MacKenzie and I like to buy our groceries at Lee's. Not only are they close to us, but we have considered them to be the least expensive store (besides maybe Wal-mart, but they have long lines and bad produce). But we have heard others say they consider Lee's to be expensive. So we decided to find out the truth.
We came up with a list of items that we thought were representative of the average shopper. We decided to price-check the cheapest of each item at each store, and also select a certain brand name for each item, to make direct comparisons.
The four stores we sampled were: Wal-mart, Lee's, Smith's, and Albertson's. Since Macey's and Lee's are both Associated Food stores, and put out the same ad every week, we considered them to be equally priced.
If an item was on sale, we used the sale price, even if it required a member card (Smith's and Albertson's).
Our hypothesis was as follows (cheapest to most expensive):
-Wal-mart
-Lee's
-Smith's/Albertson's (tie)
Our detailed results, and list of items, can be viewed here.
The final totals were as follows:
Store----Cheapest---Brand
Wal-mart --$38.76 -----$50.48
Smith's ----$44.73 -----$55.48
Lee's ------$45.81 -----$55.63
Albertson's $53.47 -----$68.79
As you can see, Wal-mart wins. On the cheap side, it's about 15% less than Smith's/Lee's, and 28% cheaper than Albertson's. On the brand-name side, Wal-mart is 9% cheaper than Smith's/Lee's, and 26% cheaper than Albertson's. Smith's/Lee's are 15% less than Albertson's on the cheap side, and 19% cheaper on the brand side.
If you bought each item at the lowest price, visiting all four stores, your total cost would be $35.21.
Of the 17 items we selected, 11 of the cheapest were at Wal-mart. Five were at Smith's, and two were at Lee's (there was one tie).
I reckon we will purchase more of our groceries at Wal-mart as a result of this study. However, we pay close attention to weekly sales, which this study would not reflect. Therefore, I suspect we will continue to do most of our grocery shopping at Lee's.
But, WalMart honors sale prices from all the stores in the valley.
ReplyDeleteTheir meat department still sucks, though. :(
i really love how you did the research on this. excellent work!!
ReplyDeletei shop at wal*mart and i will continue to shop at wal*mart for certain items. i am one of these people who shops the ads every sunday and clips coupons that i'll use.
however...i love to shop locally and i do shop at lee's for meat and produce. i used to shop for meat 3 nights a week at the theurer's in richmond until they closed. i don't care for the fresh foods at wal*mart. they just aren't as good as lee's...