Grocery Prices

A friend and I recently had a discussion about whose grocery prices in town are the best. Kroger and Marsh were completely out of the running, being actual overpriced supermarkets. The options we considered were 1)Sam's Club; 2) Wal Mart Supercenter; and 3) Aldi. We left the organic foodstores in town unconsidered, since if you want organic, you are willing to pay the price for it.

Fortunately for me, all three of these stores are on our side of town, all within about 3 blocks of one another. So, over the past week, I have been carting my notebook around while I grocery shop, trying to write down prices for things I would normally buy. For my fellow grocery shoppers knowledge, I would like to start by saying that Wal Mart will match any price found in a coupon for Kroger or Marsh. How awesome is that? While I have not tried it, it almost completely eliminates the need to go to Kroger, even when they have their famous $10/10 sales, or a great price on a 12-pack of soda.

Here are the items that Aldi had the best price on:
brown sugar and powdered sugar (though they only had Sam's beat by a few cents per pound)
breakfast cereal* (Cherrios, Shredded Wheat, and Corn Chex--all the Aldi brand)
oatmeal*
wheat bread
bagels*
eggs*
sour cream*
spaghetti sauce in a jar (we love their spaghetti sauce)
grapes (one of the few produce items I'll buy at Aldi)
frozen stir-fry veggies

*these are items that are cheaper at Aldi, but for quality purposes, I spend the extra money and buy the better quality at Sam's. Sour cream, for example, is $0.99/16 oz. at Aldi, but has an ingredients list about 10 items long, including high fructose corn syrup. The Daisy brand at Sam's, however, is $3.87/ 3 lbs., but the ingredients list has 1 item: Grade A Cultured Cream. Eggs, I know, do not have ingredients, but I have always hated Aldi eggs. They don't peel well when hard boiled, and they're small. And, in general, I hate shopping at Aldi. It's not kid-conducive, and I feel like the quality is always just a little sub-par, if not majorly sub-par. Our exception is their spaghetti sauce, which we really like. I've started running by Aldi once a month without kids and stocking up on spaghetti sauce for the whole month.

Here are the items that Sam's has the best price on (providing your family eats in quantity, like ours now does):
granola bars
bread flour and regular flour
diced tomatoes
frozen stawberries
mexican cheese, shredded
Silk Soymilk
butter
milk (I never buy this, but the price was $2.26/gallon--how crazy is that?!?)
carrots
garlic
potatoes
green, red, and yellow peppers
fruit, in general
fresh mozzarella cheese
Cabot sharp cheddar (same price as Wal Mart)
Thomasville english muffins
flour tortillas
meat (not only were their prices on all sorts of different cuts cheaper, but the quality, we feel, is so much superior to Wal Mart and Aldi that we won't consider buying meat anywhere else--try the steak!)

Wal Mart, sadly, could not beat any of the Sam's prices. So, we only buy the things from Wal Mart that Sam's doesn't carry. However, for some strange reason, Wal Mart will often have gas a few cents cheaper than Sam's. I don't know why--maybe a quality issue? You wouldn't think so with gas...)

Here's what's next on my list to try to save food costs: the Aunt Millie's bakery outlet just down the road. I'll let you know how it goes!