Yesterday, I wasted about two hours to finally see what grocery store would actually save my family money.
I know there are other issues than just saving money in figuring out what store to buy from, and maybe we need to have a discussion about those. Whether those issues outweigh being wise with our money is at the crux of the conflict. But for now, I just looked at what was cheapest.
I chose ten items (actually 13 but 3 were eliminated due to not being available at all of the places). I will list the results, followed by all of the details at the bottom.
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If I were to buy my whole list at normal retail price, it would cost:
at Antwerp's Kammeyer's IGA: $39.60
at a Ft. Wayne Scotts: $38.83
at a Ft. Wayne Walmart: $27.83
at a Ft. Wayne Meijer: $30.73
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If I were to buy my whole list at their sale prices where applicable, substitute generic diapers for the name-brand (which we do) and pay regular on all of the items that weren't on sale, it would cost:
at Antwerp's Kammeyer's IGA: $29.80
at a Ft. Wayne Scotts: $32.45
at a Ft. Wayne Walmart: $24.35
at a Ft. Wayne Meijer: $27.18
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Now, I figured out how much it would cost for a week if the costs were spread out throughout the other items that I didn't research. My weekly grocery spending is about three to four times the total of these items, so I multiplied the weekly number by 3.5 and I used the sale number due to sale items shifting, which would probably keep the savings the same.
at Antwerp's Kammeyer's IGA: $104.30
at a Ft. Wayne Scotts: $113.58
at a Ft. Wayne Walmart: $85.23
at a Ft. Wayne Meijer: $95.13
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Now, I have a yearly spending estimate:
at Antwerp's Kammeyer's IGA: $5423.60
at a Ft. Wayne Scotts: $5905.90
at a Ft. Wayne Walmart: $4431.70
at a Ft. Wayne Meijer: $4946.76
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With Walmart being the lowest, I now show how much extra I would spend in a year to shop at one of the other stores.
to shop at Antwerp's Kammeyer's IGA: $991.90
to shop at Ft. Wayne Scotts: $1474.20
to shop at Ft. Wayne Meijer: $515.06
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I wish I could say that it would be cheaper to buy your groceries in Antwerp, but I can't. With current gas prices and using my vehicle, it would cost around $312 per year to drive to the closer Walmart and back. That would still result in a savings of $680.
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The ten items I used were:
Bush's Baked Beans
Kraft Shredded Cheese
100% Ocean Spray White Grapefruit
a Gallon of Milk
a Dozen Large Grade A Eggs
Breyer's Ice Cream
Huggie's Size 3
1 lb. of Ground Beef
Doritos
1/2 gallon of Minute Maid Orange Juice
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Other items that I tried to check prices on:
Ocean Spray 100% Cranberry Juice. On this item, only Scott's ($4.49) and Walmart ($2.88) had it in stock. Obviously, Walmart was a huge savings.
Hebrew National Hot Dogs. We discovered these things and absolutely love them. The best tasting hot dog I have ever had. They were only stocked at Meijer ($4.19) and Walmart ($2.99 normal, but on sale for the last few weeks at $2.50). Again, Walmart was a huge savings.
Bacon. This item was all over the place since the stores don't carry a brand across them. I won't share the prices.
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Watch out for the potholes.
