Grocery price$ in Delaware // up or down? (Lewes, Wyoming: living, prices)

[countryswan]

Makes sense that Long Island prices would be more costly to truck (schlep) over bridges through NYC to the island sameas it is forpeople in Maine (just being so far north).

Hmm, so is Dover Produce Junction a store or an area where produce stands are along the road?

[countryswan]

Originally Posted by rdlr

I'm a Delaware native and it's been my experience, that different chain stores have different prices. Safeway, Food Lion, Acme, and others are all more expensive that our Super WalMart store in Camden, DE. Absolutely, everything that we buy (all name brands) is much cheaper there than in other places. I've compared prices for years, and hands down, the Super WalMart is cheaper on canned goods, sodas, frozen pizza, packaged cheese, bread, coffee creamer....just everything! They also have a huge bakery and also a huge deli with fresh cut selections. Now, we don't buy any meats (don't eat much of that anyway) from any chain grocery store. Any particular meat product is purchased from our in-town butcher....fresh, for sure, and the best! For eye roasts - beef tenderloin, etc. they cut, trim and wrap them to order. I shop at WalMart once/week, and my bill is usually between $45-$55, for the 2 of us, and our pantry is stocked. The high end is because I buy washing machine liquid soap on occasion, which puts my bill up another $5 or so. We just can't beat those prices anywhere for top quality grocery items. The downfall is, some days the shelves are not as well stocked. But I know when the trucks come in, and when the shelves are freshly stocked, so that's not an issue for me. I also know when it's the busiest, so I work my trips around those days. So, bottom line, I'm a huge fan of our local Super WalMart for grocery shopping! Can't beat it!

RDLR, I like to keep a stocked pantry also, especially when you want to coast a while.
Going shopping in one's own home.

Do you buy your produce from local farms and buy the cans and boxes from S. WalMart?
I'm fascinated by this small bill you're walking out of the store with.

Thank you for helping me to re-think where to shop!

[rdlr]

Originally Posted by countryswan

Any particular meat product is purchased from our in-town butcher....fresh
Is that in-town butcher in Camden too? Sounds like that area might be good to live near.

Camden-Wyoming Market is actually IN the Town of Wyoming. Butchers are there all day, every day but Sunday. It's an old country store with wood floors, and you'll think you've stepped back in time. You'll soon learn, that Camden and Wyoming are two different towns with each having their own government/police force. The two towns are linked by Camden-Wyoming Avenue. Grocery Store In Wyoming, DE | Camden Wyoming Market Closed on Sunday.

At our Super WalMart, no large boxes of anything, except boxes of office paper. Camden and Wyoming are rural communities, and I buy fresh produce from the Amish, about a mile or two from us....just during the summer. And then, there's Fifer's Farms, a mile from us in Wyoming...a little high priced, but worth it for fruits, veggies, and much more. Wonderful activities, also! Closed on Sunday.
https://www.fiferorchards.com/ In this link, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click "Our Story". It details a lot of Fifer's/Delaware history.

[countryswan]

Originally Posted by rdlr

Camden-Wyoming Market is actually IN the Town of Wyoming. Butchers are there all day, every day but Sunday. It's an old country store with wood floors, and you'll think you've stepped back in time. You'll soon learn, that Camden and Wyoming are two different towns with each having their own government/police force. The two towns are linked by Camden-Wyoming Avenue. Grocery Store In Wyoming, DE | Camden Wyoming Market Closed on Sunday.

At our Super WalMart, no large boxes of anything, except boxes of office paper. Camden and Wyoming are rural communities, and I buy fresh produce from the Amish, about a mile or two from us....just during the summer. And then, there's Fifer's Farms, a mile from us in Wyoming...a little high priced, but worth it for fruits, veggies, and much more. Wonderful activities, also! Closed on Sunday.
https://www.fiferorchards.com/ In this link, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click "Our Story". It details a lot of Fifer's/Delaware history.

ALL of this information is priceless.. thank you SO much!!

Fresh fish!!!!! I'm 5 hours from the shore so I don't really trust the fish from the grocery store
where they have admitted that it is not fresh but previously frozen and thawed. I worked in a fish market as a teen (Cape Cod summers). I know and can sniff a fresh piece of fish which has a lovely salty-sweet scent.

[rdlr]

Originally Posted by countryswan

ALL of this information is priceless.. thank you SO much!!

Fresh fish!!!!! I'm 5 hours from the shore so I don't really trust the fish from the grocery store
where they have admitted that it is not fresh but previously frozen and thawed. I worked in a fish market as a teen (Cape Cod summers). I know and can sniff a fresh piece of fish which has a lovely salty-sweet scent.

I would NEVER buy fish from a grocery store. I saw some packaged shrimp in WalMart the other day from Vietnam! We used to get our fresh fish from Bowers Beach, about 15 minutes from us. Our favorite place to buy fish there was Frenchie's Dock built on a pier along the Bay, but it fell into the water. We miss that place. Now, we buy fresh seafood at Pleasanton's Market on Rt. 13 about 15 minutes from us. They have family that crabs and fishes for a living, with boats going out of the Town of Leipsic (Leipsic River to the ocean) History of Pleasanton's Seafood, Dover, DE | Delaware Blue Claw Crab

If you want to be served fresh/caught/fresh prepared seafood dinners, try JP's Wharf in Bowers Beach. We go there every couple of weeks (15 minutes from Wyoming) and they have dining out on the dock. While having dinner, we watch the sunset, while fishing boats dock their boats and unload their catches. https://www.jpswharf.com/

[countryswan]

The fish dining sounds delicious!
I clicked on the link for JP's Wharf....

Now you've got me drooling all over my computer screen.
I can not wait !!!

[rothbear]

Overall I do find the grocery prices higher even here in Dover. We are originally from western PA but lived in SC near Charlotte for 5 years before coming here. We split our shopping between Sam's Club, WalMart and Redner's. Have been hitting Lidl's a couple of time lately. Depends on what we are shopping for. We pretty much know the prices on items at Redner's so if we know we can get it cheaper at WalMart we do. Sam's is for household products and things we get larger quantities that we use a lot of or can freeze. DH has been doing most of Sam's/WM shopping so that we are only exposing 1 person to the store and other people.

Prices were lower in SC and I noticed the difference immediately. Produce especially is high even during the growing season, which surprised me. We stopped at a couple of roadside stands and they were as expensive as the stores. Will have to try to find more hidden Amish places next year. We use to shop a lot at Produce Junction but after a few times of stuff that went bad quickly we haven't been there for awhile. We had a lot of shopping options in SC including Harris Teeter (expensive), Lowe's Food, Food Lion (headquartered just north of Charlotte), WalMart, Target and Publix. Publix was my absolute favorite. Reasonable prices, nice store and extremely helpful employees. I miss them so much!

I haven't been to the butcher in Camden, but have been wanted to try it.

[DelawareLiz]

I don't venture out much since the pandemic, and I literally only shopped at Weis in Millville for months up until recently. I didn't want to risk going to different stores and only shopped once every three weeks. Now, we are back to going to BJ's every month or two to stock up, and we just started going to Walmart Supercenter again in Berlin. Walmart is definitely cheaper...for everything. Weis isn't too bad and I've actually scored some great deals there. If it's too high, I just don't buy it. I don't buy their expensive produce because I successfully grew my own organic garden this summer; I only bought their bananas and some romaine for my pets. The rest came from my backyard. We used to have those little roadside stands all around here where you can just put your money in a box and get some great local produce for cheap, but they are long gone now it seems and replaced with housing developments or just discontinued.

Our grocery bill has really gone up over the years and it's just the two of us, but I guess that's how it goes. I visit Byler's when I go to Dover and I will definitely be checking out these Amish farms now that I know their locations! I need lots of pumpkins for decorating and apples for fall baking.

I agree that PA is much cheaper and I have a grand time stocking up on meats and veggies when I go up there, but I haven't been up there at all this year.

[rdlr]

Originally Posted by beachliz

We used to have those little roadside stands all around here where you can just put your money in a box and get some great local produce for cheap, but they are long gone now it seems and replaced with housing developments or just discontinued.

Liz, we still have those places with a can on the table....take some produce and drop whatever you want in the can. In fact, we have 2 of those right around the corner from us in Wyoming. Every summer, I get yellow squash, tomatoes and onions at those places, and if they're out, I hit the Amish farms. I make a great dish out of those 3! Peel the squash and onions, slice and saute all 3 in a little olive oil, add some crushed pepper and simmer! Makes the house smell good, too!

[lyndyb]

I come from Maryland and bought the majority of my staples at Giant there and here - and find the prices comparable. I found the Safeway in MD and DE to be more expensive, but comparatively similar. We had no Acme locally in MD, but I think the one here in Rehoboth/Lewes is very expensive - but they do run some great sales/specials. What I miss most is Wegmans - maybe some day ......