The Common Grocery Store Mistake You're Probably Making

It turns out that there really is a worst time to go grocery shopping, and it's actually not the ultra-busy weekends ... it's when you're hungry. This is backed up by academic studies, like that published in JAMA Internal Medicine, which prove what common sense has suggested all along ... you are likely to buy more, as well as make higher-calorie choices, when your stomach is empty.

The methodology of the study was twofold. First, researchers asked participants to fast for five hours before the experiment. Half the group was then given crackers to munch before starting. All participants were sent shopping in a simulated grocery store. The hungry folks bought more high-calorie products than their counterparts who'd had some food. For the second part of the study, the researchers recorded the purchases of real-life grocery shoppers between the hours of 1:00 p.m. to 4:00p.m. and 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Shoppers in the former group bought healthier items, which led the researchers to conclude that customers full from lunch would make more nutritious choices than those with grumbly bellies.

There are wider implications for this information, as the decision about when to go grocery shopping may affect not only the quality of your choices, but your bottom line as well — hungry people spend more money, even at the cheapest grocery store in the States. If a family is struggling to keep grocery bills in check, eating before heading out could mean the difference between balancing the budget and overspending.

It's important to keep in mind that the Cornell study results assume a cause that can't be proven exactly as tested — that folks bought higher-calorie food while shopping before dinner because they were hungrier. Nobody actually asked the participants if they'd eaten lately, so there is some room for doubt. However, it's hard to deny the everyday logic that posits you will buy more food if you have gone a while without eating. For certain people, however, that might be a good thing.

On Reddit, commenters in r/frugal had a lively discussion about the benefits and risks of eating before shopping. Some reinforced what the study claimed: when they left the house with an empty tummy, they blew their budgets and bought tons of nutrient-deficient snacks. Others countered that, if they ate too much before shopping, they felt indifferent towards the food at the supermarket and came home with almost nothing, necessitating more trips out (and, consequently, more spending) in the near future. 

Maybe the answer is to meal plan and follow your grocery list, or perhaps employ a strategy like the 6-to-1 grocery shopping method. Having the self-awareness to acknowledge your own grocery shopping style is key, too. Are you prone to impulse buys, or do you frequently overlook items that you will need later in the week? The answer to those questions might dictate how important it is that you eat before shopping.