Here's When You Should Absolutely Avoid The Grocery Store

Among the biggest grocery-shopping mistakes you can make is shopping while hungry. That's not just an old saw your mother told you. It's backed by scientific evidence. Grocery-shopping while hungry leads to poor food choices. In fact, according to 2019 research by the University of Dundee in the United Kingdom, hunger can negatively affect all kinds of decision-making, even when it doesn't have anything to do with food. And a smaller 2013 study from Cornell University had already shown that hungry participants were more likely to buy high-calorie foods than those who'd had a small snack before shopping.

Staying within budget at the grocery store is an onerous task, even when you're full. Like other retail shops, grocery markets are designed to make you spend more money. Bright colors, flashy signs, BOGO offers, and endless choices are among the tricks everyone falls for when walking down long grocery store aisles, making it difficult to walk out without purchasing something extra. 

If we're hungry on top of that, we're far more likely to grab a bag of potato chips or a sugary hand pie — a treat we'd probably like to inhale right now — rather than wait an hour or so for a healthful, satisfying dinner of roast chicken and broccoli. Gobbling crackers or a crisp apple before you go can help you resist unhealthy foodstuffs that offer immediate gratification.

There's a long-running joke about how you can't walk out of Costco without spending nearly $200, regardless of how short your list happens to be or how hungry you are, real proof of the power of near-infinite choices and in-store advertising. In fact, hunger can even encourage you to buy things that aren't edible. That's according to a 2015 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. So why shop for food when you're hungry? Planning your grocery shopping trip wisely is the best way to avoid expensive impulse purchases.

Try to arrange your trip after a full meal like lunch or dinner or eat a small snack like a piece of fruit or some grilled granola on the way. If you have no option but to shop during a time when you know you'll be hungry, there are tricks to avoid making unwanted, unhealthful decisions, such as buying (and eating) a healthy snack right when you walk in the door, wearing headphones with upbeat music to bop through your shopping quickly, or using a handheld basket to limit how much you can carry, forcing you to prioritize what goods stay and what has to go back on the shelf.