Food Shopping A Japanese Perspective

When food shopping in the United States it is almost a given that buying a greater quantity of a product will mean that the unit price is smaller. Buying the "family pack" will be cheaper by the unit because the maker can move more of their product.

However, this is not always the case in Japan. In fact, when I first moved here over ten years ago, it never ceased to surprise me that the unit price remained the same regardless of the amount sold. In fact, I have even seen cases in which the unit price was cheaper for smaller quantities.

If you ask people who grew up in Japan why smaller sizes are popular enough that quantity discounts are unnecessary, one answer you may get is that Japanese homes, pantries, and refrigerators are too small to accommodate jumbo or economy sizes. Other people may say that they would not be able to use all of the products before the "use by date" anyway.

The answer that taught me the most about Japanese frugality, was a grandmotherly woman I had met in a grocery store. I asked her why she thought the unit price for a six pack of yogurt was the same as that for individual yogurt cups.

She told me that the supermarket was near her home and she passed it on the way back from work everyday. She smiled and said that she thought of the supermarket itself as another refrigerator. She could look at the sale items each day and plan her meals by what was inexpensive, or particularly delicious looking that day. Her family ate a lot of fresh fish and meats so she said she wanted to use them when they were as fresh as possible.

She bought food in small quantities as she needed them, tailored her meal planning to the supermarket's daily specials and sales, and bought food fresh and used it the same day. The benefits of frequent, smaller shopping trips came through taking advantage of a wide variety of sales. The largest benefit of all however is the lack of waste. Even though she misses out on saving a few yen per unit, she ends up using everything she buys making every bit of the money she spends on food count.

Even when food shopping in the United States, this Japanese style frugality may be useful.  Using the supermarket as a "second refrigerator" while still taking advantage of bulk buying discounts on non-perishable items can help families eat fresher, decrease waste, and take advantage of sales by visiting the supermarket a little more often. The challenge is to employ these techniques while remaining disciplined enough not to buy food on impulse or fall into the marketing pitfalls presented by the slick supermarket product specialists and marketers.

Good luck, and I hope this gives you another way to think about saving money and reducing waste!