Poll of the Day > Grocery shopping

(+) Yeah! (+)

I just buy some things in bulk at Costco or Sam's Club.

Wal-mart the vast majority of the time. Albertsons on occasion.

I make semi-annual runs to Costco for bulk purchases.

Safeway and Walmart

Winco

Where is Stop and Shop

Kroger owned store and Walmart.

97-99% of my groceries are split between Trader Joe's and the store I work at.

Split between Albertsons and Kroger here, with Costco sprinkled in too.

Walmart. I've been having them delivered since covid started.

Generally Sobeys (a Canadian chain) every week and Costco every other week for the stuff we can reasonably store/use in bulk volumes. Bulk Barn (another Canadian chain) gets sprinkled in there periodically whenever we need stuff like spices or nuts that we don't need in huge volumes.

United and the Allsups around the corner. Both are right next to each other

50% Aldi
20% Sam's Club
15% Walmart
15% Costco
<1% Mison's Oriental Food Mart

95% Safeway
5% No Frills

a place called Giant Eagle.

yeah IDK

Albertsons all the way. I'm super disappointed Kroger is in the process of buying them out. Imo Albertsons has better overall quality and customer service.

Local Chain, Costco

Safeway used to be the best hands down if you knew what you were doing. They got bought out by Albertsons a few years ago though, and while still good, it's nowhere near as insane as it used to be.

I still mostly shop there though, partially out of habbit, partially cause I still know how to take advantage of their system deals, so it's still cheaper (for good quality food) then the other choices, just not as much as in the old days.

Safeway (for those that do not know) have digital coupons you can add to your card before you shop there, those coupons are in addition to any specials/sales they have in their circular. In addition you get points for spending money, and additional points are usually added from specials/deals from the digital coupons. For spending between $75-$100 I usually get between 9-10 points. Every 12 points is 20$ off your next order.

The second trick/secret is to buy based on what is on sale, for instance this week they had ribeye steaks (bone in) on sale for 6.99$ a pound. No additional digital coupon for that, but I did get 3x the points for purchases in the meat department, produce department and dairy department, along with 6 extra points if I spent $70 or more and 4 extra if I spent $85 or more (Seperate coupons that stack).

Basically every tuesday at 12:01 am (so before I go to bed on monday basically), they put out their next weeks circular, that runs from Wed till the following tuesday. You can see what is on sale and buy based on that. I stock up on non-perishable food when it's on sale (oil/sugar/spices/pasta/sauce etc) and then buy my proteins etc based on what is on sale each week (something always is). That is usually tri tip steak/chicken breasts/thighs/rib eyes/t-bones etc (If it's a really good sale I freeze some of it as well in case there is a week with nothing I want on sale).

Using this method, I generally leave the store with about 40% off my entire order, and in addition get another $20 off that order as well. So if It was originally 140$ worth of food for instance, 40% of that drops it to about $80, and then the $20 off drops it to $60. I still get the points based on the original price though, which generally is either enough for $20 off the next order again, or a few points away.

In the above case for instance, my total including 3+ pounds of ribeye steaks, tons of sandwich stuff, bread, mustard, bacon, ground beef (80%), thick spagetti (making chow mein using that, really coming together), half gallon of half and half, half gallon of milk and a few other things would have normally been about 120-140$ all together (which is competative with other places prices for them as well). I saved 47% on my receipt, and then had 20$ taken off as well. With tax it was $63 total.

Most places charge at least 12-13$ a pound for ribeye steaks right now. That was just under 4 pounds of ribeye steak so if I had shopped almost anywhere else, it would have cost that much just for the steak. I got ALOT more then just steak though, with enough sandwich stuff (already had 3 meals with them, enough left for at least 3 more) to last a week, 1 pound of ground beef (2 meals), half and half and milk to last me 2 weeks etc. Basically all I need to spend till next week when I go shopping again, and i'll have oil/milk some bread, frozen sausages (breakfast ones) etc left over that that point.

Done carefully, I average about $50 a week total on food shopping at safeway this way, or $200 a month. I do not eat frugally though, that means I'm having steak/chicken/fish sometimes pasta etc every night, and have a lunch (usually a sandwich etc), drink coffee (2 times a day), have a glass of milk with 1 spoon of vanilla or strawberry tilamook ice cream in it before bed (prevents heart burn).

If I shopped at Fred Myer or Walmart or Winco or even Costco (which is surprisingly expensive even buying in bulk) I would spend about twice that amount.

That being said before Safeway was bought out, it was MUCH better. My wife got so tired of me showing my receipt where I saved over 90% once a few years after we got married. Back in the day, Safeway not only would have the above specials (Same ones) but would have alot of buy one get one free deals and most important, 20% off your entire order. That 20% (or the other one they did was 10$ off an order of $50 or more, so you just had to go through and buy $50 worth of food each time to get 20% off) was after the other sales, so a (back then 5.99 per pound) ribeye for instance would drop another 20% making it only 4.80$ a pound (this was just a few years before covid, before albertsons bought them out. Chicken was the craziest though, insanely cheap when on sale with those deals, 1.20$ a pound for boneless skinless chicken breasts from the counter, but then 20% off on that dropped it to under $1 a pound (and then you could get the $7 off food from the meat department (They didn't have the $20 off yet back then) for 4 points.

Anyway, it's not as good as it was, but it still beats any other store after the deals/just 4 you etc that I have seen and I have tried them all. I try and teach people how to shop and save money, but most believe the signs that say their store is cheaper than safeway etc, and just end up losing a ton of money over time, it's really sad.

Mostly Hy-vee and sometimes Walmart. Once in a while, Ill get groceries at places like Aldi, Dollar Tree, or a local owned grocery store. Dont have a lot of grocery stores in town.

I literally live in the home town of Wegmans, so my options are Wegmans and not much else.

Which I am fine with, because Wegmans is awesome.

I really like Aldi, but lately they've been carrying a lot of name-brand stuff instead of their weird brands, and at prices that aren't any better then Walmart.

Safeway also owns United I just noticed the same store brands, and remember looking at it a couple years ago, IIRC

Morrisons normally.

Safeway.

used to be Whole Foods or Trader Joe's since it was the closest

HEB and Central Market before that

now it's Waitrose (similar to Whole Foods here) as it's the closest, though I go to Sainsbury's local often there's not much there, or local green grocer's, the farmer's market, local butcher and fishmonger etc. but Waitrose for a big shop nearby.

Mix of Kroger which is near me and Walmart Grocery delivery