Shopping list

Modern grocery shopping list written with pen on paper from a notebook

Shopping list drawn in 1518 by Michelangelo for an illiterate servant

A shopping list is a list of items that an individual intends to purchase. Consumers often prepare grocery lists for purchases on their next store visit. There are surviving examples of Roman ^[1] and Bible-era ^[2] shopping lists.

The shopping list may take the form of a simple scrap of paper or a more elaborate format. Magnetic notepads are commonly used to maintain shopping lists within the household, often affixed to refrigerators or other metal surfaces. but any magnetic clip with scraps of paper can be used to achieve the same result. Additionally, certain shopping carts are equipped with small clipboards designed to hold written shopping lists during use.

Psychology

Use of shopping lists may be correlated to personality types. There are "demographic differences between list and non list shoppers; the former are more likely to be female, while the latter are more likely to be childless." ^[3] Remembering a shopping list is a standard experiment in psychology. ^[4] Shopping with a list is a commonly employed behavioral weight loss guideline designed to reduce food purchases and therefore food consumption. Studies are divided on the effectiveness of this technique. ^{[5] [6]}

Some studies show approximately 40% of grocery shoppers use shopping lists, ^[7] while other studies show 61–67% use lists. ^[8] Of the items listed, 80% were purchased. However, listed items only accounted for 40% of total items purchased. ^[9] Use of shopping lists clearly impact shopping behaviour: ^[10] "Written shopping lists significantly reduce average expenditure." ^[11]

See also

• Checklist, a job aid used for repetitive tasks or procedures
• To do list, a list or "backlog" of pending tasks

References

1. "Roman shopping list deciphered". ABC News. 5 March 2001. Retrieved 18 June 2018.
2. O'Grady, Cathleen (2016-04-15). "Ancient shopping lists point to widespread Bible-era literacy". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2016-04-15.
3. Thomas, W., & Garland, R. (November–December 1998). "Grocery shopping: Why take a list to the supermarket?" (PDF). ANZMAC98 Conference. Dunedin, NZ: University of Otago. pp. 2603–17. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 2, 2007.
4. Giuliana Mazzoni (1997). "Remembering the Grocery Shopping List: a Study on Metacognitive Biases" . Appl Cogn Psychol. 11 (3): 253–67. doi:10.1002/(sici)1099-0720(199706)11:3<253::aid-acp454>3.0.co;2-0.{{cite journal}}: |archive-url= is malformed: timestamp (help)
5. Beneke WM; Davis CH (1985). "Relationship of hunger, use of a shopping list and obesity to food purchases". Int J Obes. 9 (6): 391–9. PMID   3830932.
6. Beneke WM; Davis CH; Vander Tuig JG (1988). "Effects of a behavioral weight-loss program food purchases: instructions to shop with a list". Int J Obes. 12 (4): 335–42. PMID   3198311.
7. "thestar.com | The Star | Canada's largest daily". thestar.com. Retrieved June 10, 2019.
8. Art Thomas and Ron Garland, Grocery shopping: Why take a list to the supermarket? Archived 2007-07-02 at the Wayback Machine
9. Lauren G. Block; Vicki G. Morwitz (1999). "Shopping Lists as an External Memory Aid for Grocery Shopping: Influences on List Writing and List Fulfillment". Journal of Consumer Psychology. 8 (4): 343–75. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.357.9751 . doi:10.1207/s15327663jcp0804_01. JSTOR   1480440.
10. Thomas, A & Garland, B R. (2004). "Grocery shopping: list and non-list usage". Marketing Intelligence & Planning. 22 (6): 623–35. doi:10.1108/02634500410559015.
11. Art Thomas; Ron Garland (1993). "Supermarket shopping lists: their effect on consumer expenditure". International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management. 21 (2).