On that note: Never go to the grocery store on an empty stomach. As one AARP reader puts it, “A hungry man can turn a ‘quick trip for milk’ into a $100 adventure real fast.”
— from ’14 Ways to Outsmart Rising Grocery Prices’ by Daniel Bortz on AARP.org, December 11, 2025.
Reportedly, some Americans are fearful of entering grocery stores. Maybe even most Americans.
I confess I am among them.
It wasn’t always like this. I mostly blame COVID. Before COVID, I could waltz right into a grocery store like I didn’t have a care in the world. I could even shop on an empty stomach. (I understand that’s no longer a good idea, especially if you have less than $100 in your wallet.)
Then everyone started wearing masks in the grocery store, and avoiding each other. This was the summer of 2020. When checking out, we were instructed to stand on vinyl circles, to keep us safely separate. We had to move through the aisles according to directional arrows pasted on the floor. If some thoughtless person went the wrong way down the aisle, we had to give them a dirty look.
It was bad enough when we were fearful of each other. But even worse, we became fearful of grocery prices.
It’s one thing to be fearful of your fellow grocery shoppers. It’s something else entirely to be fearful of grocery prices. You can avoid people. You can’t avoid grocery prices.
But can we outsmart grocery prices? AARP.org reporter Daniel Bortz wants us to believe that we can. In fact, last week he listed 14 ways we can outsmart them, knowing that our government is not going to be helpful.
Here’s a brief selection of suggested ways to outsmart prices.
1. Substitute lower-cost ingredients. Especially, meat. Have you checked the price of a sirloin steak lately? Think, “lentils”.
Yes, we know that thinking “lentils” is not even close to thinking “sirloin steak”. No one said this was going to be easy.
2. Use leftovers to make soups and stews. Leftovers also qualify as “lower-cost ingredients”. See Number 1.
3. Do a ‘pantry challenge’. Commit to using all the food that you have in your pantry, refrigerator and freezer before buying more. See how long you can go without going to the grocery store. But also, realize that prices will increase during this challenge.
5. Shop near closing time. Grocers want to sell as many products as possible before they have to discard them. As a result, many supermarkets offer discounts on fresh produce, bakery goods, deli meats and prepared meals later in the day, when they ought to be discarded, but you can eat them instead.
7. Don’t shop at eye level. Grocery stores are not stupid. They typically place the highest priced items at eye-level. Check out the bottom shelf and the top shelf. Squatting and reaching also helps increase a person’s flexibility. We need to be flexible.
10. Shop with a friend. Like a gym partner who holds you accountable for working out, a supermarket buddy can help you resist impulse buys and stick to your budget. “Having a friend reality-check you at the grocery store in real time is helpful,” says Benjamin Lorr, author of The Secret Life of Groceries. Assuming of course, that you have a friend. I often see people bringing service animals into our local grocery stores. These animals are specially trained to identify the best prices, and to bite their owner if the owner tries to buy something expensive. If you don’t have any friends, get a service animal.
Mr. Bortz had other suggestions in his AARP article, but some of them required me to download apps onto my phone. Not going to happen. Phone apps are even more frightening than grocery prices.
According to David Ortega, a food economist and professor at Michigan State University, many Americans are changing their shopping habits. “They’re trading down to store brands or cheaper alternatives, shopping around more, seeking value and doing more price comparisons before making purchases.”
We understand, meanwhile, that store brands and cheap alternatives generally taste… well… cheap. But that has the added bonus of keeping you from overeating.
Which brings us to the best strategy for outsmarting our “out of control” grocery prices.
Fasting. Completely refraining from food. Fearlessly.
But there are right and wrong ways to fast.
From the Bible:
When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.
The goal here is not merely to show off like the hypocrites do. The goal is to outsmart grocery prices. That’s the true reward.
I was surprised at the number of websites offering advice when I did a search for “How long can a human survive without food?”
It’s like, one or two months. Who knew?
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all. You can read more stories on his Substack account.