5 Products You Shouldn’t Buy Online

Groceries

Online grocery delivery services such as Peapod have made some headway in bringing grocery shopping to the e-commerce world, and Amazon is likewise making a play with its “Subscribe and Save” program, which gives you up to 15% off on groceries you order on a regular basis. But they still can’t compete with the kinds of discounts you tend to see from local grocery stores and supermarkets.

“For sure, groceries are cheaper [in stores],” Paine says. “Amazon has become a lot more competitive in the last two years with things like diapers, but most of the time they are not going to meet what you can get with coupons.”

Gault likewise says that groceries and small packaged goods can be had cheaper in stores because of the prevalence of coupons, sales and weekly markdowns.

“Anything that’s consumer-packaged goods – groceries, health and beauty products, toilet paper – are cheaper in stores if you’re using coupons,” Gault says.

Coupon codes have certainly migrated to the online world in the form of coupon codes. But those codes are usually for apparel and more expensive merchandise, as opposed to a manufacturer’s coupon that gives you a dollar off a jar of mayonnaise. If you want to save on food, clipping coupons and heading to a physical grocery store is still the way to go.