Food cost analysis (Chicago, Champaign: car rental, sales, rental)

[glomerulus]

Hello,
I'm doing some analysis for my future move to Chicago proper (likely West Loop or thereabout) and am interested in the relative cost of groceries and so forth to my current digs in Champaign.

I currently have a small, cursory personal database of some frequently purchased food items and their cost at local grocery stores. It is useful to compare with sites like Peapod, but relatively harder to get a feel for the relative prices at places like Dominick's and Jewel-Osco. Perhaps someone can comment broadly on relative prices, or perhaps some kind souls would be willing to provide me with scans of grocery receipts (personal info redacted, of course) from which to mine some data.

I would be more than willing to share the data I gather.

Thanks.

[surlycue]

Milk is cheap- Sale price $1.69-1.99 Reg $2.50 or so. Bananas- $.79 a pound. I'm a vegetarian but ground beef seems around $5.00 a pound for the 93/7. Dominicks and Jewel both have good revolving sales so it really helps to check the flyer weekly to determine if you should buy anything in bulk or wait for something else to go on sale.

OTC medicines are one of the few things that I do not buy at Jewel/Dominicks. They are consistently more expensive there than at Target or Walgreens even.

If you tend to buy organic keep in mind that Whole Foods is big $$$. If I cook meat, it is one of the few things I'll go out of way to get at Whole Foods where the quality is quite noticeable over the standard grocer chains.

[yoyobubba]

If you live anywhere near Strack and Van Til on Elston/Logan you will save literally about 20% of your bill over Jewel, which used to by my favorite store until I discovered Strack.

[glomerulus]

Originally Posted by yoyobubba

If you live anywhere near Strack and Van Til on Elston/Logan you will save literally about 20% of your bill over Jewel, which used to by my favorite store until I discovered Strack.

I'll probably be ~3 miles away, but I'll definitely keep it in mind.

In addition to curiosity, I think this analysis has applications w/ cost-benefit of owning a car (any recommendation?). Based on my short analysis so far, services like Peapod seem to be ~50% more expensive than my local grocery stores. Of course, looking at real data from comparable area stores would go a lot farther.

[chitown85]

Does Cook County tax groceries? If so, it's going to be a lot more than Champaign.

[surlycue]

Originally Posted by glomerulus

In addition to curiosity, I think this analysis has applications w/ cost-benefit of owning a car (any recommendation?). Based on my short analysis so far, services like Peapod seem to be ~50% more expensive than my local grocery stores. Of course, looking at real data from comparable area stores would go a lot farther.

You may want to look into these car sharing options. I-Go can be tied into your CTA card as well.

Welcome to I-GO Car Sharing

Car Sharing, an alternative to car rental and car ownership – Zipcar

[yoyobubba]

2% tax on groceries

[jdiddy]

Originally Posted by chitown85

Does Cook County tax groceries? If so, it's going to be a lot more than Champaign.

Does not apply to groceries.

[surlycue]

Originally Posted by jdiddy

Does not apply to groceries.

Depends. It certainly applies to soda and bottled water.

[lisakf1]

Campbell's condensed soups are between .79-1.19
Chunky soups are usually around $2.50-$2.99
Gallon of skim milk $2.29
Sugar free Jell-o pudding $3.99
Ben & Jerry's $2.99-$4.79 (sale is $2.99 and basically empty shelves when on sale)
100 calorie packs $2.99-$3.99
Honey Nut Cheerios 12 oz box $2.50-$3.99
1 lbs turkey lunch meat $4.99-$7.99
Ball park fat free hot dogs $4.99
Healthy life wheat bread $2.00-$2.99
Kraft 2% cheddar cheese sticks $2.39-$3.59
Corn on the cob each .20-$1.00
Grapes per pound $1.69-$2.59

These are just a snippet of our usual purchases and we shop at Strack because it is cheaper than Jewel which is also cheaper than Dominick's.