Best, worst days for grocery deals

HOUSTON – If you are waiting for the weekend to buy everything you need for the week, you may be spending way more money than you need to. The money savings app Ibotta has crunched the numbers to show you the best and worst days of the week to buy almost anything. 

When you’re ready to pop a cork, don't buy your bottle of wine on Monday. Ibotta CEO Bryan Leach said numbers show you'll pay about 2% more in Houston. Tuesday is the cheapest day to buy wine in our area. 

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"Every city has its own purchasing patterns and every group of merchants prices products in a different way," Leach said. "To be honest, we're not entirely sure why that's the case. All we do is study millions and millions of receipts. I mean, at this point, we're up into the tens of millions of receipts that we can analyze."

We asked Leach to explain the methodology. He said the analysis is based on 50 million item-level receipts submitted over three years from 2013 to 2016. For the best and worst days to shop, Ibotta calculated the percentage in savings by comparing the average price paid on the cheapest day with the average price paid on the most expensive day. The prices collected reflect the price paid by the consumer with any in-store discounts applied, but before coupons. In-store discounts reflect price fluctuations set by the various retailers over time, which gives us the general trend of best and worst days to buy over three years. Leach used local data to provide pricing information specific to Houston. 

  • Beer is 2.6% cheaper on Wednesday
  • Wine is 1.5% cheaper on Tuesday 
  • Produce is 9% cheaper on Wednesday 
  • Snacks are 3% cheaper on Tuesday
  • Ice Cream is 1.5% cheaper on Friday
  • Bread is 2% cheaper on Thursday
  • Beauty Products are 1.5% cheaper on Wednesday 
  • Cleaning Products are 4% cheaper on Thursday
  • Worst day to buy beer is Tuesday - 5% more expensive than average
  • Worst day to buy wine is Monday - 2% more expensive than average
  • Worst day to buy produce is Thursday - 19% more expensive than average
  • Worst day to buy snacks is Friday - 5% more expensive than average
  • Worst day to buy ice cream is Thursday - 2% more expensive than average
  • Worst day to buy beauty products is Sunday - 2% more expensive than average
  • Worst day to buy cleaning products is Tuesday - 6% more expensive than average
  • Worst day to buy bread is Monday - 2% more expensive than average

"It turns out, in Houston, the earlier part of the week is generally a better time, period, to shop," said Leach. 

Obviously, you don't want to go to the store every day of the week. If you had to pick the best days, the lowest average prices for most items are on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.


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Passionate consumer advocate, mom of 3, addicted to coffee, hairspray and pastries.