Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The monopoly thing is just too much work for me, I tried it once and gave up.
Oh, thank God that crap is over now (At least here) I had a cashier say "Want to play?" I agreed. She handed me a small sack with 200 of those pieces. Over 78 were duplicates. Didn't complete one set.
I refuse to even try now. The best plan is coupons and cents off gas.
We shop at Trader Joe’s for much of our food and the produce is very good at our local store. With just the two of us, it fits our needs very well and we do not find it expensive. It is fun to try some new products there and we like the smaller size of the store for weekly shopping.
If I need greeting cards, I actually prefer the $1 ones at TJs as they are clever but not as wordy and effusive as some others.
For paper goods, larger frozen packages of fish and chicken, coffee, some vitamins, detergent, etc., we go to Costco about once a month. We do not eat red meat or bacon so do not deal with that cost. However, at Costco the price of salmon had gone up quite a bit.
But you're not alone; many people who have never been in a TJ's believe it to be on par with Whole Foods, Fresh Fields, or stores of their ilk, and it simply is not true. Their prices may not be as low as discount chains such as Aldi, but their prices are comparable to other mainstream chains. In fact, the Miami Herald did a cost comparison a few years ago that found that not only was TJ's much cheaper than Whole Foods, it was even much cheaper than Publix, which is the #1 mainstream grocery store chain in Florida.
What surprises me is how TJ's got this "ritzy elitist expensive store" reputation in the first place. Long before we had them here, they were well known for selling an award-winning, yet very cheap, wine, that went by the nickname "Two Buck Chuck" because the winery was Charles Shaw and the price was $1.99. (I think the price is now $2.99).
So how does a store that is best known for selling $2 wine get a reputation for being ritzy and expensive?
It is kind of interesting - so many of these companies are related. TJs and Aldis are actually owned by brothers that run two chains in Germany, both named Aldi. Trader Joes is owned by Aldi-nord and Aldi US is owned by Aldi-sud, these 2 parts of Aldis are reported to be combining back to one company sometime later this year.
Also Charles Shaw wines are really from Bronco Winery, which is owned by the Franzia brothers after they sold the label Franzia to coca-cola. Bronco winery name comes from Brothers and Cousins - the Franzia brothers are the cousins of the E&J Gallo brothers.
Status:
"Smartened up and walked away!"
(set 24 days ago)
11,775 posts, read 5,787,833 times
Reputation: 14193
Quote:
Originally Posted by Serious Conversation
But that's kind of my point here.
If people in my income/cost of living situation are cutting back due to high costs, what is happening at the lower end of the wage/cine scale? For me, the difference may be between going out to eat two to four times a week vs. once or twice a week. It might be a trip to Florida or Hilton Head instead of Maine this summer.
I'm not hard up here. The people who ARE hard up are the locals making $15-$16/hr packing boxes and filling orders at Home Shopping Network's site. People answering phone calls for $12/hr. A widow bring it in a low amount of SS without much savings.
I'm cutting back some extras. These people are struggling to make it.
I shop at Publix,which I know is not cheap...but at least they seem to treat their employees well...so the publicity says.
I bought this Saturday 5/21/22:
2 pints organic blackberries(BOGO) $4.99
Quote:
Originally Posted by TMSRetired
Publix is a high end supermarket and organic anything commands higher prices.
So there are choices here....stick with what you eat and pay more or start "shopping around" as they say.
Not when it's BOGO it's not.
That's cheaper than WalMart's price for non-organic blackberries.
BOGO sales are the best thing about shopping at Publix. Every time I pick up an Rx at the pharmacy, I peruse the circular real quick to see what the BOGOs are that week and stock up if it's something that I really like and eat a lot of, or some specialty item that's normally expensive such as gluten-free frozen pizza. I'll occasionally stop to pick up a $10 RX and end up coming home with $80-$100 worth of groceries that I paid $40-$50 for.
That's cheaper than WalMart's price for non-organic blackberries.
BOGO sales are the best thing about shopping at Publix. Every time I pick up an Rx at the pharmacy, I peruse the circular real quick to see what the BOGOs are that week and stock up if it's something that I really like and eat a lot of, or some specialty item that's normally expensive such as gluten-free frozen pizza. I'll occasionally stop to pick up a $10 RX and end up coming home with $80-$100 worth of groceries that I paid $40-$50 for.
If you sign up with Publix and use their phone app you can digitally clip coupons in the app. You can also maintain your shopping list in the app with the aisle location of each item indicated. Makes finding rarely purchased items way easier. They send me a $3 coupon off the entire bill every few weeks. Worth getting if Publix is your main source of groceries.
If you sign up with Publix and use their phone app you can digitally clip coupons in the app. You can also maintain your shopping list in the app with the aisle location of each item indicated. Makes finding rarely purchased items way easier. They send me a $3 coupon off the entire bill every few weeks. Worth getting if Publix is your main source of groceries.
I appreciate the info, but when we move to Savannah in a month or so, our main source of groceries (besides the weekly farmers' market in Forsyth Park) most likely will be Kroger as that is the closest supermarket to our house. I'm going to miss having Amazon Fresh deliver groceries to us as Savannah is not one of their locales for doing so. At least not yet. We're even outside the area for WalMart+ to deliver groceries to our house. It's going to be a whole new world for us, lol. This will be the smallest city/MSA we've lived in since we were "marooned" in Southern Illinois for 11 months in 1985.
We shop at Trader Joe’s for much of our food and the produce is very good at our local store. With just the two of us, it fits our needs very well and we do not find it expensive. It is fun to try some new products there and we like the smaller size of the store for weekly shopping.
If I need greeting cards, I actually prefer the $1 ones at TJs as they are clever but not as wordy and effusive as some others.
For paper goods, larger frozen packages of fish and chicken, coffee, some vitamins, detergent, etc., we go to Costco about once a month. We do not eat red meat or bacon so do not deal with that cost. However, at Costco the price of salmon had gone up quite a bit.
Forgot about the greeting cards! Where else can you find greeting (Bday, Mother's Day, Sympathy, blank, etc.) cards of that quality and variety for only one buck? We've been buying those cards from TJ for as long as I can remember shopping there. Now many years. Or of any quality for that matter. Nowhere else.
We shop at Trader Joe’s for much of our food and the produce is very good at our local store. With just the two of us, it fits our needs very well and we do not find it expensive. It is fun to try some new products there and we like the smaller size of the store for weekly shopping.
If I need greeting cards, I actually prefer the $1 ones at TJs as they are clever but not as wordy and effusive as some others.
For paper goods, larger frozen packages of fish and chicken, coffee, some vitamins, detergent, etc., we go to Costco about once a month. We do not eat red meat or bacon so do not deal with that cost. However, at Costco the price of salmon had gone up quite a bit.
That's cheaper than WalMart's price for non-organic blackberries.
BOGO sales are the best thing about shopping at Publix. Every time I pick up an Rx at the pharmacy, I peruse the circular real quick to see what the BOGOs are that week and stock up if it's something that I really like and eat a lot of, or some specialty item that's normally expensive such as gluten-free frozen pizza. I'll occasionally stop to pick up a $10 RX and end up coming home with $80-$100 worth of groceries that I paid $40-$50 for.
Of course stuff is cheaper when it's BOGO. I was just talking about regular prices
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
