Personal Shopping Hits the Supermarket

When shopping for new jeans, you bring a truthful friend. If you're looking to buy a new TV, you bring your tech-savvy brother. But what about the shopping you do most -- grocery shopping? Could you use a little help making the right choices?

Foodtrainers, a NYC-based company, does just that. Basically, they offer a personal shopping service at the supermarket, tailoring their services to fit your needs. Lauren Slayton, founder of Foodtrainers, took a few minutes to speak with That's Fit about what they do, how it can help you lose weight and why her methods will actually save you money (generally, about 25 percent).

Foodtrainers' supermarket tours came about "organically," said Slayton. "It was like, if I heard one more [nutrition counseling] client say, 'I just need you to come to the store with me,' I didn't know what I'd do. We started by offering one-on-one supermarket tours, but to maximize cost effectiveness, we moved to a small group format [four clients per group, maximum]."

Though they're hoping to expand via podcast and Twitter soon, Foodtrainers is already all over New York City. "We'll go anywhere for individual sessions," Slayton told us. "But we have several daily sessions at stores all over the city.

Foodtrainers services people of all types, with all kinds of goals, and they accommodate them all. "Moms might like shopping at Whole Foods, but that might be a little pricey for someone else, so we'll teach money-saving tips at a generic store, like Publix," said Slayton. "And a lot of people are interested in how to shop at the green market, though that might slow down when it gets colder."

But what, exactly, do they do at the supermarket, you wonder? "We teach strategy, for one. People waste a lot of money on impulse purchases and buying things they already have in their pantry." She suggests making a list and doing research ahead of time to determine what's on sale, using the store's Web site or a circular to make choices. "Don't buy things you don't need because they're on sale -- look for what you want," she told us. Additionally, of course, they focus on what foods are the best choices for whatever your goals are.

Slayton has noticed a few trends as of late. "People are newly concerned with the quality of their food, not just the calories on the nutrition label," she said. "We teach them what to look for if they see an ingredient that looks like it's in a foreign language -- some preservatives are harmless, while others are definitely not." Foodtrainers offers a cheat sheet so people can make smarter choices about the ingredients in their food.

Learning about the undesirable ingredients in their foods is an emotional experience for some clients. "We have a lot of moms who feel like they've been poisoning their families," Slayton recalls. "They're always asking, 'Why didn't anybody tell me this before?'"

Group supermarket tours run about $30 to $40 per person. A few of the shopping themes Foodtrainers has offered include weight loss, eating for a marathon, pre- and post-natal and family, and specialties like gluten-free foods.

Something else to consider when hitting the supermarket -- labels aren't always as clear as they should be!