Smart Spending: What Store Has the Best Grocery Deals?

I am often asked, “What store has the best deals?” The answer is that no one store has ALL the best prices. Some stores have consistently low regular prices on their generic products and some stores have even lower sale prices on name brand items. When you factor in coupons, especially those that may be doubled, your savings potential is even greater. Whether you are a couponer or not, you can still take advantage of good sales and loss leaders, and save more of your grocery money by shopping at more than one store each week.

Loss leaders are the items that stores mark down considerably to entice you into their store. They may actually lose money on these items, but they expect you to buy enough additional items to make up for the loss leaders. Your goal as a smart spender is to go in, buy the loss leaders (and only the loss leaders) and get out.

Most communities offer a number of different locations where you can purchase food and non-food staples. Although specific store chains vary from state to state, the concept of store types remains the same. Knowing what types of stores are available will help you increase your buying power.

Locations for purchasing food and non-food staples fall into eight basic categories:

Grocery Stores – Grocery stores are the traditional place to buy most groceries. If you target sales (especially Buy One Get One Free sales) and use coupons with those items on sale, you will find fabulous deals. Those deals are even better if your grocery store doubles coupons. I buy the majority of my food from grocery stores, shopping the sales from week to week. My willingness to shop Grocery Store A this week (because they offer the best sales on the items I need) and Grocery Store B next week saves me significant amounts of money. Since I drive by both stores each week on the way to other activities, I am not wasting gas making extra trips to lots of different stores.

Drug Stores – Drug stores, including CVS, Rite-Aid and Walgreens, are excellent places to stock up on deeply discounted bath and beauty items. Take advantage of the many rebate and reward programs drug stores offer and you will find that you never pay full price for toothpaste, deodorant, razors, shampoo, aspirin and cough medicine. Often, these items will be free after rebate. See the “Fabulous Drug Store Deals” article at http://www.cleverparents.com/2007/08/16/smart-spending-fabulous-drug-store-deals/ for all the details.

Warehouse Clubs – Warehouse clubs can offer good buys on some items. The key is to exercise extreme willpower and diligence when you are shopping. Just because the store sells a 400 ounce bottle of laundry detergent or a 10 pack of peanut butter, it doesn’t mean that they are selling it at a low price. I actually stay away from warehouse clubs because I have a number of grocery stores in my area that offer great sales and doubled coupons every day of the week. Good sales coupled with doubled coupons results in greater savings than I could get at warehouse stores. When shopping at a warehouse club, keep in mind that it is very tempting to buy all the convenient, frozen prepared items and giant sized boxes of everything. These purchases do not save you money if you can make the dishes yourself for less or if you use coupons combined with sales for better-priced packages at the grocery store. Remember to take into account the annual fee for shopping at warehouse clubs when you are determining whether to shop at these stores.

When in doubt, figure out the cost per unit of the products you buy to determine if the warehouse club has a better deal. To figure cost per unit, take the price of the item divided by the size of the item = cost per unit. A $3.99 box of 14 ounce cereal is 28 cents per ounce ($3.99 divided by 14 = .28). If the grocery store has that same box of cereal on sale Buy One Get One Free for $1.99 per box, you will only pay 14 cents per ounce. If you have a 50-cent coupon that is doubled, your cost is lowered to 7 cents per ounce, a 75% savings over the warehouse club price.

Mass Merchandisers – Many mass merchandisers like Wal-mart and Target offer good, low cost generic and name brand options. They accept manufacturer’s coupons at face value which helps lower the prices of name brand products. If you don’t have any grocery stores that double coupons in your area, you will find some good buys at the big box stores. Because of the all the great deals I find at drug stores and grocery stores that double coupons, I don’t often shop the mass merchandisers for groceries. When I do shop these stores, it is mainly for loss leaders and non-food items.

Health Food Stores – Stores including Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s are popular for those wanting healthy food choices. Many health food stores offer organic produce and other eco-friendly products at a premium price. Not all health food stores are created equal, though. Some, like Trader Joe’s, offers great tasting organic produce and store brand products at a much lower price than many of the other health food stores. Keep in mind that many traditional grocery stores are now carrying organic produce at excellent prices as well. Not only is it important to be good stewards of our planet, it is also important to be good stewards of our own money by not overspending at high priced health food stores.

Dollar-Type Stores – Some dollar stores offer very good buys on name brand items you know. You aren’t going to find fresh produce but dollar stores do offer some bargains on packaged foods, cleaning and bath and beauty products. Many dollar stores don’t accept manufacturer’s coupons but some actually do accept them. .

Convenience Stores – Convenience stores are generally not a good place to buy food. They are usually overpriced and it is best to avoid buying your groceries at the local gas station. There are times when gas stations use milk or 12-packs of canned soft drinks as a loss leaders to get you to buy gas and other items. If they are truly offering a great buy, enjoy your good deal and don’t be tempted to buy other overpriced items while there.

Farmer’s Markets/Roadside Stands – I love our local roadside produce stands. Here in North Carolina, the summers are rich with beautiful produce and the local farmers offer delicious, fresh-picked choices. There is nothing like a fresh tomato and cucumber sandwich made with produce picked that day. For those items I don’t grow in my own garden (of course I grow my own cukes and tomatoes!), I depend on my local produce stands. Here in NC, we have Certified Roadside Stands with produce grown by the operator and other local farmers. For more information and a list of NC certified stands, see http://www.ncfarmfresh.com/CertifiedStands.asp . Your state may have a similar program so check out your state’s Department of Agriculture website. These roadside stands not only offer delicious food, they are often at a better price than you will find at the grocery store. While the grocery store may be selling tomatoes for $1.99 per pound during the summer, my local produce stand has them for .99 per pound.
You may be thinking that with the price of gas these days, it isn’t cost effective to drive farther to shop at another store. Although this may be true if you are picking up only one or two items, it is not the case if a store is offering great sale prices on many items or if a store is doubling or tripling coupons. Keep in mind that you may be able to save $30.00 or more during a good sale, which is certainly worth the $3.00 you may spend in gas to get there and back. Bring a friend and share the fuel expense as you take advantage of the excellent buys and loss leaders. Try to incorporate many errands into one trip to reduce multiple trips and save gas.
I usually shop at one grocery store and one drug store each week. Many weeks I will also make another trip to a different grocery store to pick up their loss leaders. Those trips are quick and easy and are made while on the way to other activities, so I am not making a special trip.

Shopping the sales at more than one store may seem like a lot of work, but with careful planning, you can be in and out of most stores in very little time. If you can shave $50.00 or more off your grocery bill each week, you may find that an extra stop here and there is more than worth your while. As I always say: It’s your money – spend it wisely!