Financial Supermarket

Supermarkets are great because we can go to one store and buy everything we need to feed ourselves, from eggs to pasta to Cocoa Puffs (all dietary staples, in our humble opinion). Financial supermarkets are kind of the same, but for financial services. They’re a one-stop shop for everything finance, from stock investing and real estate brokering to banking and financial planning services.

But while they might sound great in theory, they’re not as popular in the financial world as actual supermarkets are in the world of food. This is partially because people tend to shop around a little bit more with their financial needs than they do with groceries, because let’s face it: getting a good deal on bacon might not be life-changing, but investing with an overpriced broker could be. And not in a good way.

Also, especially in light of financial fiascos like the mortgage crisis of 2007-2008 and Wells Fargo’s reported shadiness in 2017-2018, people tend to be a wee bit skeptical of putting all their financial eggs in one company’s basket.

Mmm, eggs…

Anyway, financial supermarkets are also somewhat limited in what they can offer because of laws and regulations that prohibit certain kinds of mergers in the finance industry. So even if we love the idea of managing our money through one financial supermarket, they may or may not be able to offer every single service we’re looking for. So we might end up shopping around a little bit anyway.