The grocery post

 

So I saw this week a study done by Consumer Reports which went through the usual arcane statistical summaries to come up with the most and least expensive places to get groceries, usuing Wal-Mart as the baseline, or "0".  35 stores and supermarkets were tested; 80% were higher than Wal-Mart (and you wondered why you were missing us, Kroger?)  Considering such things as sales, geographical differences, bla blah blah, they charted a whopping seven places that beat Wal Mart...

Not surpringly, the club stores- Costco and BJs, did the best...

With the %s being "per cent higher/lower than Wal Mart, the club stores were both in the 21% to the good range.  A good thing if you are a big family that has a big house and can afford to get chicken wings by the flock and toilet paper by the forest.  If you take those 2 outliers off, the rest beat WM by subsantially less-

Lidl, which is basically Aldi's for the east coast, and Aldis, which is your basic off-brand, bag/box it yourself, and don't forget the quarter you put in the shopping cart to make it go, both chime in at something over 8% better.  WinCo, which used to be Cub Foods until they gave up on our part of the country, is another bulk store- but not near so cheap at the big 2, clocking in at around 3% cheaper.  Finally, H.E. Butt, out of Texas (and I can't tell you how hard I laughed the first time I heard of them- an order at my old job, reading He Butt co., making me wonder if He-Man was dating Skeletor...)-

"How does your "he-butt" like THIS?"

- actually was only fractionally better than Wal-Mart.  Market Basket, the New England outfit that seems to be in constant civil war, is the only one real close but more than Wal-Mart; 6 stores (Target, Wegmans, King Soopers, Safeway, Food-4-Less, and Meijer, of which only Target- who lost me at all-red decor and finished me off with woke- and Meijer- who at least has a decent beer department- are in our area) are in rhe 5% to .10% range.  5 more (Food Lion, Hannaford, Kroger (which clocked in at a surprising 14.8% to the bad), Stater Brothers (Not "Statler Brothers", as I kept trying to misread), and the poorly-named Save A Lot) manage to keep it under 20% to the bad.  And the "hall of shame" includes the remaining 16, from Publix's 20.3% all the way to Whole Foods and their whopping 39% more expensive.  Thankfully, none of the Dirty Dozen  16 are in our area.

Joining Whole Foods in the 30 % club were Shaws on the east coast, and El Rancho, in Texas, with Jewel-Osco coming uncomfortably close.  That means that roughly 63% of the grocery store market costs you more than Wal-Mart; 7-9% of the market charges at least 25% more.