What Grocery Store Has the Best Prices?

A few months ago I wrote about how Walmart claimed to save people money even if they never shopped in Walmart stores. Then recently I found a similar claim in an Aldi Sunday ad.

The top part of the ad featured a bar chart and read "% who attribute their favorite grocer with providing low prices". The results were as follows:

• Aldi -- 94.2%
• Walmart -- 77.2%
• Costco -- 71.7%
• Meijer -- 64.9%
• Kroger -- 54.7%
• Safeway -- 37.3%

A few thoughts from me:

• There's more to buying groceries than price, of course. Selection, convenience (how far from home), food quality, and so on all factor into the equation. It's not just about price.


• That said, I do think Aldi has good prices. I also think the same of some others on the list above too.


• Note the wording on the question. It says "their favorite grocer." I wonder why it just doesn't say "% who attribute the following grocers with providing low prices". Yes, it's a different question -- and I wonder if the results would be different.


• We shop at Aldi, Costco, and Meijer for groceries (we don't have a Super Walmart in our area -- so there are limited groceries). Most of our shopping is done at Meijer because it's a very nice (new) store, has everything we need (and more!), and is close to our house. We supplement what we get at Meijer with purchases from the other two as well as local stores.


• No matter where you shop, you can save money if you do it right: know regular prices so you can identify good deals (have a price book), shop sales with coupons, stock up on great deals, buy store brands, etc. This is generally how my wife shops -- getting good deals here and there for overall great savings.

So what do you think? What's your take on the best place to find low-cost groceries?

Comments

[Wayne]

We shop Aldi and Walmart for our food and the split is about half. The quality of food items from Aldi has come up in recent years and we are buying more items at Aldi than we did fifteen years ago.

[Matt]

It depends. Costco has a limited selection, big quantities,low prices not to far for us to plan a trip(5 miles).(50% of grocery bill) Kroger, very close 1/2mile , wide selection,decent prices.(45% of grocery) Local grocery store Hillers,VERY close 2 block away, good selection for quick out of stock items, prices are higer but sale items equal, outsanding meat department. Old style butcher counter.(5% of grocery bill)

I would shop Hillers more because it is not the big chain store and I like to support the independents but price and savings have to be there.

[Holly]

I shop Aldi because of prices on pkg & can goods. I shop Albertsons and Safeway to cherry pick specials. I shop the dollar store for some items. I MOSTLY shop independent/ethnic stores that are in my area and/or on my routine travel routes.

As a single I do not find the Sam's/Costco stores work for me and Sam's is 1 mi east of where I live.

[Mary Kay]

I mostly buy items when they are a good price, the stockpile method of shopping and menu planning. I buy most groceries at Safeway and Giant. I also buy some things at Sam's Club and occasionally Mars Foods. I try to combine my grocery stops with other trips. Aldi is just too far from our home to make it worth a trip.

[JB]

The survey was about perception of low price, rather than about actual price comparisons. How many shoppers do a good job really tracking how much items cost at various stores? Many of this sites readers probably do, however most of the general public does not.

It seems like Aldi has done a very good job of getting people to think they have the lowest prices. Maybe they do. From the list I only have Walmart and Costco near me. We also have Smith's which is related to Kroger.

[billyjobob]

I mostly shop at Meijers. I get some thing from Wal Mart. But you have to watch the prices. Some of WalMart stuff can be had cheaper from other stores. Also I have not been happy with the Wal Mart produce.

[Jonathan]

I've never even heard of 3 of these stores, and I couldn't tell you where there's a Safeway in southern California either...We shop at Pavilions (Vons) because it's convenient, supplemented with Costco (primarily for milk, cereal, meat, and frozen food) and Trader Joe's. I couldn't tell you how the prices compare, but it's not worth it to us to go to 5 stores to comparison shop on cheese.

[d]

We use Market Basket here in the North East. Very good prices, would be interesting to see how they compare.

[Jenna]

I don't have the time (or, I choose not to make the time) to shop at multiple stores, so I do all my shopping at a Publix that I can stop at on my way home from work. By planning our meals around what is on sale that week in addition to coupons I have on hand, I feel we do reasonably well with our grocery bills. I'm sure I could save another $10/week if I tried really hard to shop sales at multiple stores, but the additional time it would take me to do that is not worth it for me. We do have an Aldi and a Dollar General nearby, but again, I would not be able to find everything at those stores, requiring multiple trips, which means more gas used and more time spent shopping.

[Claire]

Johnathan - Vons and Safeway are both Safeway.

I am currently tending to mostly shop an independent produce store for my fruit, vegetable and bulk dried goods purchases. They are on my way home from work, in a very affluent area, but their prices are rock bottom and the place has a fantastic atmosphere. I'd say I buy 80% of my food here.

The other 20% I supplement from Trader Joes, Costco, Whole Foods or Safeway (in order of preference, haha!)

I visit the produce store weekly, and maybe one or two trips to other stores a month. I don't buy/eat meat, milk or fish and I pretty much make all my food from scratch, including bread, so my grocery bill is naturally pretty cheap.

[Sarah]

We shop Aldi's, Marc's, and Giant Eagle. I miss Meijer so much... Marc's and Giant Eagle are both ok grocery stores (although GE is a little on the expensive side, and neither one has a great meat department) but neither of them are very big. They are probably similar to a kroger - but I grew up right by a Meijer, and it was truly a one-stop-shop, plus very inexpensive if you shopped the sales. I also really liked a lot of the Meijer brand items.

[choco]

I shop at Ralphs in southern California, mostly. The sales at Ralphs suit my shopping needs well enough. Occassionally, I shop the sales around town but the bulk of my shopping is at Ralphs. I try real hard to stay away from Walmart. I find it very difficult to support a business that welcomes new employees with a stack of forms to get on welfare.

[Money Reasons]

I normally shop at Walmart, but on one particular day I went to the ever popular (at least in my area) Giant Eagle. I had a small agenda, but once I saw a few of their prices, I had to leave! I just couldn't justify those prices, so I went to Walmart (5 miles away) and did my shopping as usual.

So my vote is for Walmart (I don't like Aldi's stuff).

[John Z]

The problem is many of these grocery chains are regional. Costco and Walmart are the only ones that you mention which are in our area.

In northern New Jersey I'd say Shop-Rite has the best prices. Our local Target just remodeled with a larger grocery section. I'm curious to see how they compare to Wal-Mart and the regional grocery chains.

[Texas Wahoo]

What is Aldi? Is that a midwestern store?

[KH]

We have 2 Walmarts, a Sam's club, and Trader Joes in my town, as well as and Aldi and 2 Super-Targets and a couple of Dollar stores. But I don't shop for groceries at any of them.

I do my families' weekly grocery shopping at a locally-owned non-discount grocery store that is about the same distance away but that always has really fresh produce and meat, a great variety of products, and decent prices on the stuff I usually buy. It's also clean and pleasant to shop at although it's usually pretty crowded on weekends.

I like the Supertargets for most everything else including clothing, but their groceries are hit-or-miss. Sometimes they have something I need but many times they are completely out of basics like potatoes or bread, so I don't go there anymore if all I need is groceries because it's likely to be a wasted trip. Also I found that I was always "picking up something" in addition to groceries when I got my groceries at Target--there's too much on display there.

I avoid Walmart for groceries (anything actually) because the store here is really filthy and messy and homeless people hang out in the parking lot. Ditto Aldi's. I have a Sam's club membership but I use it mainly for color printer ink and garden supplies--I can't use the large packages of fresh produce and meat that they sell. I only went to Trader Joes once. The store is out of the way, the packaged dinners aren't what we usually eat and the ones I tried weren't all that great. Also I bought some of their olive oil which was a great price but it sure didn't taste like olive oil--I think they got scammed on that one! I was disappointed because I'd heard so much about Trader Joes but I guess it was just hype.

We stay away from the Dollar stores because while my kids think they are fun, I think they are a waste of money. Why buy something you didn't realize you needed until you saw it when you were browsing in the store?

I really only have time to go to one store per week, so I prefer a grocery store that sells everything that I want even if the price is a bit higher. Driving all over town to save a few dollars is not something I have time to do.

[Kathy F]

I shop at Costco for some things, and also shop the sales items at Giant Food, Safeway or Shoppers Food Warehouse. I do bulk buying and a lot of cooking, freezing, bringing my own lunch. There is also a locally owned grocery called Macgruders that has really low prices on produce.

There is an Aldi and Bottom Dollar food store I have been to a few times to stock on some canned goods, but they are too far away and with the price of gas now, the savings dwindles. The Aldi's did not have that much selection, was heavy on the prepared and processed foods and the produce was really bad. Also, they only take cash. I don't have a Walmart near me.

Some of the international local grocery stores (I live in an area with lots of immigrants from all over the world) have some good deals on produce and meat but the stores tend to be crowded and not as clean. I can get a better deal on some spices at the international food shops.

[Brookfield]

I pretty much buy 90 percent of my food at Trader Joe's. I don't know if its cost effective (probably not) but I like the stuff they have. I'm single and small so I don't eat a ton. I don't buy raw meat (beef and chicken) to cook (I'm not the cooking kind) but I'll buy stuff like wild salmon and bake it etc. It seems like Walmart and Target are very cheap. Even if Walmart is cheaper I don't like the environment and would rather pay more and shop somewhere else. Target is ok. If you want to save money don't shop at Ralphs; everything there is expensive.

[FMF]

Texas Wahoo --

Aldi is a German-owned grocery store that's very small in size (3-4 aisles) that sells groceries at low prices.

[Indigo]

Albi here in Tennessee, USA, North America, Earth, Solar system, Milky-way Galaxy (be sure to find us, all yo'll) are as big as your Walgreens or CVS/Pharmacy. They have better quality items than does Wal-Mart and you don't have to navigate through as mean plebeians as you would in a Wal-Mart (See http://www.peopleofwalmart.com). But nothing beats your local mom 'n' pops store that haven't jumped on green/organic bandwagon to charge a premium on everything. We also buy a lot our produce from Amish farms around the city. We not only save money on it but make a day of picnic by going to Amish country.

[Olis Kirkman]

I have been waiting for Aldi food stores to come to Florida,They are opening stores, here the store in Port Richey is 15.36mi yes I will go there It is a very clean store No it's not a large store but what they have I will buy. The Aldi in N.C. was the first store I was in as I went see my Daughter there.