Worst grocery store and why (Indian, Southern, whole grain, basil)

[Bulldogdad]

I am not a Walmart basher but they by far have the highest prices of any of the large grocery chains around here. Well except maybe for Safeway.

For me worse= higher food prices.

Their comparison commercials are laughable at best. Only thing I hear when I see them are SUCKERS!!!!!

[eureka1]

I don't shop Walmart and Target about once a year. I shop at Safeway because it's Union and has good merchandise and everything else comes from Winco and Murphy's , a local chain. I'm a big believer in buying local.

[jlawrence01]

Originally Posted by eureka1

I don't shop Walmart and Target about once a year. I shop at Safeway because it's Union and has good merchandise and everything else comes from Winco and Murphy's , a local chain. I'm a big believer in buying local.

I wouldn't touch a Safeway with a ten foot pole. They are TERRIBLE operators of chains. They bought the #1 chain in the Chicagoland market for $1.2 billion dollars and totally destroy the brand. They replace local favorites with their mediocre Lucerne brands and alienated their customer base. They ended up selling the remnants of the Dominick's chain for less than 200M.

They have done the same in Texas markets.

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by gentlearts

There's a thread on the best grocery store, so what's the worst?

For me its Walmart. The food and produce are fine, but everything else is such a hassle, I'll avoid going there at all costs. Bad carts, crowded parking lot, narrow aisles, uncaring employees. We stopped in over the weekend because DH wanted a cheap watch, and all the beta fish in the pet department had been allowed to die.

I do not like WalMart produce; it is very inconsistent, but you can't beat the price on non parishables. I certainly would not say they are worst. I think the worst I even shopped at was in NM. It was an IGA and 1/2 the stuff was spoiled, but I did go there for produce if I was using it in a few days, The prices were unbeatable.

I would add, WalMarts can be great or awful; they are not consistent, not just the food sections, but throughout the stores.

[MeteoMan]

Here in the UK, Iceland is pretty crap. "Because mum's can't cook" is the catchphrase for them. Their marketing representative used to be Kerry Katona, some drug addict crack head (literally) washed up old loser, that put me off shopping there. Aldi sucks too. There's a place called Lomas Foods here, smells like dying rats in there.

[maniac77]

I shop at Walmart for 90% of my groceries, and I actually don't mind the shopping experience there. I tend to go at times when it's not as busy i.e. during the weekday or in the middle of the night, and it's not so bad at those times. I know where everything is and can get in and out fast enough. It's reasonably clean, the prices are cheap, and the cashiers are nice. It's never pleasant, but certainly tolerable.

The worst grocery store in my area is probably Dahl's, a 13-store local chain in the Des Moines area. A couple of the bigger Dahl's are pretty nice, but the older, smaller ones are kind of dirty and depressing. Two of the stores will close soon, and while it's not a bad shopping experience, the prices are outrageous and not justified by the service. I go to the one by my apartment sometimes, and it's more like a convenience store where locals just pick up a quick item or 2. The shelves are often pretty sparse and it has a ghost town kind of a feel. Sometimes there's one employee manning the customer service desk and checkouts simultaneously. The only people who I see doing a majority of their grocery shopping there are older people who have been shopping there their entire lives. Otherwise most people go elsewhere to spend their grocery dollar. With Walmart, Super Target, Aldi, Fareway, Hy-Vee, Trader Joe's, and Whole Foods collectively dominating the grocery store market here, I don't see how Dahl's can survive.

[njmom66]

Originally Posted by nmnita

I would add, WalMarts can be great or awful; they are not consistent, not just the food sections, but throughout the stores.

I think this quote pretty much sums up the whole thread. It always surprises me how inconsistent they are. I hear about really nice Walmarts elsewhere, and if that were the case here, maybe I would go there more often. I don't go to ours for ANYTHING.

[mainebrokerman]

Originally Posted by njmom66

I think this quote pretty much sums up the whole thread. It always surprises me how inconsistent they are. I hear about really nice Walmarts elsewhere, and if that were the case here, maybe I would go there more often. I don't go to ours for ANYTHING.

its easy in the grocery aisle's - most of the food has a long shelf-life, and its not too difficult to open a box and stock the shelves..


when it comes to perishables, its a whole different world..and not all grocery stores are the same..
the whole foods shopper has different motives, than the cherry pickers/price shoppers.
so whole foods can get 50-60% margins on produce, because their customers will pay for it-this means they can cull deeper for any imperfections/reduce/mark down,
for what whole foods charges-they should have an exquisite presentation-they are not in the battleground most supermarkets are- and thats the battleground of price

the beloved trader joes, found a whole foods niche' but is not held to any variety standards, they buy what they can at better prices,(and have the luxury of the whole foods-higher price shoppers) and very few complain about what they dont have ..


the traditional supermarkets are in a survival battleground every week
why?? because ironically, they are held to the highest standard that any store has... and thats PRICE
whole foods, trader joes, and other niche markets are exempted from this
PRICE drives most of this industry-most shoppers know benchmark pricing on many items and wont pay above it-
like bread,,,some wont buy a loaf of bread above 1.00-just the way it is...

most shoppers today, still cherry pick the specials they look at flyers, look for the best prices and often the supermarket, because of feirce competition has to sell at or below cost, for front page specials, just to get customers thru the door (whole foods and trader joes have the luxury not being in this price battlefield-losing money every week on a lead sale item)

so, its a race to the bottom on prices,
and if your margins are lower, then you cant pay expenses,,,so you have to cut expenses, that can be payroll, or the guy that waxes the floor at night..

its a cut - throat business.

some stores- and here is the key-with large volume - some do 500k to a million dollars a week,,some do more..
they have figured this out thru the years, like wegmans, and other top stores (but again if they compete on price-they need to do big volume)

also keep in mind- large volume, cures all ills in a grocery store- if all products are selling, then much less shrink/mark-downs

in smaller towns, this is a major issue- if perishable product doesnt sell (often within 3 day shelf life) you need to mark it down- these stores that may get 400-500 customers a day are competing with stores nearby in a populated city- that get 2000 people a day that does ten times the smaller stores volume
yet, most compare the same prices


here's the other issue- labor
when you are in a low price war, you are also making low margins (no profit)
so its tough to pay a big wage if you are selling most of your items at cost..
again whole foods -because of much higher margins/retail prices they make much more money, that can pay their employees more

before whole foods- the supermarkets, could pay higher costs for better fruits/veggies and make a little more margin for a premium item..(they had the whole foods shopper).. but because whole foods attracts that segment of shoppers, the traditional supermarkets are losing them- leaving a higher percent of shoppers just on price,,,again,,no profit= smaller wages.
and fixed expenses are always going up.


over the past 5 years, thousands and thousands of grocery stores have closed, mostly because of buying on price- (in affluent areas, the niche' markets can do good, because people will pay 18.00lb for lamb chops, or 2.50 for an organic orange) this is a whole different world than a traditional supermarket.

if in poor areas, foodstamp week affects a stores business- up to 50%, that is huge!! and this is all on price, not how well the store sparkles, not how many organic items are displayed.



years ago, the supermarkets were the supermarkets, 85% of the groceries were bought in traditional supermarkets, now its in the low 50% range-it is getting segmented(years ago there was no wal-mart, sams club, costco, whole foods. trader joes)

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by Bulldogdad

I am not a Walmart basher but they by far have the highest prices of any of the large grocery chains around here. Well except maybe for Safeway.

For me worse= higher food prices.

Their comparison commercials are laughable at best. Only thing I hear when I see them are SUCKERS!!!!!

I have to say, yesterday I did pick up a couple of things at WalMart and they were priced right. We had a bunch of errands to run, we use WalMart when we have several different types of things to buy, which was yesterday: a little food, plants, wine, etc. so I did part, spoiled brat the rest. I got zucchini for .68 a lb and corn, .20 an ear. the corn was actually pretty good. Generally I agree, as I have said, the produce is hit or miss and the quality sucks.

[LocavoreT]

I believe the worst Grocery stores are any big chain grocery stores.

I personally will only shop at a CO-OP or farmers market. This way I know my products are locally sourced and have not been altered in a way I would not know. I believe all should try and source as much as possible locally because it allows one to eat healthier and fresher food.

If I can not find a product at my CO-OP or framers market I look on Agrilicious.org to find a farmer or farmers market that is close by who sells what I am looking for this way I know for sure I get quality local goods.