I live in a smaller market and don't have a variety of stores available to me. Publix has dominated the FL market, and thankfully it is well run. I do pick canned things up at the SuperTarget, but that's about it. The foo-foo store is 20 miles away, but I go there about once a month for items not available anywhere else.

A while back I counted 17 supermarkets within a five mile radius of me, but I generally only shop two of them. One I prefer for meats, produce and specialty items, the other for general grocery. Of course there is overlap. Each week I check out their circulars online and try to plan meals and stock up on pantry items accordingly. But that's about the extent of it. Driving all over the place to go food shopping is not my idea of fun. Plus I have to consider that my truck only gets about 11 mpg local and gas is in the 3's!

I shop both the stores that are close to me. Safeway is where my bank is, about 3 miles away, and I always look at what's on sale on my list. But if Safeway doesn't have it on sale, I can almost always get it cheaper at the small local chain market that's on my way home. If I just need a couple of things, I stop at the small market.

FOAS could have written my response, I am in the same boat. My SUV gets 11-12 mpg, so I only hit Wegmans, TJs, and Joe Canals once a month or every 6 weeks. Fortunately, I have 3 major grocery stores in my town (within 2 miles) and I can reach 8 others if I want to go up to 5 miles away, including a smaller Wegman's type store plus the farmers market is open Thurs, Fri, Sat and I can get to a really nice farm market that is about 5 miles away also. They have the cheapest fresh herbs and veggies I have ever seen. Their dill, thyme, rosemary, cilantro, parsley (both curly & flat) are 2" in diameter bunches for $1.00. They also have seasonal veggies that are super cheap and "imported" veggies that are still cheaper than the chain stores. I also buy their butter and ice cream when I am up there - butter is usually $2.99/lb the same price that was on super sale at the local chain and ice cream, though not cheap at $5.99/gal is super top quality and made on the premises.

Alexa

I too check the flyers and shop the specials but usually only at the two large stores closest to me, Metro and Sobey's.

I'm seldom in the areas of the other large stores so it would have to be a very good deal to get me to travel to them.

I also regularly shop at Costco, Whole Foods and the local butcher, fish monger and baker. Generally though I'm on a specific mission when I shop these stores/shops.

I hate shopping for clothes and just about everything.......except I love shopping for food. Over the past 19 months that I have been unemployed, I made it a point to get to every little ethnic grocery store I could find in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area searching for unusual foods.

When Honeycrisp and Harrelson apples are in season, I will watch the ads and stock up on those. I was still eating really crisp apples last February that I had purchased in October and stored in my crisper drawers.

The Minneapolis Farmer's market is huge. And I will walk the whole thing at least 2 times before deciding which squash to buy or to determine who has the best deal on mini cukes for pickling.

We have 2 stores in town. One is 1/2 a mile away & the other about 1.5 miles. We watch flyers for both but organics don't seem to go on sale as frequently, if at all. Our nearest Costo is in a different state & 52 miles away. We won't drive over a hundred miles for regular staples shopping. Same with Aldi's - 40 miles away. Mystic/Stonington fought to keep Walmart away & won the battle. So, the nearest store is about 15 miles inland but it doesn't really matter because we are 2 of those people who refuse to shop Walmart.

We like shopping & supporting our 2 local grocery stores. Everything isn't about price especially in this economy. One of our grocery stores is locally owned with just 2 store locations (here & just across the border into RI) & the other is a New England company. Most all types of shopping here is with family owned businesses. We also shop local stores rather than Home Depot. Besides being convenient, none are more than 2 miles from home, we're also helping friends/neighbors keep their jobs. Mystic's a small place of 4,000. Every job's important. If we all started driving 100 miles to shop Costco what would happen to our local grocery store? We enjoy knowing the owners of the places we shop & their employees. It adds to our quality of life. Not everything's about price. Example, last week our D/W was making a lot of weird noises. DH stopped by the local appliance store where we purchased the D/W. The owner stopped on his way home & fixed the problem...no charge. Had we purchased from Lowe's or Sears I'm pretty confident we would have had a different experience. Someday in someway, DH will return the favor. That's just how life operates in small towns. So, we pay a bit more for butter. Life's full of trade-offs. We just purchase less to offset higher prices locally & that works for us because we really don't need that much stuff anyway.

/tricia

I live smack-dab between two small towns. Generally I go to Cambridge where my options are a Cub Foods, Wal-Mart, and our local Co-op of which I am a member. I loathe shopping at Wally World, especially for groceries. The only thing I really get there is their store brand of cranberry juice. It is by far the best I've ever found.

Although I do try to shop at/support the co-op, they don't carry many of the grocery items I use, so I do most of my shopping at the Cub Foods.

If I go theopposite direction to North Branch, there are two grocery stores, County Market and Nelson's. I shop county market there, because Nelson's is so darned expensive!

Linda

Chase, I've seen Whole Foods mentioned but we don't have one here in Kitchener. Is it like Fontinos or something?

Zehrs and Sobeys and Superstore are our higher-end chain. Price Chopper, No Frills and Food Basics are our discount chains.

Aren't Metro and Sobeys the same?

Whole Foods is a very high end grocery store and quite expensive! Their shtick is centered around organic produce, wild caught fish and natural raised beef and pork....but they also sell conventional foods. Worth a visit if you are in the Oakville area, it's right off the QEW , just south on Trafalgar.......but I'm warning you it's quite pricey.

I shop there primarily for cheese but they also have a wonderful selection of oils and vinegars, mustards , pasta etc. They have a fabulous cheese selection.

Metro and Sobey's aren't the same . Metro bought out Dominion and Sobey's swallowed up A&P.

On Vancouver Island we are blessed with a significant number of independent grocers, albeit some of them mini-chains.

They keep the large concerns honest.

Thrifty's and Quality Foods and (I think its called) Fairway down Island go toe to toe with the various Loblaws and Safeway outfits.

Add in a vibrant but a bit pricey Farmer's Market plus farm gate sales; all of which allow us significant control over our food costs.

Still, those costs creep ever up.

I can buy a 42" plasma flat screen for $500 when it was over $1,000 last year but 4L of milk is over $4 despite driving past the cows on my way to the store.

I tend to choose stores not by price, but by the specific items I'm looking for - it's just two of us, so we tend to buy relatively small amounts.

I'm in a rural area but have an A&P and ShopRite within 15 minutes; Kings (a small specialty grocer) is 30 minutes; Costco and Wegmans is 45, and Whole Foods/TJs is an hour. There's an old-school Italian butcher that I like about an hour away as well. We have lots of farmers markets and stands.

For example, I love bananas but am picky about where I buy them. For some reason, ShopRite puts out bunches in plastic bags that make it difficult to see the condition of the bunches (green? bruised?) and their bananas never seem to ripen normally. So I buy those only at A&P or Wegmans. I used to buy lunch meat only at Wegmans, but discovered that we like ShopRite's Black Bear meats just as well.

I'm trying to buy more local food, and recently picked up 30 whole organic chickens from a local farm. Also just signed up for a 1/2 share at a local CSA that I'm very excited about - had tried one years ago in another state, and this one came highly recommended by friends.

I'm very particular about meat and will buy only from a local farm (preferred), Costco or the butcher.If I need fresh herbs, gotta hit Wegmans because the local stores tend to carry those expensive and tiny plastic containers vs. nice bunches.

I try to hit TJs or Whole Foods if I'm in the area for special items I can only find there. But I've noticed that local stores are starting to carry more products that used to be hard to find - e.g. Ak-Mak crackers and Silver Palate oatmeal.

Sue

I'm in the suburbs of a city with a lot of grocery stores, big, little, chain and independent, big box, etc. I don't think I've looked at a grocery store ad in 30 years.

I have one grocery store that's on my route home from work and I'll stop there if I need something quick or to pick up a prescription. Otherwise I'll shop at one of the nearby stores, depending on what I need or where I happen to be running errands.

There is not a whole lot of choice here.
We have a Super Walmart and a big H. E. B. (a TX chain)
One is about 5 miles away, the other about 3 miles.

There are no locally owned, no speciaty, no farmer's markets, no independently owned, less than 50 miles away.
On a rather low, fixed income, driving that far for groceries is not an option.

So I try to watch the specials here.

Someone above wrote that everything isn't all about price.
And in an ideal situation, that is true.
But through some unfortunate circumstances that I have no control over (the current economy being one of them)
we are forced to shop by price.

So yes, I do shop specials.
I usually plan our meals around whatever is on sale.
And if it is something we use and like, I try to buy extra.

And I have learned to read labels very carefully and compare ingredients in like products, as well as package weights.

Also to beware of store brands.
They can (intentionally, I think) be very misleading!

Rusty

Zehrs and Sobeys... you must be a SWO resident. Me too!

Growing up, my mother used to pour over the weekly fliers and make her shopping list. She'd have a list for every store, and usually went to 2 or 3 stores to get everything on sale. She was a SAHM though, and had more time for that than I do. I usually am running out during my son's music lesson, or during hockey practice, to pick up stuff we need for the week.

That said, I still browse the fliers and if something is really tempting, I plan a trip to that store.

We shop primarily at Sobeys, just because it's very close. We also shop a lot at Price Chopper, but I'm constantly dissatisfied with their selection. If I have one hour to shop and have a big list, I go to Zehrs, because they always have everything I need, but it does cost a lot more to shop there.

We do a monthly visit to Costco for specific items... fish, cereal, quinoa, detergent...

That makes three SWO's. I'm in Oakville !

Hi Susytwo,
I'm in Kitchener!
Food Basics is my most often-used store. Price Chopper, just for specials....they are more expensive than Food Basics for their shelf items.
Did you (and Chase) get some sugar this weekend at Zehrs? Cheap.

Quinoa.....you too? I just discovered it a couple months ago, and Costco is definitely the place to buy it.

jasdip, I'm in St. Jacobs. :-)

Get out of town! You two can practically see each other from your doorstep!

Can see each other huh? Hmm. Close the shades? Or can you see Russia from your house too?? Oops, I got OT...

Much depends on the situation. Although I shop different stores at different times I do different things.

First, I do not do the Cost/'sClub places. No way will I pay $50/year to not shop there. Nope. I got suckered into that for a while and was given membership as a gift and finally said no more - won't go there. Too expensive and too time consuming for me.

I sometimes will just pick it up if I'm in a place. For instance if I'm in a gas station and need a loaf of bread - I'll buy it there. Maybe it's a little more but saves a trip.

Around here we don't have a lot of choice on markets. There's basically 2 big names and a few small ones. The one small one that I really liked, Festival, was bought out by SuperValu and things have deteriorated. It was a more upscale place but had a great meat market and for general things, yes a little more expensive but I liked patronizing a small chain and again, convenience. Not a giant store. But now it's part of the conglomerate so I don't go there often.

Then there's the other mid-sized, Lund's and Byerly's which one bought the other. They're a very upscale place and the one catered more to a select clientele and their prices were never cheap but quality was good. But I don't have one nearby so it doesn't really matter.

Then the one place I'd like to shop more is Thriftway but it's just not convenient. They're a place that's been around a long long time, family owned and they have some decent specials. They cater to the neighborhood and I wish them well. Wish they were in my neighborhood. The chain that I really miss is Country Club Markets. They were a small grocery store with good prices but the employees decided to play games and they shot themselves in the foot, so they're long gone. I had one nice and close and it was great. (heavy sigh)

I will take the ads if I need things and look them over and make a list for the two big stores (Cub and Rainbow) and then compare. If it's only a few cents difference there's no sense making 2 stops. I like Rainbow's meat department where Cub's is now pretty much only prepackaged, however Cub generally is cheaper on the dry goods unless a special. Plus Cub now has an interesting dollar area with some bargains there for $1 - aluminum foil, body wash, spices, chips, etc.

I'm finding myself finding more and more at Aldi though. I like the place. Problem is you never know what you can get there. They have it one time doesn't mean they'll have it next time. But the prices are unreal by comparison. I've been tracking them and most of the time if they have it, it's substantially cheaper but of course, not always.

Target is converting all small stores to P-fresh so they have more groceries and they're very competitive on a lot of things too. But again it'd require multiple stops to take advantage of everything so I have to be in the mood and feeling up to it.

This time of year there's a lot of deals to be had so it might require multiple stops. Plus it depends on how I feel. If I'm real stiff and sore I want little time in a store.

I can easily go to five different markets in one afternoon, most of which are ethnic and have special items that I want for low prices. They are all clustered close together in one section of Culver City/Palms, and they used to be on my way home from work. I prefer to go to a bunch of small markets than to one large market, although I do like large Korean and Japanese markets. In general, I find large stores annoying and boring, although Ralphs Waterside Marina market is an exception. I used to write stories about my shopping expeditions there. When I used to shop there I saw very few women, and the ones I did see looked like they were dressed for a pick-up bar - they were probably trying to meet yacht owners. There were a lot of young European toursists there also, and I could easily get there on my bike.

Lars

I do and love doing it too. Just on the way to/from work I have 8 stores to choose: 2x Aldis, a Jewel, 2x Asian, a safeway and a produce and now meat market. Not to metion the smaller indy type places or the Hispanic and Polish stores. When U12 shrimp are only 2.99/# because they are broken I loaded up. Heck I think 98% were still whole.

On Saturday I went to the Italian market because Parma Proscuto (sp) was on sale for $6.99/# instead of $19/#, B/S chicken down to 1.19/# and standing ribs and rib eyes were $3.99. Safeway was 6.99 for ribeyes.

Jasdip, Wholefoods is nice but there is a reason we call it WholePaycheck too!

Yep. I'm in a major metro area, so I have several different chains close to me.

I haven't seen anyone mention Wynn Dixie or PigglyWiggly.
Are they still around? I remember the movie about WynnDixie, the dog, and the PW just makes me smile.

Hubby lived in NC and Texas for a number of years and he mentioned Food Lion and Albertson's. He liked both of them.

When I lived in FL, the Winn Dixie nearest my home was a dive.

Albertson's was nice, but pricey.

I hit Sam's Club for some stuff in bulk but you do have to watch their pricing as it can be the same or more than other stores depending. Mainly shop at my local store for most stuff but hit Walmart for a few things that are cheaper. Mainly cleaning products and laundry soap but they do beat the rest with there prices on junk food like chips, crackers, etc... Love to go to Whole Foods for the cheese section and some special things but I always end up spending way too much...but I still go. LOL Have a couple of good meat markets and a couple of places that have seafood flown in daily. I love a good sale and stock up when I find one.

David

All the Winn Dixies closed here several years ago. They were a foundation of my childhood and the ones around me at the time they shut down were nice stores and much missed.

It was the only grocery store in a little town near me and the shoppers had to drive an additional 7-9 miles or so to get to the next grocery store. For elderly people, that was hard. It was a good two years before another store moved in.
A friends mother who had shopped there almost exclusively, shopped at the CVS until the new store opened.

I have been in some nice Piggly Wiggleys and some dives but I will always love that name!

Every couple of months I take the 100 mile round trip drive to Grand Rapids and stock up on things I can't get here.

I have one small local independent grocer and I do most of my shopping there. I get coffee at Sam's Club when I make that GR trek and the nearest Whole Foods or Trader Joe's is in Ann Arbor, 4 hours away.

I can drive 30 miles and go to WalMart, which I hate because it's always crowded, they move stuff everywhere and their produce is awful. They aren't cheaper either, any more. Meijer's is right next door, a bit more expensive but they are a Michigan based store and their produce is always exceptional.

So, as a general rule, since my Jeep gets 15 MPG and it's a 60 mile round trip drive, it doesn't pay me to drive for most specials. Now, just today, I got an 18+ pound turkey for a bit over $6 at Meijer's, but I stopped on my way home from Elery's so it didn't take me any extra gas.

I do have great farmer's markets, though, don't I Peppi?

Annie