From Asparagus to Zucchini: How your grocery shopping affects the economy

The generation gap is an interesting thing today. Especially in our economic slump. Those of you my age that have any sense and are already working on your retirement have seen your 401(k) balance take a nose dive. Imagine being 60-some odd years old and having a pension based solely on GM stock. "When GM goes down..."

So after a conversation on the phone with my parents I gained a better understanding of things. I thought I was the only guy in town that was having trouble paying his rent on time. I thought I was the only one being pressured to pay his cellphone bill on time. I thought I was the only guy at the bar that couldn't afford his usual top shelf drink. After talking with lots of people about the taboo subject of money, I have come to learn that EVERYONE is somehow affected by this recession.

For example, the Starbucks in the building where I work was forced to raise their prices. Starbucks announced the closing of hundreds of their stores months ago. A Venti Caramel Macchiato can cost up to $5 including tax in most markets. That's a $5 cup of coffee! I know bars that offer martini specials that match that! What is it with our affinity with these frothy beverages? I'm a prime example, here I am, hardly able to pay the bills, sitting in Dunn Brothers drinking a $3.50 latte. Is it the comfort? The sense of false security? Or is it, really, as Starbucks calls it, the comfort of the third place? Regardless of how poor the economy is, or how many DTSB's (Drive-Thru Starbucks as my friend calls them) get closed, Americans will never lose their love affair with socially iconic corporate products such as these. In fact, the Motley Fool has listed Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX) as their Best Stock for 2009!

So here we are, in an economy that sucks. What got us here? Well, leave it to Fox News and the Wall Street Journal to argue over that. I think WE got ourselves here and we are ALL guilty of it. Example: micro-conspicuous consumption. Do you remember that economics class you took in college where you learned about conspicuous consumption and keeping up with the Joneses? Well, we're not buying $60,000 SUV's like we did five years ago, but now we're doing it on a much more dangerous small scale. How many people do you know that shop at Whole Foods that can barely make their mortgage payment? Well, none of course, because your neighbor doesn't want you to know that they're struggling. Human nature is to make it appear you're up when you're really down. Now are your neighbors loading their $300 weekly organic grocery bill onto their American Express and paying it off every month? Are they writing a check at the end of the aisle or paying with cash? You can probably bet not, all of that baby asparagus, Ahi tuna and organic wheat germ cereal is loaded onto their 12.99% APR Visa card.

Why though? Why do we do this to ourselves? Is there something wrong with getting your groceries at Super Target or Kroger? Is there something wrong with the discount grocery store down the street? No, of course not, it's all the same produce that comes from the same farms at gets put in the same box. A box of Ritz Crackers will always taste the same whether you buy it at Fresh Market, Kroger or Food Lion.

Now, after having watched Walmart: The High Cost of Low Prices, I wouldn't encourage anyone to shop their. Walmart's affect on the economy is horrible. But, when you think about this micro-conspicuous consumption, it really makes you wonder. Which is worse? Shopping at a store that pays their employees $7/hr and paying cash, or putting twice as much money on your credit card to shop at the "boutique" grocery store in Green Hills (a ritzy shopping area in Nashville).

It's these micro-micro-economics that we have to think about. Its the decisions in the things we buy every day that affect our personal economy more than anything else. Now, if every white-picket fence two and half kid perfect family shopped at Walmart, budgeted out their groceries each week and occasionally purchased the generic brand of a few items, perhaps we wouldn't see the consumer credit crunch like we do now. Obviously choices such as groceries won't keep you out of debt. But, get out your adding machine. How much is a box of Ritz crackers at, let's say, Fresh Market? We'll go with $4.59. Alright, now if you were to buy a box of "buttered cocktail crackers" or whatever the hell they're called at Walmart, Target or some other discount store, I could not see you wanting to pay more than $1.99 for the box. Now, we've saved almost 57% by making that small change.

Now, certainly, $2.60 doesn't seem like a monumental savings. But, we're talking about one item in your grocery cart that we've exchanged for a store brand alternative. Now, imagine doing that with 10-20-30% of your groceries. Imagine how much money you could save if you actually got the store brand orange juice from concentrate instead of the $7 gallon of Tropicana-came-from-the-orange-itself-they-just-squeezed-it-in-the-back-room that you always buy. Now, you might sacrifice a little bit of pulp, but if you look at the nutritional information you're almost not sacrificing anything at all.

It's those small choices we make that can make a huge difference in our own personal economies. So, next time you go out for some bread and milk, think twice before you buy the all-natural brand name product you just saw on a commercial during Desperate Housewives before you left the house. And then, when you rack up $4 or $5 in savings a week, you can go back to Starbucks and indulge in that frothy goodness you always lust.