Grocery Shopping Comparisons and Stocking Up on Coffee

Today, I went to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription refill.  Then, I went to the grocery store next to the pharmacy, to pick up some coffee for daughter as her favorite coffee was on sale for $5.99:

Coffee for Daughter

This same coffee is selling for $10.29 at CVS.  The regular price at the grocery store is $9.79.  This week, it is sale priced at $5.99.   The four packets of coffee came to a total of $23.96.

Coffee Receipt

I have decided that I will not include this coffee purchase in my regular grocery budget as it is for daughter and I don't drink this coffee (too strong for me).  I will pay for it from my "miscellaneous" budget or my gift budget.  

Dancer, as you can see, takes his duties as Chief Quality Control Inspector of Groceries very seriously:

Chief Inspector of Groceries

While I was at the grocery store, I decided to do a price comparison of the groceries I bought yesterday.  The grocery store I went to for the coffee is one of a chain of regular grocery stores and a Kroger affiliate; the store I went to yesterday, is an ethnic store and, as far as I know, privately owned, or, at least, not part of a chain of stores.  The regular grocery store doesn't carry some of the items that were available at the ethnic store, but I tried to look for the equivalent, where I could.

Item	Ethnic Store Price	Regular Store Price
Romaine lettuce Broccoli crown Bread, 24 oz. loaf White champagne grapes Green/Red/Black grapes Nectarines, @$.69/lb = $.62 Red Delicious apples, large Red Delicious apples, small Bananas 16 oz kefir cheese/yogurt  16 oz. strawberries	$.50@ $1.29/lb $2.39 $.99lb $1.29/lb $.69/lb $.39/lb $.99 $.49/lb $1.19 $1.99	$1.29@ $1.79/lb $.99+* n/a $1.99/lb $.99/lb $1.69 $.99 $.59 n/a $1.50

*Bread: the bread I bought at the ethnic store is called "Italian Special" bread, made in a local bakery that employs between 5-9 full time employees (they make a lot of the special Armenian bread sold at the store, as well).  The list of ingredients says "enriched flour, yeast, water, salt".  It tastes a lot like the bread I grew up eating.  At $2.39, it is more expensive than the sandwich bread I often buy for between $.99 to $1.29 at the regular grocery store.  But the regular grocery store has more expensive bread, as well.  The ethnic store bread doesn't keep for more than a few days, without spoiling; the sandwich bread from the regular grocery store will keep for 2 weeks or more as it is full of preservatives.

Grapes: the regular grocery store doesn't carry the white champagne grapes; they did have the regular green, red, and black grapes for $1.99.

Yogurt: Again, the regular grocery store doesn't carry the labne/kefir cheese type of yogurt.  The nearest thing, which is Greek yogurt, sells for $1 per individual serving containers and $3.19 for the larger containers.

Apples: the smaller apples were advertised as "lunch box sized" at the regular grocery store.


For the most part, prices at the regular grocery store tend to be higher than at the ethnic store.  Sometimes, however, certain items are priced lower, if they are on a special sale.  This week, for example, the 16 oz. containers of strawberries were $1.99 at the ethnic store (not an advertised weekly special) and $1.50 at the regular grocery store (advertised special).  So, it is important to study the weekly ads and know the prices; one can't assume that things are consistently lower priced at the ethnic store.  In fact, a lot of pre-packaged foods are more expensive at the ethnic store.  Again, it is just a matter of knowing the prices.

Do you have access to more than one grocery store?  If so, do you see a price difference between stores?

Saturday night dinner was rice and chicken curry.

Sunday brunch was a slice of bread and butter with a banana; afternoon snack was grapes and a protein drink; dinner will be an egg salad sandwich.