I don’t want to drive far. I don’t need much. I definitely don’t want to wait in line when I am ready to check out and get home!
Obviously I am going to run up the street to the convenience store, rather than making my way to the grocery store and back.
Well….maybe….maybe not…. Why wouldn’t I?
We might debate this question in our heads when we just need a gallon of milk or a few snacks. Perhaps we need
batteries/feminine products/beer for a party. Whatever our needs are, the question we immediately ask ourselves, is do we
want to spend the money for the sake of the convenience… Convenience store…handy title, eh?
So often the convenience store prices are $1.00 - $3.00 more for our basic needs. It may be close, but…..
The fact is that there is no hard and fast rule about this. I have kicked myself more than a few times for driving a mile and a
half to get to the grocery store, rather than just .02 miles to get to the convenience store, standing in line for 20 minutes (at
least) and coming back home about an hour later, just to pick up a few things I could have purchased at the convenience store
because I didn’t want to spend any extra money, and to later on find when I am in the convenience store buying gasoline that
the milk cost the same as it did at the grocery store. How much more money did I spend in gas driving to the grocery store?
How much work could I have accomplished on the computer at home that would have helped me earn more $$ in my
business? Time IS money.
In order to determine the best financial course of action, we have to do a little research. Make sure that the convenience store
prices are actually higher than the grocery store prices. Is the convenience store closest to your home regularly very busy so
that you’d find yourself waiting in line for 10 minutes anyway? How close is it to your home? How much gasoline do you spend
to go elsewhere, not to mention the extra items you will undoubtedly find when in a large grocery store that you perhaps didn’t
need to purchase, but go ahead and buy while there. Evaluate your choices as they pertain to you. Not only to your physical
situation, but also to your own psychology? Are you much of an impulse shopper? If you are, you are less likely to spend an
extra $10, $30, $100 at the end of the “brief” shopping trip. Perhaps your local grocery store is just as fast as your local
convenience store. Perhaps it is much less expensive per item. Perhaps you are not an impulse shopper.
There are many reasons why the stores have the “convenience” label on them and your personal “out of pocket” price
comparison of these stores vs. other types of stores that would carry these goods, really depends upon the individual
consumer.
To shop or to grab and go. To spend money or to spend time. To compare and really know what you are dealing with or to
wing it and guess/assume. These are some of the questions you must ask yourself when forming your opinion on this matter.
Alicia Crowder
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