List

Do they have a list?

We have the power to reduce food waste by buying only what we need and taking good care of what we have. Let’s explore how we can have a positive and substantial impact on this problem.

STOP Food Waste 🍎 SAVE Money 🍎 LIVE Better

"The odds of going to the store for a loaf of bread and coming out with only a loaf of bread are three billion to one.” ⏤ Erma Bombeck

When I was little, I’d ride on the end of the grocery cart and (when my mom wasn’t looking) slip in my favorite chocolate chip cookies and sugar cereal. Not the boring, generic wheat flakes our family of eight normally purchased. Often, mom would notice odd things in the cart before they made it through checkout and safely in the bag. I do guarantee my purchasing decisions in all of these cases did not contribute to food waste.

At the time, I appreciated the food stores’ thoughtful design to encourage “impulse purchases.” Their maximizing profits and promotion of less-than-healthy food options hadn’t yet become my concern.

Store design expert, Paco Underhill, author of Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping, tells us that “fully 60 to 70 percent" of supermarket purchases are unplanned. University of Pennsylvania research finds that avoiding impulse buying adds up to 23% savings on a grocery bill. 

By all accounts, the remedy for unconscious over-shopping is the grocery list.

Make your own shopping decisions and make a list of what you and your family want to buy when you go to the store. 

There are a slew of shopping list apps and many offer ways to share the list, find deals and check on nutritional information. Or, simply keep an ongoing list on your phone. Or, even more retro, use pen and paper.

Keep your list handy, so you can add items as you use them up. 

Check your pantry before you add an item to the list, so you buy only what you need.

And, heavens, keep an eye on what lands in your cart!