4 Seasonal Grocery Buys That Are a Huge Waste of Money
Written by
Andrew Lisa
Edited by
Cory Dudak
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Every season brings exciting new offerings to grocery store shelves — apple cider and pumpkin pie in the fall, eggnog in the winter, early peas and onions in the spring and corn and watermelon in the summer.
Those are all fantastic choices if they suit your style, because it’s likely that your local supermarket will offer them at competitive prices. However, that’s not the case with all seasonal grocery buys. Some are a total waste of money — and in many cases, the industry openly schemes to leverage the seasons to get customers to overspend.
Avoid these money-wasting seasonal supermarket buys at all costs.
Pre-Cut In-Season Produce
Buying produce in-season is among the best ways for shoppers to save money and improve the nutritional quality of their food. However, you should pass on pre-cut seasonal produce in winter, spring, summer and fall. One downside is that it loses nutritional value more quickly because it’s exposed to oxygen — but the real harm is to your wallet.
Reliable data on precise markups on pre-cut produce is hard to come by. Several credible food and personal finance publications claim the average markup is 40% to 100% or more, but many of them cite outdated numbers from a 2010s-era University of Vermont study. Either way, you’re all but guaranteed to pay more than you would by purchasing the same thing whole and cutting it up yourself, no matter the specific dollar amount.
The Food Trust, a Philadelphia-based nutritional organization that educates and advocates for neighborhood grocers, stated simply that “Pre-made fruit and vegetable containers can be sold at a higher price than whole produce.”
For example, Shoprite sells pre-cut pineapples — in season from March through July — for roughly $6.49 per pound, but whole pineapples weighing between two and five pounds cost $3.49 each. Green apples — in-season in most locations from late summer through fall — cost roughly $0.33 per ounce when pre-sliced, but if you buy them whole in a bag, you’ll pay around just $0.08 per ounce.
Fresh Seasonal Fruits and Vegetables for Cooking or Smoothies
If you’re buying in-season fruits and vegetables to snack on raw or use in salads, hit the produce aisle and buy it fresh. However, that’s usually a waste of money if you’re blending them into smoothies or cooking them — and that standard holds true in all seasons for nearly all produce.
According to Martha Stewart, Health.com, GoodFood, The Kitchn and many other health, food and personal finance sites, frozen fruits and vegetables are as good or better nutritionally than fresh produce.
Unlike fresh produce that has to travel to a grocery store and sit on a shelf until purchase, companies flash-freeze frozen fruits and vegetables shortly after picking, which preserves them at the peak of freshness and nutritional wholeness. Unlike mushy and salty canned produce, the process doesn’t diminish the texture or flavor, or require any preservatives or added ingredients. As an added bonus, cooking them requires no washing, peeling, cutting or prepping — and all for less money.
For example, Shoprite sells 12-ounce bags of spinach — already washed, chopped and ready to cook in a convenient steam-in bag — for $0.12 an ounce. A 12-ounce bunch of fresh spinach — in season in the cool months — costs $0.17 an ounce. However, if you want a pre-washed package that’s ready to cook, you’ll pay $0.50 an ounce — and that’s at a discounted sale price.
Any Seasonal Purchases You Didn’t Plan To Make Upon Entering the Store
One of the cardinal rules of grocery shopping is to bring a list and stick to it. However, many people boost the supermarket’s bottom line at the expense of their own budgets by making spontaneous and unnecessary purchases on impulse — and that’s no accident.
An industry organization called The Food Institute published an article titled “Drive Impulse Purchases Using Urgency and Store Layout” which outlined how enormously profitable it can be for grocery stores to encourage unplanned purchases, which they could count on their customers to make even during the height of the food inflation crisis — and seasonal offerings provide the most temptation to you and the greatest opportunity to them.
The Food Industry Association counsels grocery store owners to “drive larger basket sizes” with “well-executed seasonal displays” that can “lead to a surge of impulse buys,” which account for more than half of all general merchandise purchases.
Season-Specific Non-Food Merchandise
The Food Institute tutorial, which instructed grocery store owners on how to inspire impulse purchases, counseled them to create a sense of urgency when selling non-food seasonal products, which are often overpriced at supermarkets. By using limited-time-only marketing strategies, they can pressure customers into buying things that they easily could have found elsewhere for less if they didn’t feel rushed to purchase it before it was too late. The article mentioned tactics like holiday decor in the winter and grilling accessories and patio furniture in the spring and summer, all of which are available at a better quality and for less money on Amazon.
Disclaimer: Cited prices and quantities accurate as of Jan. 24, 2025.
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