Best and cheap places for grocery shopping? (Tempe: sales, coupons)

[NytoPhx]

I did my first grocery shopping here last weekend, and coming from New York, thought groceries might be cheaper. Boy was I wrong, I did a fairly small grocery shopping at Fry's and it came out to $127, a container of Orange Juice was even $6.29, in Tempe. Is Fry's typically a more expensive grocery store, where else do you guys go that have reasonable prices and decent food. Am I better off at Food City, Basha's, Safeway, or Albertson's. I would prefer not to go grocery shopping at Wal-Mart.

[sablebaby]

Fry's is actually one of the cheapest places to shop. I think it's a misconception that people have that everything will be cheaper out here compared to "expensive" cities. I have found this to not be true at all.

Albertsons, Bashas, and Safeway are all generally more expensive than Fry's (I believe in that order). Food City will be cheaper than all of the one's you listed. Walmart is usually cheaper than Fry's.

Btw, I shop mostly at Safeway ONLY because there's one a few blocks from my home. My 2nd choice (which used to be my first) is Fry's. If I'm really going cheap than I will venture to Walmart, but I try not to.

[azjack]

I generally shop for groceries at a couple of different stores. As long as there are locations near where you live/travel, try to go to the store(s) that have the best prices for the stuff that you would buy at a given time. I include Fry's, Safeway, Albertsons, Basha's, Sprouts, Costco, Wal-Mart (price-matching is convenient), and WM Neighborhood Market in my shopping at various points. But never more than two places in a week. I have price-matched fruit and vegetables using Food City ads many times, but have yet to shop at one. Again, the price-matching is at the retailer out of Bentonville, AR that you are planning to avoid.

To answer your question directly, Fry's is certainly not a premium priced store, but there are weeks when their ad is less than impressive. Be flexible about most of the things that you buy, and savings will follow. If you pay full retail on more than a couple of items at the chain grocery stores, your bill will skyrocket. I would say Albertson's has the most impressive ad the week of 6/25 to 7/1, but it is nothing to write home about.

[joninaz]

They are all mixed bags. Even within chains they are different. One could list a bunch of price differences, but it really depends on your personal buying habits and store locations.

Tend to buy Bulk? Costco or Smart & Final might be best.

Meat? My Frys seems to have great deals on steak, pork and chicken. Not much else. Lamb? Liver? Turkey bacon? Not there. My Albertsons seems to stock a better variety of meats with a good variety on sale. Safeway seems to have good meats, but I'm not sure of cost comparison. TJ's is great for offbeat stuff like spicy sausages made with chicken. I'm just saying....

Produce? Most mainstream markets are similar in price and variety. The ethnic markets (Ranch, Food City, Lee Lees, etc) are sometimes the better deal, though shorter shelf life. You need to cook soon, not wait to see if those shrooms are better in 2 weeks.

In any case, it also depends on your persona. Some like to shop once for a whole month... But I don't mind popping by a few places a week. It's a bit like exploring.

[wit-nit]

Our choices are Fry's, Albertson's and Safeway. Our reasons are, one, they are very close to us. Gas savings. Two, they are pretty compatible on their pricing, three, we shop the ad items. And four, we use as many coupons as possible.
Their meat depts and the vegetable depts run pretty even in price and quality. Much of the quality in the stores really depends on the personell working those depts. Some take pride in what they are doing and it shows, others are just looking for that weekly paycheck.
Safeway near us offers 20 cents off at their gas pumps with only a $50.00 purchase in groceries.
Fry's further away offers 10 cents off a gallon at their pumps with a $100.00 grocery purchase.
And you know it's all a matter of semantics where you shop, as everyone's tastes and quantities differ. You can run up a bill easily by buying expensive steaks etal vs weekly sale items. And occasionally you do splurge to beef up the variety.
We also have a Trader Joe's nearby, and for some items of convenience we'll shop there. But we find them to be much more pricier and very limited in variety than the larger stores.
Walmart, too far away, never shopped them.
Costco and Sam's Club, too far away and we don't use enough to buy in bulk.
AJ"s and Food City are subsidaries of Basha's, with AJ"s being the upscale store, Basha's is their medium priced average store, and Food City catering to the lower income family's and feature a variety of ethnic foods.

[Prinny]

We shop at Wal Mart for groceries. We used to do most shopping at Fry's but found most items to be a lot cheaper at Wal Mart. Soda isn't cheaper at Wal Mart but most items are for us. Safeway has better cuts of meat but overall savings for us Wal Mart works.

[CheyDee]

When I go out and food shop, I buy frozen and shelf items at Walmart. They are the cheapest, by far. I do this once every few weeks and buy enough to last that long. Weekly, I go to Sprouts for fresh produce and meat. It is very quick and easy to shop in a small store like Sprouts once/week and they usually have good sale prices.

The best day to shop at Sprouts is Wednesdays, which are "double ad days". The previous week's sales end on Wednesdays and the new week's sales begin on Wednesdays, so on that day you benefit from two weeks of sale items.

Sometimes I order online from Safeway and have the groceries delivered. The convenience is sometimes worth it to me, but I pay premium grocery prices for this option.

I would not buy orange juice at $6.29. It often goes on sale for less than half that price.

[twiggy]

You mean if I move back east my groceries might be cheaper. Hurray!

[military spouse]

I'm not a huge fan of the WalMart supercenters, but I do like the neighborhood market. I believe WM offers the same prices in each, but they seem to offer a smaller quantity at the neighborhood market. The neighborhood market is never crowded and I can usually walk up to the checkout line. I've tried others, but some items seem SO much more expensive. I can also shop at the commissary, but they don't open until 0900 and that drives me crazy.

[lincolndavid]

No one seems to know this, but Wal-Mart will price match. That means that every ad in any store is a Wal-mart ad. I have seen a lot of posts advising people to shop several stores to get the best prices. Not only is that not necessary, but any savings that you see on your grocery bill will be spent on gas to go from one store to another. I was at a meeting the other day and was told that Wal-Mart will also match dollar store ads. Yes, I work at Wal-Mart. I do not like their general practices, so I use what lawful loop holes I can to cost them money. I think that making sure that everyone knows about the price matching policy is a good way to cost them hundreds.