Source: Pam Miller, Halloran School
You’re giving a party and have to go shopping for snacks. You’ve heard about online shopping services and want to give them a try. Because you have a limited amount of money, you want to get the best buys that you can, so you’re going to comparison shop and buy the items where you get the most for your money.
On the spreadsheet you’ll see that you’re going to comparison shop for soda, potato chips, candy and ice cream. But this is easier said than done, because all the items come in different size packages. The way to see which has the best price is to determine the unit price, which is how much an item costs per ounce. These two sites provide you with unit prices, but if you ever need to figure one out yourself, the way you do it is to divide the weight/volume into the price.
You’re going to find prices for your groceries on http://www.peapod.com. On the first screen, click on Groceries for Your Home. On the second screen, use the zip codes 07041 or 07078. Once you get into Peapod, go to Start Shopping -> and then to General Groceries, then the categories you need (which are Frozen Foods, Beverages, and Snacks, Cookies and Candy).
Once you find the best value in the group, please highlight the answer.
If you have time, go to http://www.shoprite.com and find prices for the same items, so we can see which store has the overall best prices per item. When you get to the main page, click on Online Shopping. On the second screen, pick any store. On the third screen, click on Groceries and then shop by category like you did using Peapod. If the same item isn’t available in Shop-Rite, type NA in the cell.
Have fun shopping!
Download this spreadsheet.