Save Money on Food by Buying at a Grocery Store Instead of a Drugstore

Money Watch lists items not to buy at a drugstore (saying they should instead get them at a grocery store.) Why? Because there's a HUGE price difference. The details:

ConsumerWorld.org, a consumer education web site, just conducted a pricing survey in the Boston area, tracking 25 common grocery items — both foods and household products. It found the average drugstore charged 50% more than the least expensive supermarket: $102.94 vs. $68.55 for the basket of goods studied.

Stores in the survey included: Walgreens, Rite Aid, CVS, Stop & Shop, Shaw’s and Market Basket.

Among the drugstore chains, Rite Aid proved the priciest, with the 25 items adding up to $107.96; CVS was the least expensive, at $98.12.  Meantime, among the supermarkets, the receipt from Shaw’s had the biggest total at $83.56, while Market Basket had the lowest at $68.55.

Here's my take on this:

1. We don't shop at drugstores for food items except in the following situations:

• They have a sale on/coupon for an item that we know is a good price even for a grocery store (examples: milk and Blue Diamond Almonds).


• Movie-box-sized candy (they are 25 cents cheaper than the grocery store every day.)


• There are some sort of rewards related to the purchase that make it an overall better deal than if it was bought at a grocery store (though with my 6% cash back Amex card, this one doesn't occur much.)

2. We rarely even go to Rite Aid or CVS. The Rite Aid near us is on the wrong side of the street for easy access (coming home) and there isn't a CVS that's convenient.

3. We are in Walgreen's quite often, but it's mostly as a pre-movie stop (candy).

4. We haven't gotten into the rewards game at any drugstores, but from looking at it from the sidelines it appears that you can get some decent deals if you do. Anyone willing to share their tips for saving with a rewards program from any of the drugstores?

Overall, I think there's a reason one is called a drugstore and the other is a grocery store. It's "generally" better (less expensive) to get drugs (in the broad sense) at the drugstore and food at the grocery store.

Comments

[Matt]

I think there is a reason they call it a convenience at a drug store store. When Jimmy or Joan need medicine and by the way the family needs a loaf of bread or gallon of milk at 10:00 pm it is just convenient to pick it up along with the medicine instead of at a grocery.

[Jo]

I've done pretty good with getting hygiene items and baby items (formula mainly) from CVS. A few times I have gotten "paid" to buy toothpaste/toothbrushes...Example: Toothpaste on sale for $1.50, I got a coupon for $1.00, and with the loyalty card I got a $1.00 receipt coupon for a future trip--came out $0.50 ahead.

Plus, if you buy a green card ($1) with your loyalty card, if you use a reusable bag they scan it and after every 4th trip you get a $1 receipt coupon. Also with CVS if you have a loyalty card almost every week you get an email with a special offer like so much off with a $20 purchase.

I don't do a ton of shopping there but when I do have coupons I try to get over there.

[Old Limey]

We get a whole bunch of Ad inserts delivered every Tuesday with our newspaper. My wife goes over them in detail and makes a note of all of the "Specials". Sometimes even the drugstore has some canned goods that are at giveway prices and the three supermarkets near us are in strong competition. I installed a lot of cupboards in the garage to keep non-perishable items that my wife picks up when they are dirt cheap compared with the regular price. Our local drugstore used to be "Longs" but unfortunately CVS bought out the whole chain and we don't like all the gimmicks they use to entice customers so we now primarily use Rite-Aid and Walgreens.

[Stacey]

Are you taking that candy into the theatre? Where I come from, that's unethical...

[Holly]

Stacey ... I hate to say it, but many consumers don't care about what's 'unethical' when it comes to movie candy mark-up! We refuse to pay the ridiculously high cost so we just don't go.

[FMF]

Stacey and Holly --

If you're interested, we discussed this topic in detail a few years ago:

http://www.freemoneyfinance.com/2008/08/is-it-ethical-t.html