I spent thirty-one years in grocery stores, the last fourteen running one. This is everything I'd tell you if we walked into a store together, written down in large print.
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She came through my line every Tuesday with a white envelope of coupons, sorted by aisle and held with a rubber band. She knew the price of everything. She knew which cans had gone up a nickel since last week.
And every Tuesday she also had three or four things in her cart that weren't on her list. Cookies from the end of an aisle. Grapes from the pretty display by the door. A magazine from the rack at my register. The sign on the cookies said "Special." They were the regular price.
She wasn't careless. The store was simply better at its job than she was at hers.
I'm Marlene Hoyt. I started on a register at nineteen and ran the whole store for my last fourteen years. I set the markdowns, changed the shelf tags overnight and stood behind the service desk on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. I'm not affiliated with any store, and nobody paid for a word of this book. It's the other side of the counter, in plain words.
None of these feel like much on the day. Together they're the difference.
A few weeks of missed sale prices cost about what this book does.
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The "10 for $10" sign is one of the oldest in the store. At most stores, each item rings up at a dollar whether you buy one or ten. Read the small print on the tag. If it says "must buy 10," then you do. Otherwise buy what you need, and leave the other nine on the shelf.
The same goes for the "limit 4" sign. A limit makes something feel scarce and valuable, and people buy four because they're allowed to. A limit tells you nothing about whether the price is good. The small number on the shelf tag, the unit price, does.
That's one page. The book has 179, in large print.
Every trap with the reason, every perk with the words to ask for it, every store brand with how to check it yourself.
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Marlene Hoyt · 179-page large-print PDF · reads on any phone, tablet or computer
I'm Marlene Hoyt. I started on a register in Ohio at nineteen, came back to the store after raising my kids, worked nights stocking shelves, ran dairy and frozen, and managed the whole store for my last fourteen years.
A grocery store isn't trying to cheat you. It's very good at helping you spend a little more than you meant to. I know how, because for a long time that was my job.
Where I tell you to walk past something, I tell you why.
Probably more than you expect. Coupons are one chapter's worth. Most of the money leaks somewhere else: the loyalty price you didn't get, the end cap that wasn't a deal, the sale that didn't ring up, the markdowns you walked past because you came at the wrong time of day.
No. The first six chapters work at any grocery store in America. Chapter 7 has a page each for Walmart, Kroger and its family stores, Aldi, Costco, Target, Publix and Dollar General.
No. Every tip has a way to do it without an app, and the book tells you the words to say at the desk. Where an app saves you real money, it walks you through it in plain steps.
Yes. It's set in large type on purpose, and because it's a PDF you can make it bigger still by spreading two fingers on the page. It also prints well on plain paper.
No. It's a PDF, 179 pages. It opens on your phone, tablet or computer. Print it at home or at your library if you like paper.
Press any Buy button on this page. Pay once on the secure checkout. The page that opens right after you pay has your download button, and the same link is sent to your email. No account to set up, no password to remember.
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The traps, the markdown times, what to ask for at the desk, and a page for your own store. All in one book.
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