Food Shopping Comparison
Seeing how I’m not making much money these days I thought it would be a good idea to get a good handle on where the best place is to do grocery shopping. I was pretty sure that Super Store would be the best but I really don’t like going there. If I knew exactly how much money I could save then I would know how important it is to drive there to shop.
I decided to compare prices of foods that are bought every 3 to 5 days, the staples so to speak. My list included: milk, yogurt, bread, chicken legs, chicken breasts, sirloin, ground turkey, canned beans, canned tomatoes, cheese, oranges, apples, bananas, broccoli, and carrots. I thought that would give me a pretty good sampling of the typical foods we eat. Other common foods in our house include cereal, rice, juice, pasta, and various other vegetables and sauces, but I didn’t think I would get much different results by including these items.
After I priced out the goods, I made a hypothetical grocery list that would cover us for about 4 or 5 days. This included: 500g chicken breast 500g chicken leg 500g sirloin 1 loaf bread 500g cheese 4l milk 2 tubs of yogurt 2 cans of beans 2 cans of tomatoes 2lbs oranges and apples 1lb broccoli and carrots
The three stores I compared were Safeway, Super Store and Famous Foods. One of the reasons I didn’t compare cereal is because Famous Foods doesn’t carry brand name cereals. I also know that if a person is not picky on cereal type, a box of cereal on sale at Safeway will compare to cereal from Super Store. I started making a separate list for organic foods as well, but this idea didn’t get very far because Super Store hardly carries any organics.
On the whole, Super Store was 13% cheaper than Famous Foods, while Famous Foods itself was 13% cheaper than Safeway. Dairy was about the same at Safeway and Famous Foods, while Super Store was 25% less expensive. Meat was 16% and 35% less expensive at Super Store compared to Famous Foods and Safeway respectively. Famous Foods was 22% less expensive than Safeway for meat. Famous Foods was the cheapest for vegetables and fruits, followed closely by Super Store. Safeway was 25% more expensive for fruit and veggies.
When the food is broken into three groups including meat, dairy and veg (includes vegatables, canned vegetables, fruit and bread), the dairy and veg each take up approximately the same amount of the budget: around 35% of the total bill. Meat typically took up 25% of the bill. With this in mind, the greatest savings are achieved by buying all dairy at Super Store. Milk at Super Store and Safeway were about the same price though, the big difference was in cheese.
As expected, it makes sense to do a weekly trip to Super Store to buy dairy, meat and other pantry items such as juice. All other shopping can be done at our local Famous Foods store, and even meat can be bought there with minimal effect on the budget.
One last thing to consider is the quality of food. Some of the items at Super Store, although cheaper, weren’t that appealing to me. I thought their yogurt selection was really poor and the cheapest yogurts could hardly be called “food.” In this regard, Famous Foods rates very well. Some of their selection may not be great but there are good deals to be had. For example, organic canned beans from Famous Foods cost the same as regular cheap canned beans at Super Store. I didn’t price it out but I think the best gains in money would be in food selection and not store selection. If you buy cheap yogurt, the cheapest cuts of meat, fruit only when in season, etc, you can really save some money.
