Grocery Store Rotation

[Dave Gray]

I guess it's different for different people and different sizes families (and how much you mind getting out to shop), but I have a few friends that just shop at one place.  I don't do that.  First off, I think you get better options at different places, but you can take advantage of sales, bulk, etc.

Here are the places I go:

Publix:  It is the premiere grocery store in S. Florida.  It's usually the cleanest, has the most options, the most desirable clientele.  However, it's the most expensive.  They do often have BOGO deals, though, so I do go and try to take advantage of those as much as possible.  Also, they will pretty much have what you want, if it's something that's specific.  If you have to have peppercorn-jack-cheese, they'll have it.  It's also pretty close to me and convenient, so if I'm just grabbing one or two things, I'll go there, especially because I also use them for a pharmacy.

Aldi:  I love this place, as I waxed poetically before.  Aldi is cheap.  Aldi is minimal -- however the rub with Aldi is that it isn't going to have a ton of options.  If you want peanut butter, there will be a name brand you've heard of in crunchy and creamy.  And probably an Aldi-brand in crunchy and creamy.  1 size.  If you want natural peanut butter with honey in a 12 oz jar, you'll have to look elsewhere.  However, it's great for staples.

Winn Dixie:  This is like the halfway between Aldi and Publix.  It's a big store that's pretty much going to have everything.  I think they've done a much better job in recent years of making the store organized and clean.  The deli and fruits and veggies sections have become really nice and I've starting using the store in my rotation.  They also have pretty good deals on canned bubbly waters.

Wal-Mart:  Often Wal-Mart is kinda gross and scummy, but stuff is cheap -- also it's a full store, so you can get groceries while also looking at electronics, which is kind of nice.

Costco:  Costco is the place to go for things that you know you like and that doesn't go bad (or you use a lot of).  Non-perishables are a must.  But also, pretty much everything is name brand, so you still end up paying, but the cost per oz comes down because of the volume.  We get lots of meats to freeze, they have good meals that you just have to warm up, individually packed chips/snacks for school lunches.  Eggs are a great deal, as are all kinds of beverages.  Frozen stuff is great too.  We will even take a risk on cold case items and fruits and veggies, but they often start to turn before we can get through them.


And then there's specialty stuff -- I'll go to Presidente (the Spanish grocery store) if I need a certain pork butt or something like that.



Anyway, I enjoy this process of switching it up and I don't mind shopping.  Where do you go and what do you buy at different places?

[CF DolFan]

We are a Publix family. I have 3 within 10 minutes of my house, depending on which way I'm going, and then another 3 within 15 minutes of home. For whatever reason my area is loaded with them.

[Fau Teixeira]

I had a rotation in florida and I have a rotation here in CT. I guess I'll outline both.

Florida -
Staple shopping - Aldi, sometimes walmart, but whenever it was walmart it was 100% exclusively online ordering with curbside pickup. Lots of options, prices are decent, but didn't want to walk through a walmart and wait for 40 minutes in line for one of the 3 registers out of 30 that were open.

Specialty shopping - Rorabek on military / lantana for produce - cheap, also sometimes Bedners on 441 south of boynton, they had better quality produce. For meats, I liked going to Western Beef on military / jog, they have a walk in freezer meat section, the butchers are all bundled up and going from 90 degrees outside and walking into a 35 degree meat freezer was heavenly. Also for better cuts of meat, Wild Fork in boynton was a great store for interesting cuts. You can actually buy from wild fork online and they'll ship to your house. (which i have done before both in FL and CT) This is the place you buy the thick steak for the grill or the tomahawk ribeye if you want one. Still cheaper than publix and better quality. You can even get  super expensive stuff there like Wagyu beef and stuff.

Publix was there for basically one-off type items or Subs / tenders / rotisserie chickens / birthday cakes, but never for bulk shopping.

Winn Dixie sometimes fit in the rotation especially after they opened a new one in west boynton that was really nice and had new store feel.

Connecticut -

Aldi, and walmart are still here, Instead of Winn Dixie we have Shop Rite and Stop and Shop. The publix replacement here is Big Y, they have a good deli counter,  subs (grinders) that they make in front of you. A Pizza section where you can order pizza or stromboli and a fried seafood section where you can get fish and chips or clam strips or just a general fish fry. They're most likely to have the random higher end and wider selection and they carry boars head like publix does.

I've found that i've also been stopping at trader joes lately and that store (being a sibling of aldi) is just good for snacks and random hippy stuff.

I haven't been able to replace western beef here, there are farms around this area so if i wanted dairy from the dairy farm, i could get it. Also if i wanted to buy a half cow and have freezer meat, i could do that as well. Deer hunting is huge here, and i know people with licenses that can hunt 2 per season, so they keep their freezer stocked with venison.

The farmers markets here are a thing, but very seasonal (end of spring through the beginning of fall).

[Denver2]

Pretty much all I go to is Kroger or Wal-Mart with a few things from natural grocers.

I go to Safeway only for some local sausage.

[Sunstroke]

I shop at Fry's (Kroger) for close to all of my groceries. The store is right around the corner, has "almost" as good savings as I used to get at Publix, I get free curbside pick-up, plus all the groceries that I get (and my roommate gets on my Fry's card), turn into a decent gasoline discount.

[Spider-Dan]

Back in '98, a new FoodMaxx opened a few miles down the street I lived on.  FoodMaxx is a discount grocery warehouse where you bag your own groceries.  The experience is kinda similar to Costco (sans membership), but the product sizes aren't quite THAT huge; it's more of the Family Size boxes instead of the double and triple boxes at Costco.

In 2010 I moved about 3 miles to a nearby city, and the part of town that FoodMaxx is was getting pretty run down.  Still, I continued to go to FoodMaxx for nearly all of my grocery shopping.  Finally in 2022, that FoodMaxx closed.  I decided that as a grown-ass middle-aged man with respectable income, I can probably start shopping at a nicer grocery store that's closer to my home, instead of driving to another trashy neighborhood for Maximum Discounts.

So I started primarily shopping at Raley's, which is a semi-upscale west coast grocery chain.  It's nice!  If you sign up for the free membership, they mail you coupons just for the stuff you actually buy (based on prior purchases).  It's pretty convenient.  There are a few things they don't have at Raley's, and for those I go to Wal-Mart.  Three years after I moved into my house, they built a Wal-Mart less than a quarter-mile from me.  Should come in pretty handy when I get too old to drive.

I do also visit Costco primarily for over-the-counter meds, paper towels, K-cup pods and such... but when I'm there, I'll usually pick up some cereal or noodles.

BTW, Wal-Mart isn't particularly cheap as a grocery store.  Whenever I've compared prices, they are right in line with Raley's and significantly more than FoodMaxx.

[Sunstroke]

...Raley's, which is a semi-upscale west coast grocery chain.  It's nice!  If you sign up for the free membership, they mail you coupons just for the stuff you actually buy (based on prior purchases).  It's pretty convenient.

I get that same coupon emailer with the coupons for all my regular-purchased items. They also occasionally get manufacturer's product coupons where they give you one of their products for free. I usually use 2-3 of their coupons each trip...

[masterfins]

I'm not in FLA, but IMO you have to shop multiple stores to save money.  There's one wholesale-like place I mostly go to buy meats because they are the cheapest and best quality.  Then there's BJ's or Sam's club for bulk stuff.  Then a store around the corner for most general stuff out of convenience.  With prices so high right now you can really save a lot by shopping around.

[CF DolFan]

Aldi:  I love this place, as I waxed poetically before.  Aldi is cheap.  Aldi is minimal -- however the rub with Aldi is that it isn't going to have a ton of options.  If you want peanut butter, there will be a name brand you've heard of in crunchy and creamy.  And probably an Aldi-brand in crunchy and creamy.  1 size.  If you want natural peanut butter with honey in a 12 oz jar, you'll have to look elsewhere.  However, it's great for staples.

I don't knock anyone for shopping there but I've come to realize that I dislike this store although I've only been once. I never really thought about it before but I think I now know why. I grew up poor so rarely had anything name brand. I think Aldi drums up bad childhood experiences of eating things like Simpson Sugar Flakes instead of Kellogg's Frosted Flakes.  

[Dave Gray]

I don't knock anyone for shopping there but I've come to realize that I dislike this store although I've only been once. I never really thought about it before but I think I now know why. I grew up poor so rarely had anything name brand. I think Aldi drums up bad childhood experiences of eating things like Simpson Sugar Flakes instead of Kellogg's Frosted Flakes. 

I get that.  I wouldn't buy fake Frosted Flakes, either.  For finished foods, I often will have name-brand preferences -- chips, sodas, snacks, etc.

But an apple is an apple is an apple.

[Sunstroke]

On a bizarre note, given the size and popularity of their chain... I have never been inside an Aldi market.

[Dave Gray]

I tell you from experience, both from myself, and talking to other people, but Aldi is kind of a shock the first time and it can be off-putting, because it's just so non-traditional, as compared to a Publix.  If you just go in there unprepared, it's gonna feel weird.  But once you get how it works, there's a lot to like.

[Brian Fein]

The best store is Sprouts, y'all sleeping.

[Phishfan]

I go to Winn Dixie for the bigger shopping trips. I also find the most bogo deals there.Publix is the closest but smallest (they built one that isn't a normal size but it is great if you just need a quick item to round out dinner). It's also the most expensive place. Walmart is ok if I have to get cat litter or something and only feel like making one stop. I, like Spider, don't think you get any deals on their grocery dept.

[Dave Gray]

Bump, because I had a friend over last night and we started talking about this.

She lives by herself and has specific things she cares about: free-range eggs, organic peanut butter with only 2 ingredients, etc.

Also, she is absolutely positively only going to one store.

So, it's Publix for her.



I think that's part of this that I just don't connect with is the refusal to rotate.  I will definitely and gladly shop at multiple places.   There are some people where it's just off the table.  Maybe it's how much you hate the act of grocery shopping, but maybe it's also the size of the family and the different types of stuff that you need.