With gas prices being so high, shoppers might be tempted to pick one store that has everything they need and do a one-stop shopping trip.

This doesn’t always work to your benefit.

American Consumer News gives the example of grocery stores in “Reduce Your Monthly Grocery Bill“:

It’s rare to find a grocery store that doesn’t offer other items, like pharmacy supplies, batteries, or outdoor products. The stores try to give you a little of everything so that you can do a ‘one-stop” shop, and pick up everything you need in one place. The trouble is, grocery stores don’t have the lowest prices on non-grocery items, and at times you’ll pay double for those non-grocery items for the convenience of picking it up at the grocery store. Chances are, the pharmacy or Wal-mart are located near by your grocery store, and you could save several dollars by purchasing your non-grocery goods at the appropriate store for only a few minutes more of your time.

You’ll also find many stores whose core mission is pharmacy, discount or department store goods selling groceries. Does this convenience work out for the customer’s advantage? Sometimes not – I was shocked at the price of milk at a discount store a couple of months ago. It was well worth my time to make a stop at another store on my way home for milk.

Here’s what you can do instead:

• Make a list of all the stores you like to shop at, and add some quick notes which are the best and worst products to buy at that store. Maybe you’ve noticed that cleaning supplies are always at good prices at one store, but pantry good prices are better at another store.
• On this list, pair up or group stores that are “on the way” or close to each other. For example: Lowe’s and Wal-Mart are in the same shopping district in Frenchtown Township. And Kroger and CVS Pharmacy are across the street from each other in Monroe. (This concept also works for out-of-town shopping trips.)
• Keep this list with your sales fliers for the week.
• When you decide to go shopping for whatever reason (for example, you really do need a gallon of milk), take a couple of minutes to look through the store list and the appropriate sales fliers to see what other shopping trips you can bundle up on the same trip.