Smart n Final vs Food for Less vs Trader Joe vs Target vs Vons vs WalMart Grocery (CostCo, cheapest)
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You're basically asking which is better a 24' Box Truck, a used Tahoe, a compact BMW, one of three different 4 door sedans, and a mini van. Some of the ones you listed are not traditional supermarkets while another is a limited boutiques. If you want truer comparison, you need to list only those that are in the same market category.
You must be on the West Coast because I've never heard of Smart n Final or Food for Less. I've heard of Vons but haven't been to one.
I'm not overly impressed with Target for groceries. It's a nice place to buy sheets and towels but their grocery selection seems limited and pricey.
Wal Mart is a mediocre shopping experience, but they do have many of the staples at reasonable prices. That's my go-to when buying cereal, they do have a good selection of reasonably priced canned goods (including unsalted vegetables for less than 40 cents per can). Produce is very hit or miss. Wal Mart sometimes has a bad reputation for customer service but some stores and employees can be super helpful and friendly.
Trader Joe's is good for specialty, unique foods that are well priced. I couldn't see doing all my grocery shopping there though. The have excellent frozen foods that you just don't see anywhere else (i.e. Thai, Indian cuisine, etc.), things like goat cheeses at an uninflated price, etc. The store employees are usually helpful and friendly, although sometimes a bit awkwardly overdone:
Cashier: Oh wow, that fiber cereal looks like it would be amazing!
Me: It's pretty good and my doctor would be proud because it keeps me regular.
Cashier: So do you have big plans for the weekend?
Me: Yes, I'm going to get my grocery shopping done and tomorrow I take the cat to the vet to get his annual physical, except he doesn't like the temperature check.
Smart n Final vs Food for Less vs Trader Joe vs Target vs Vons vs WalMart Grocery
Which supermarket do you think has the better price, better value/quality?
What are the differences among them?
Which supermarket do you prefer to shop ?
We must live in roughly the same part of the country because I have all of these nearby, plus Sprouts, Ralphs, Stater Brothers, Albertsons, and Costco.
I have never actually been in Smart & Final although my husband likes it. He gets meat there as well as supplies for work like coffee, creamer, etc.
I have also not been to Food for Less.
I go to Sprouts for produce and some meat, sometimes dairy, and bulk spices. Not sure if they are allowing self-serving small amounts of bulk items right now; probably not. Their boxed/canned goods and deli items are mostly very pricey organic or specialty brands, but once in a while there is a good deal.
I also hit up Trader Joe's at least once or twice a week. Milk, bread, eggs, cheese, and many specific items my family likes such as their brand of granola bars and cereal, some frozen foods, certain condiments and so forth. They are more expensive but they do have many things that we prefer and I can't find elsewhere.
Ralphs is for baking supplies, canned goods, meat, and things that I don't mind buying generic. I find their produce too expensive. Vons/Pavilions is about the same, maybe a little more expensive.
I get a number of bulk items from Costco (butter, blocks of cheese, coffee K-cups, and many others. Toilet paper. )
Walmart Neighborhood Market has good prices but I often just cannot find what I am looking for there. I will sometimes drop in if I need one or two things and happen to be in that center. Target is the same. Cheaper groceries, but smaller selection, and I hate having to walk through the whole giant store to get a few things. I do get paper goods, foils/wraps, toiletries there, if I don't get them at Costco, and if I think of a food item while there I will pick it up, but it's not one of my go-to grocery stores.
I agree w/ Rabrrita, but I'll answer for me personally. It's hard to say which I like best. I'll just give my comments on each:
Smart & Final - I actually never really go here..probably went 2x in my life ever. I don't really need to ever go anymore. The fact that my locations just aren't in places I go to probably have a little to do w/ it.
Food 4 Less - Nice & big, good prices. I rarely go here but I like it.
Trader Joes - I really like it, but can't do ALL my shopping here. Their frozen food aisle is the best when you want those unique food items that ONLY this store carries. I like their organic produce selection about 6 out of 10. Prices are OK.
Target - OK for food shopping, but they don't have everything. This is actually the closest store to where I live. Organic produce selection is 2-3 out of 10. Prices are fine.
Vons - I rarely go here, but they have the onion-flavored Ore Ida tater tots that I like that no other stores seem to have anymore.
Walmart Grocery - If it's specifically the Walmart Grocery store, I remember going just ONCE in my life just to look around & I didn't buy anything at the time. I've done some basic grocery shopping in the regular Walmart, but they have less selection of what I get. Regular Walmart has the cheapest bottled water (Crystal Geyser) that I get 2-3 packs of.
To get ALL of what I really want, I'd ideally go to 2-3 stores:
- Sprouts (cheaper) or Whole Foods 365 or better yet, the regular Whole Foods (pricier)
- Stater Bros. - Pretty good for overall shopping & good prices, but lousy organic produce selection
- Trader Joe's if I still want to get some extra goodies.
Comments about various stores:
Whole Foods & Sprouts - Have the best organic produce section, but Whole Foods is better than Sprouts.
Bristol Farms - Fancy grocery store if you want to splurge
Aldi - Great prices & has best price for organic ground turkey which I get a LOT, but lacking w/ overall of food items I want
Albertsons & Ralphs - I like them, but rarely have gone in the last 8 yrs since moving a bit further from them. From what I recall, their prices weren't on the cheaper side.
99 Cent Store - Surprisingly, 1 time I spent $66 & got a pretty good amount of food I actually liked, but this definitely wouldn't be my choice for regular food shopping
Final comments: Every time I grocery shop, I'll go to a different store that I'm in the mood for & depending on what items I need at the time. And again, to get ALL of what I really want, I'd ideally go to 2-3 stores. No 1 store that I can think of has everything I want, except for maybe Whole Foods, but they're too expensive for me to go there every time.
You're basically asking which is better a 24' Box Truck, a used Tahoe, a compact BMW, one of three different 4 door sedans, and a mini van. Some of the ones you listed are not traditional supermarkets while another is a limited boutiques. If you want truer comparison, you need to list only those that are in the same market category.
Yes, this is it. As my household's main grocery shopper, I would be able to make comparisons. These types of stores are also different.
Also, some of the names are not nationally known. Grocery store mergers are different than bank mergers. When Bank of America and Wells Fargo swallowed up a bunch of smaller banks, they branded those smaller banks as Bank of America or Wells Fargo. Kroger and Albertsons/Safeway swallowed up a bunch of smaller regional grocers over the last 40 years, but the legacy names remained.
Food 4 Less is owned by Kroger, but it's not like the main Kroger brand or its middle of the line Kroger owned equivalents. I would call it the middle of the line Kroger owned equivalents to be Ralph's (Southern California), Fry's Food and Drug (Arizona), King Sooper's/City Market (Colorado), and Smith's (Nevada, Utah, and New Mexico). I'm probably forgetting a name or two. Food 4 Less is a discount grocer that would be in the same class as Aldi. A legitimate comparison could be done between Walmart Supercenter, Target, Food 4 Less, and Smart and Final.
Vons is a Southern California/Southern Nevada brand owned by Albertsons. Vons was originally bought by Safeway in the 1980s. Safeway was Northern California. Safeway wanted to get into Southern California but rather than compete with existing players, acquiring Vons made more sense. Albertsons bought Safeway in 2015, and the Safeway brand is still around. Here, a legitimate comparison would be Albertsons/Safeway, Trader Joe, Target and Walmart.
I've never shopped at either a Smart and Final or Food 4 Less. Food 4 Less is a regional player in California. Smart and Final is primarily a West Coast retailer as well. I haven't lived on the West Coast, so I've not been to either.
I'll compare the ones I have been to from the list:
Trader Joe's: I have been but it is rare. I find it small and cramped. It's in a similar space as Sprouts, which I like. Trader Joe's and Sprouts take the concept of Whole Foods, but at generally lower prices and less square footage per store location. Sprouts does it better than Trader Joe's.
Walmart: Great prices. This was my primary grocery store during a time when I was economically challenged. Kroger is now my main grocery store because it combines competitive prices and healthy ingredient products better than anyone else in the marketplace. Walmart is useful still for purchasing packaged goods like soap, cleaning products, and condoms (if they aren't locked up, that's annoying. If locked up, I'll buy elsewhere). Condoms are one of my most important purchases, because I'm not buying or using condoms, my expenses, including groceries go up. Children are expensive and would definitely crimp my style.
The impetus for a typical Walmart visit now is when I need to buy tennis balls. I'll buy some other basics at Walmart when I am re-stocking tennis balls. I don't buy a lot of actual food at Walmart because a lot of Walmart's food selection is loaded with processed ingredients and soy derivatives, neither of which I want to put into my body. I avoid soy derivatives and processed foods so as to be attractive to women, and use the condoms I'm buying.
Target: I don't grocery shop at Target often. I'll stop in if it is convenient. It's like Walmart, but a little more upscale. I might grocery shop at Target if it is on the way from another task or if I need to buy something else at Target and just want to do my grocery shopping while I'm there. The food quality is a little bit better at Target than Walmart. There are some good organic, non-processed options.
Albertsons/Safeway: I would shop Safeway occasionally when I lived in Phoenix (before the 2015 Albertsons merger). I'm in Dallas now, and we have Albertsons, as well as the formerly Safeway owned Tom Thumb: Albertsons is a small player in Dallas-Fort Worth but the Tom Thumb brand has many more locations in DFW than Albertsons. Albertsons/Safeway stores are generally good. Tom Thumb is more expensive than Kroger. Tom Thumb is a step in between Kroger and Whole Foods/other specialty type stores. It's a hard place to compete. I'll typically go to Tom Thumb if it's more convenient than going to Kroger at a given point in time. The selection is similar, its just that the pricing is worse.
In typical times, I get the bulk of the things I need from Kroger, and I might round out my needs by visiting one other specialty store, like a Sprouts or Whole Foods.
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