Your Favorite Places to GROCERY Shop?

[Jill]

Your Favorite Places to GROCERY Shop?

What are your favorite places to shop for groceries?

Personally, there are three National / Regional chains that get my money.

One I’ve shopped at most the last year is Harris Teeter. The reason is really just because they will let me order online, do a very good job of shopping my list (just like I would, in deep detail!), and they charge less than $5 per shop or if you sign up, less than $17 per month no matter how many orders you put in. I have liked every store brand option we tried there… and this is from razors – chicken broth!

My current favorite, though, is ALDI. We have to shop this ourselves, and they carry very few National brands, but I look to be sure all we pick up is from the USA (concerned about recalls, but when I looked at the recalls from them, they were few and not concerning to me). Since most of what they sell are their house brands, that’s what we’ve gotten a lot of and EVERY item we’ve tried, we’ve liked at least as much as the National brand, but at a fraction of the cost. The only exception so far was their “cheese puff” junky snack food things. I didn’t like them, but I have liked a lot of their other junk food options (though I don’t know that this is good news for me!).

ALDI has great deals on dairy and produce, and every other staple. Lots of great tasting junk food, too (just not the cheese puffs IMO). I’ve been buying tons of produce (my favorite are the colored and green pepper packs), lean lunch meat, boneless / skinless chicken, decent steaks, sandwich breads (wheat, Italian, Rye), and too much ETC. and all at a big savings that makes me not mind shopping the list myself. Grocery shopping is not a fun thing to me!

I honestly think ^^^ has cut our grocery bill by about 40%. For those of you who have one near you, I’d recommend checking it out! It’s not a BIT fancy, but I’ve become a true fan!

What about you? Where do you personally like to do your grocery shopping, and what would you recommend to other members?

 

[Miniv]

We live 10 miles from two towns, in opposite directions and they both have a population of 15,000 or less. So, on line shopping isn't an option. This means sometimes hopping around from store to store to shop for what's on sale.

My primary place to shop is the locally owned Thriftway because their meats are the best and cheapest. Then there's Grocery Outlet and Price Slasher. I even use Bi-Mart for pet food and a few other canned goods. (For dry pet food I go to the feed store because grocery store only sell crap.)

Our other grocery store options in the area include (listed with most expensive first)----

Ray's Food Place, Fred Meyer, Safeway, Albertson's.

 

[chandab]

I don't have much for choices, I live in the middle of nowhere. I have a regional chain available in two towns close to me (40-50 miles away depending on the town); prices and choices are decent. And, my other choice is Albertson's, usually I choose Albertson's, they have most of what I want and usually have pretty good prices. And, I order canned cat food for my mom through Walmart.com; Mom has two senior kitties that she adopted in the last year and they are on a canned food only diet, so it gets pretty expensive with the local prices, the on-line ordering saves her quite a bit.

 

[bevann]

I REALLY hate to grocery shop, but I love to eat.If I ever win the lottery I am getting a personal chef along with the gardner,chauffer,maid,and secretary.I will still do my own stalls since I LOVE cleaning my barn.Not much choice in my little town Walmart,Redner's(chain out of PA)Food Lion and Mexican market owned by Orientals.Much of my produce comes from Mexican market(shelf life is short-they buy seconds I think,bu9t prices are good)I use coupons lots and buy specials from each store so I shop all of them depending who has what on sale.My choice for deli stuff is SuperFresh(A&P owned)but our local store closed last year and nearest 1 is 25 miles away.When I go that way(south) I take a cooler and bring stuff home.I buy meats at Sam's Club when I go that way(25 miles north)Anybody want to come here to live on a nice farm and be my chef?

 

[Jill]

IF you consider what's in the town where H and I both work and what's in-between there and home, we're nearly spoiled with choices, but I also hate to grocery shop. That was why I was so happy that Harris Teeter would do the shopping for me, and they do at least as good a job as I would do for us. However, now that I know about ALDI, I'm willing to shop because I can't get over how much we're saving. It is 1/2 way between the town where we work and home, so we can go together, or (better yet!) H can shop a list himself now that I know the store. It makes me feel really good to have a fully stocked pantry and fridge, but I really don't like shopping in any grocery store.

 

[little lady]

Where I live no choices to shop(and no delivery to where we live...I would LOVE that) however 20 miles any direction a multitude of options. I prefer to do my shopping on my way home from work so that gives me choices of Schnucks, Aldis, Wal-Mart all of which I shop at. I watch the weekly ads usually do 1 huge shopping trip every 21/2-3 weeks(trying to get this to once a month) and then pick up odds and ends in between. I watch the ads and shop according to what menus I have planned. We eat almost all of our meals at home(I love to cook and usually disappointed in restaurant food) or take our lunches which has saved us some $. We hunt vension which is our primary meat. We make our own pork sausage, bratwurst and deer sausage. We do eat a little chicken and some pork but very little beef. We do have a meat market in our little town that has very good prices on deli meats and cheeses when we want those.

 

[susanne]

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By far, Trader Joe's.

Unfortunately there are none in our immediate area, so we have to go into Portland to shop there, but we manage to work it in with other errands whenever posible.

Trader Joe's has great, healthy food at very reasonable prices -- often better prices than the big chains -- and they offer delicious single and two portion entrées, also at great prices. They have a great selection of wines at unbeatable prices, and they do it by buying in quantity -- not by screwing the wineries like Costco does.

Trader Joe's is also a good employer, with great treatment of even their part-time employees, so I feel good about spending my money there.

 

[Jill]

I love Safeway. If they had home shopping like Harris Teeter's does, I probably would keep doing home shopping. I was spending a stupid amount of money though. Not "just" because HT is a more expensive store, but I was forever "working on my grocery list" while hungry. Still have way too much in the pantry and freezer as a result.

We don't have a Trader Joe's very near us, but that is one place I would really like to try. I think there is one now in Gainesville, which is a ways from here but is probably going to be something we do one Saturday or Sunday before too long.

 

[minimomNC]

Lowe's Foods, Love our store. Their meat is cut fresh, they have great specials and its always clean. I do shop at Wal-Mart some, there are just somethings you can't get anywhere else cheaper. And... we have an Aldi less than 1/2 mile from the apartment. Love their veggies the most. I do buy other things but thats what I go for the most. Sometimes their meats are good but we also have a Mexican owned grocery store about a mile away that has their own butcher section and the best prices on meats. So I shop at three to four places but all are within 3 miles of home so its very easy.

 

[disneyhorse]

Trader Joes. I had a summer job as a sign artist there, it was even more friendly a place than Disneyland to work (and I've been with disney for 15 years!). I've never been disappointed with quality there (I shop for quality, not price).

 

[CZP1]

When we lived in NY, loved Wegmans. But don't have them in the south. Lately though Harris Teeter and Aldis. I went to Walmart last week and it seems as if the prices have gone up since I was there two weeks ago. I watch the ads, and get the store emails.

 

[SampleMM]

Wegmans---It rocks and is by far the best grocery store that I've been in.

 

[tagalong]

Trader Joe's and Metropolitan Market - a scaled down, less pretentious and far friendlier version of Whole Foods. With better produce, selection and service.

 

[susanne]

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Zupan's Markets are rather overpriced, but their Friday samples are incredible (and they don't ask if you're buying anything...)

I've never really liked Whole Foods; Keith loves them, but to me it's a bunch of nothing.

 

[Jill]

We have a Wegmans "near" us, kinda... there is one in Gainesville, which is about 10 miles out of the way from our offices if we're heading home, and one on the far side of Fredericksburg, which is about 30 minutes from us if traffic is okay and not on any regular kind of commuting that we do. However, my Mom loves it and I've not heard anything good about it. It's kind of like Trader Joe's in that I want to check it out but am probably just too lazy to add it to our regular shopping places. I do look forward though to a trip there in the near future!

 

[Tab]

Jill, I really appreciate your reminder of ALDI. We recently bought a cart full of groceries there for $70. I was so impressed. Avg. grocery shopping is $150. We have Wegman's, Sam's, Tops, Wal-Marts, a tiny Whole Foods, and Giant Eagles around here. We did most of our shopping between Sam's and Wal-Mart, but it sure can get pricey, boring, and repetitive. Aldi all the way!

 

[MyMiniGal]

Our other grocery store options in the area include (listed with most expensive first)----

Ray's Food Place, Fred Meyer, Safeway, Albertson's.

Miniv,

You must live in Oregon? I live within 5 miles and under, to all these places. I thought Fred Meyer's, was only in Oregon, but I could be wrong.

Edited: Just noticed you do live in Oregon.