IOS – How to prevent the App Store from doing automatic update checks or notifications

When new updates are available on the Mac App Store, it doesn’t notify you at first. It waits “for a while” and then downloads them in the background. This includes ALL updates. System updates, app updates, all of them. When the download is complete and ready to be installed, that’s when it notifies you.

I don't have any apps installed to try this with, but this looked like it might work. The solution is for Mountain Lion, not Mavericks, so it may have changed.

How do I turn off App Store notifications in Mountain Lion

I just discovered the missing solution here: http://osxdaily.com/2012/11/15/stop-software-update-mac-os-x/

You can selectively disable notifications about specific software updates you don't care about (like useless App updates) by control-clicking the update inside the App Store to reveal a hidden "Hide Update" option.

This is best for those who want to keep Notification Center active for all its other uses (calendar alarms, etc.) and who also want to be notified about critical software updates. It should permanently mute notifications about certain software updates (until that software comes out with a new update).