State <\/p>\n
Soydemir leads the San Joaquin Valley Business Forecast,<\/a> a regional economic outlook that tracks and forecasts key economic trends across the San Joaquin Valley.<\/p>\n He noted that the Consumer Confidence Index, a monthly survey of US consumer attitudes, spending plans and expectations for inflation, stock prices and interest rates, fell from 88.6 in August to 81.9 in September. That is the lowest level since 2014<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a very well-defined gradual, slowly evolving decline in consumer confidence that we\u2019re tracking very closely, and it\u2019s quite concerning,\u201d Soydemir said. \u201c… When it dips down to 70, that\u2019s when recessions occur, and we\u2019re not too far from it.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s always important for consumers to look out for themselves, the professor said, and he shared with The Bee some ways to do just that.<\/p>\n Plan your trips<\/p>\n We all have a favorite couple of stores, but shopping them blindly can mean you\u2019re missing bargains.<\/p>\n Decades ago, before the internet, \u201cLet Your Fingers Do the Walking\u201d was the slogan for the yellow pages business telephone directories. Now, our fingers walk across our phone screens to compare prices through Google Shopping and other tools.<\/p>\n Sodemir said he frequently uses AI to quickly hunt for best buys.<\/p>\n The old-school version of online searching remains the weekly circulars now found in mailboxes instead of tucked into newspapers.<\/p>\n One week this month, it was easy to compare prices of \u201cfresh boneless, skinless chicken breast\u201d and \u201cbeef boneless New York steak\u201d at Save Mart and Food Maxx. The chicken was $2.99 a pound at Save Mart and $1.99 a pound at Food Maxx if purchased in a \u201cMaxx Pack.\u201d The steak was $9.99 a pound at Save Mart and $8.86 a pound at Food Maxx \u2014 again if bought in a Maxx Pack.<\/p>\n Make a shopping list and try to stick to it. But don\u2019t be so laser focused on buying Brand X when Brand Y of essentially the same product may be on sale right next to it.<\/p>\n Stores want you to buy more than you came for. That\u2019s one of the reasons they change things up, occasionally moving products among aisles. Having to hunt for what you\u2019re looking for means you\u2019re more likely to stumble across something not on your list.<\/p>\n \u201cStores also strategically place the dairy department at the back of the store so we\u2019ll have to wander past lots of other potential purchases on our way to grab milk or eggs,\u201d says a story on HuffPost.com<\/a>. \u201cAnd they stock candy and soda by the checkout lanes, where we might be inspired to make one last inexpensive impulse buy.\u201d<\/p>\n Stores sometimes play \u201cconfuse the consumer\u201d as a way to sell higher-priced goods, Soydemir said. There may be a very cheap deal offered, \u201cbut it\u2019s gonna be in a tiny, tiny, small corner, and then you won\u2019t notice it, right?\u201d And if you can\u2019t quickly find a store employee, you buy something else.<\/p>\n One reason a sale item is tucked away is that it may be low in inventory, the professor said. And when the shopper can\u2019t find it, or it sells out, \u201cyou\u2019re gonna say, \u2018OK, I can\u2019t look for it anymore. I\u2019ll just get this higher-priced frozen pizza,\u2019 for example.\u201d<\/p>\n Rules of thumb \u2014 and exceptions to them<\/p>\n Shoppers learn to believe certain rules of thumb: House brands are cheaper than name brands. Buying the larger package \u2014 \u201cfamily size,\u201d or \u201cgiant size\u201d \u2014 means the product\u2019s per-ounce price is lower. Clearance items are deeply discounted.<\/p>\n For the most part, these things are true.<\/p>\n Take over-the-counter medicines, for instance. If a doctor says, \u201cJust take Tylenol as needed,\u201d some patients will swing by the pain-relief aisle to buy exactly that. But the active ingredient in Tylenol is acetaminophen, which is available much cheaper in house brands.<\/p>\n So when Sodemir finds a generic product with a label that invites the buyer to \u201ccompare to the active ingredient\u201d in a more expensive version, he doesn\u2019t hesitate. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t even look at the ingredients,\u201d he said. \u201cIf it says substitute, and it\u2019s cheaper, I get it immediately. Because there has to be truth in advertising, particularly in medicine and over-the-counter drugs. Going with those options saves you a lot of money for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n Sometimes, though, a brand name on sale will be less expensive than the house brand. Or the larger container is not cheaper by the ounce. It\u2019s a good habit to look closely at the price on the shelf, though you can\u2019t always trust even that.<\/p>\n For instance, at the Walmart on McHenry Avenue in Modesto (and online), State Fair 100% beef corn dogs sell in a five pack for $4.84 (the sticker says 36.4 cents per ounce) or in a 16 pack for $13.62 (sticker says 56.8 cents per ounce). That indicates the larger pack is more expensive per ounce, but the math is wrong. The cost per corn dog is about 96 cents by the five pack and about 85 cents by the 16 pack.<\/p>\n As for clearance items, look for the sticker that states the original and discounted prices. Then pull out your phone to comparison shop. Perhaps the clearance price still remains higher than what other stores are asking. Or the discount is not much \u2014 if anything at all.<\/p>\n A few years ago, a customer could not find the lower price on an item in a Modesto store\u2019s clearance section and asked a store employee to price-check it. The price had not been lowered, the employee said, because \u201cclearance\u201d sometimes means only that the product won\u2019t be restocked on the regular shelves.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t get caught short<\/p>\n When you see you\u2019re running low on an item, find the best buy before you\u2019re in a pinch, Soydemir advised, It\u2019s especially important when the product is a lot pricier than a loaf of bread or a gallon of milk.<\/p>\n The professor offered his purchase of pool shock as an example.<\/p>\n He did an AI search to find the lowest price, which was at The Home Depot. The exact product he wanted was out of stock at local stores, but he was able to order it online from the store.<\/p>\n \u201cPlan ahead, you know? Do not leave it to the last day, where you have no option but buy it at a higher-priced option,\u201d he advised. \u201cPlan ahead so you can order through like Walmart or Amazon or Home Depot so that you get that lower price.\u201d<\/p>\n The power consumers hold<\/p>\n Consumers are basically the biggest economic group in the U.S. and any country, Soydemir said, but they don\u2019t pull together like a special-interest group. \u201cBecause they\u2019re so big, it\u2019s very hard for them to organize and vectorize themselves,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n When faced with higher costs themselves, Soydemir said, stores will absorb what they must and pass on to shoppers what they can. \u201cIf all the consumers got together and curb their spending in certain items,\u201d he said, \u201cthen you\u2019ll see how fast the those prices come down.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Circulars](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_7814.jpg\" "\\"IMG_7814.jpg\\"")
Circulars from Save Mart and Food Maxx one week this month show prices for boneless chicken breast and New York steak. Deke Farrow jfarrow@modbee.com Stay focused, but don\u2019t wear blinders<\/p>\n Compare the prices of the small and large packages of the same corn dogs at Walmart. Deke Farrow jfarrow@modbee.com <\/p>\n