Shopping Comparison

Shopping Comparison

Students, I hope you all have an experience in shopping. can you share a few of your experiences? I would like to raise some questions on your shopping experience. How will you shop the things you need? By (i) attractive colour or (ii) best price or (iii) big in size or (iv) on seeing. Whatever it may be, among all these things, one important point should be noted. What is that? Yes, that is the expiry date. Have you ever noticed the expiry date on all the packed goods? It is very important to see that and another way of shopping is to compare goods by means of its price, quality, quantity, offers, discount and other considerable things.

Before spending your money to shop any item from a market or a departmental store, consider the best prices, the best quality and other reliable things. This is what we call as wise shopping.

Here, we will learn how to be a wise consumer before shopping a product from the following situation.

Situation:

Imagine that the teacher maker you and your friend to be incharge of the fruit section of your school canteen for a week. She also instructs the following steps and she can help you when needed.

Shopping list

1. 20 kg apples

2. 20 kg of guavas

3. 30 boxes of strawberries

4. 20 dozens of bananas

• Now you have to buy fruits for 2 days as per your the shopping list.

• One of you should go to the market and the other should go to the departmental store to know the cost of the fruits before shopping.

• Estimate yourselves about which place will give you the best deal.

After that,

• Check your shopping list to see how much fruits you require.

• Compare the weight and price for each item from both places.

• Select the best deal for all items in only one place .

• Discuss and compare the price list so that you decide where to buy the required list of fruits.

For example, the collected model price list from both shops is given in the table below:

Now, we will calculate the total price of the required and quantity of fruits from both the departmental store and market.

Calculating the total price from the Departmental store:

Calculating the total price from the Market Price:

Now, let us compare the shopping price of the Departmental store to that of the Market shop.

From the above comparison, we find that shopping made at the Market shop is the best deal quantity wise as well as in price wise and hence it is wise to shop in the Market.

Activity

 Consider that you are going to a store with your total budget of ₹220 to buy things without changing the quantity of the items given in the list below with the following conditions.

Conditions:

(i) First you have to complete the price list given.

(ii) You have to buy three items as per the given price list but within your budget ₹220.

(iii) You won’t carry exceeding 5kg because you have to walk home carrying them, so they cannot be bulky.

Now, answer the following questions:

(i) In how many ways can you buy your items? Complete the price lists given below. One is done for you.

(ii) Which one is the best purchase price list and why?

Answer: 

1. Comparing containers of different size

Many times, items are packed in different sized of containers.

• Sometimes, shoppers save money by selecting a larger container of the same item. For example, 1 litre of milk often costs less than 5 units of 200ml pack of milk.

• Sometimes, a store has two prices for the same item. One price is for buying a single item, while the other price is for buying more than one of the same item. For example, groundnut oil may cost ₹135 for 1 litre bottle and ₹240 for 2 litre bottles. In this case, if you buy two 1 litre bottles, you will pay more. Sometimes, buying in quantity also saves money.

• Sometimes, the consumer may not be able to use up the larger size of an item before it becomes stale or outdated. To find out which size container is the best to buy, you will need to know the price of single pack of the contents.

Activity

Consider that you want to buy 12 litres of the same quality of edible oil at your budget price of ₹250 per litre. In a supermarket, there are a lot of offers on various oil brands. Some of the offers are given below. Complete the table and find which one is the best offer for you and how much you will save for your total purchase.

Which one is the best deal?

Best offer price for you ₹ 137.50

Amount that you saved for your total purchase ₹ 1350

Try these

The teacher divides the class into four groups and sets up a mock market in the class room and ask the students to involve in role play as two groups of businessmen and two groups of consumers. Consumers have to buy products at different shops and prepare a price list.

The two supermarkets in which the two groups can buy are Star Food Mart and Super Provisions. This week they each have got a special deal on some products. At Star Food Mart, you can buy items at discount prices. At Super Provisions, there are some “BUY ONE GET ONE” deals. Have a look at their deal:

Now, answer the following questions.

I. Here is your shopping list:

(i) 4 bottles of Protein Milk (200 ml size)

(ii) 2 packets of Peanut candies(200 gm)

(iii) 1 packet of Chocolate biscuits

(iv) 1 packet of Badam nuts (500 gm)

(i) If you buy all the items in one shop, where will you get the best price?

(ii) If you buy the items from the two shops, how will you do it to spend the least amount of money?

II. You have ₹1000/- to spend to buy the following shopping list:

(i) 6 bottles of Protein Milk (200 ml size)

(ii) 3 packets of Peanut candies(200 gm)

(iii) 3 packets of Chocolate biscuits

(iv) 1 packet of Badam nuts (250 gm).

(i) How can you do this so that you don’t go over your budget amount ₹1000?

(ii) Which shop offers you the best value for money on each item?

(iii) Is the “BUY ONE GET ONE” deal at Super Provisions the same as “50% off” deal?

Solution:

Prices of Star Food Mart.

(i) In star Food Mart

(ii) Badam nuts from super provisions and other items from Star Food Mart. 

II. Comparing two stores.

(i) We can buy them from any one shop.

(ii) Star Food Mart.

(iii) Yes