Don't Back Down

On Saturday, the Charlotte Observer printed an article about the cost of groceries in Charlotte compared with other areas of the country. This was interesting enough, but what I found really interesting was the cost of groceries just within the Charlotte area.

For the article, the writer(s) purchased twenty items at four area stores. These four stores - Lowes Food on Providence Road, Harris Teeter on Central Avenue (now closed), Food Lion on Wendover Road and Bi-Lo on Park Road - yielded a price of $44.44 (Bi-Lo) to $49.27 (Lowes Food). All in all, not a huge difference in price, so it may or may not be worth your while to drive across town to save a dollar or two. But what was interesting was the sidebar about bargain shopping.

Long-time readers may already know that we shop at Aldi, and another article not long ago in the Observer mentioned grocery store share in the region but it didn't mention Aldi. That's okay. I don't really care, so long as I can still get the goods. This one did, however it was a bit misleading.

To start with, the bargain information listed not only Aldi, but Wal-Mart Supercenter, which if you read the earlier article, apparently has the lead in the Charlotte area grocery market share. However, these two stores only had fifteen of the twenty items on the list. Still, at prices of $20.28 (Aldi) and $27.03 (Wal-Mart), maybe they are worth a visit.

My first complaint is that the article states that at Aldi, you pay 25 cents to rent a shopping cart. That's not really true. It's more of a 25 cent deposit. Put the cart back, you get your quarter back as well. And on more than one visit, I've been able to pick up a cart for free by someone who is just passing along the favor from someone before them, and there are folks who leave the carts in the lot - so you may actually gain money in this endeavor. The quarter isn't included in the price, so it's not a big deal. Just thought I'd mention it.

Second up is that both Aldi and Wal-Mart list sugar (a five pound bag) for the full price ($1.98 at both stores). But the chain stores above list sugar (four or five pound) by the pound, at a price of 44 to 46 cents. So you can actually lop off another $1.50 or so from the price. Shame on your, Observer - check your facts!

Next, the apples. The apples at both Aldi and Wal-Mart are a 1 pound bag, while the chain stores are a 2 pounder. So this increases the price a bit. At Aldi, by 66 cents, and at Wal-Mart $1.44.

Finally, the items themselves. I don't regularly shop at the Wal-Mart Supercenter for groceries, though I have picked up an item or two, but since I'm at Aldi, I do know what they have. And according to this article, the five items not carried by Aldi are carry broccoli, green leaf lettuce, ground beef (93% lean), lentils or whole wheat bread.

Well, I hate to tell you folks at the Observer, but that's just incorrect. At Aldi on Sunday, a bunch of broccoli was $1.29 (albeit for a 1-pound bunch vs. a 1.5 pound bunch at the other stores, so to normalize the price we'll call it $1.94). I'm not exactly sure what "green leaf" lettuce is, but a head of iceburg lettuce is typically $1.29, and it comes pretty close to that description.

The fresh meat selection at Aldi isn't huge, but they do have 90% lean ground beef fresh in the case, and 90% versus 93% would do for most people - it was $2.79 per pound on Sunday. Finally, they almost always have whole wheat bread, which is 79 cents per loaf. If that's not good enough for you, they do have a 12 grain variety, which is $1.29.

Add all that together, and you get $6.43 (adjusted for the sugar and the apples), or $26.71, for 19 items at Aldi. I don't recall ever seeing lentils there, which is the last item, but even if they are five times the cost at the other stores (generally 79 cents), you're probably still walking out for less than $30.

Now if you're anything like us, you will buy way more than 19 (or 20) items per week. The idea of the survey is just to show you a somewhat representative sampling of items, with the point being that if you can save money on these items, imagine how that translates both to your overall grocery bill and to how much you can save throughout the year.

Just work it out. If you spend $100 per week (as we often do), that might translate to $140 or more at a "regular" grocery store, and that extra $40 per week could easily mean $2000 per year. That's a lot of cabbage (which they also carry at Aldi most weeks).