How To Read Your Receipt: how percentage discounts are computed

There’s nothing better than walking out of the store and looking at the bottom of your receipt and seeing that you saved 50…60…70% or more!  But, how do they actually figure the percentage savings?  And what about the stores that don’t computer this for you, like Albertsons?

Let’s unravel another mystery about your grocery receipt: how the percentage savings number is computed.

Above you see the “Your Savings” section of a King Soopers receipt.  It says I used $7.75 in manufacturer coupons, had $1.25 in multiplied coupons, and $33.39 in Soopers card savings (which includes instant discounts and sale prices) for a total of $42.39 in savings.  They’ve determined that this was a savings of 54%.  The total I paid at checkout was $36.37.

So, without any discounts, coupons, or savings – if I just purchased everything at shelf price, my cost would have been $78.76.  This is the same as the price I paid at checkout ($36.37) plus the amount of savings I received ($42.39).

The formula for the percentage discount is this: Total Discounts divided by Total Shelf Price, then convert to a percentage.  So, in the above receipt, I took the Total Discounts ($42.39) divided by Total Shelf Price ($78.76) to get 54%

Here’s another example:

Total Shelf Price $100
Total Savings $25
Total Savings of $25 divided by Total Shelf Price of $100 = .25, which converts to 25%
Saving $25 off a $100 bill is saving 25%

So, if you shop at Albertsons and want to know your savings percentage, use this formula to figure it out.

One quick note on this: sometimes the register doesn’t really accurately calculate your true savings.  For example, if you buy meat or dairy markdowns, most stores don’t program this as a “discounted” price – instead, the discounted price goes into the computer as if it were the full price.

If you bought a dozen eggs on manager’s special at King Soopers for $1.99 that were originally $3.19, the machine doesn’t recognize this as a markdown from $3.19 to $1.99, it just goes in as if $1.99 was the regular price.

This is only with manager’s special or reduced for quick sale type items, but it’s worth noting because those are often significant savings percentages.  You know you saved the money, but the register doesn’t!

Don’t forget to check out the rest of the How To Read Your Receipt series.  Here’s what we’ve covered so far:

• E-Coupons
  

• Scanned Coupons and Doubled Coupons

• Sale Discounts and Regular Prices

We’ll soon be looking at Target receipts and some of the nuances there.