The Best — and Worst — Days to Go Grocery Shopping

Home-cooked meals are usually healthier for our bodies and wallets, but preparing those meals means a trip to the supermarket. Getting to the grocery store can be a last-minute stop on the way home from work or a several-hour commitment on the weekend. Either way, it often feels grueling and expensive. However, there’s an art to scoring the freshest produce and lowest prices and dodging a crowd. Here are our tips to make you a supermarket superstar.

The Best Day to Grocery Shop is Wednesdays

Most major grocery retailers roll out their weekly specials on Wednesdays, and it’s often a double-coupon day. (Bonus: They’ll often honor last week’s sale prices on Wednesdays, too.) If you want to save money on your grocery budget and get the freshest produce, meats, and seafood, get to the store on Wednesdays. You may share the aisles with other savvy deal-seekers, but you still won’t contend with weekend crowds, who are also competing to buy fresh food.

Mondays Are the Second-Best Day to Grocery Shop

Monday is also a good day for getting your groceries for the week. Not as many people are up to an after-work shopping trip early in the week, so you’ll have fewer crowds to contend with. Most grocery stores will have restocked their shelves after the weekend rush, offering reasonable availability for the items on your list.

Avoid Grocery Shopping on the Weekends

Avoid the grocery store on Friday evenings after 5 p.m. when stores get flooded with after-work, pre-weekend shopping. Monday through Thursday evenings can be hectic, too, but not nearly as busy as Fridays.

Consumer research shows that more than half of shoppers buy groceries on Fridays, Saturdays, or Sundays. If weekends are your only option, try to get your shopping done on Friday before 3:00 p.m. or before 11:00 a.m. on Saturday or Sunday.

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