New grocery experiment…
I went to the grocery store this past weekend to begin an experiment on the differences on pricing and products between the large chain grocery store and the granola store (which I realize is a chain too but there is only one here in the city).
I bought what most of what we needed and tired not to pay attention to prices because if I did the granola store would automatically lose the competition. I bought brand names and tried to stay away from plastic, but that was all but impossible. I want this experiment to show the pros and cons of both stores but especially the environmental costs.
What I do know is that I spent $155 on about weeks worth of groceries. I tried to only shop the outside isles where the best food is (fresh produce and the meat and fish counters) but I had to buy breakfast food and a couple other household staples. I actually spent $185 but about $30 of that total were non-food items that I will not count in my actual totals because those kinds of items are not bought on a weekly basis.
Next week I am going to shop at the chain store and at the Farmers Market to see what kind of difference that makes. The week after that will be at the granola store only and then the following week will be the granola store and Farmer’s Market. At the end I will compare all the pros and cons and ask you to make the decision as to where I should shop.
How is the increase in food and gas costs effecting you?
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June 17th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
I’ve been comparing shopping at a bulk food store vs. my local supermarket (technically, a “food warehouse”). I started shopping at the bulk food store to eliminate bringing home packaging (I take my own containers). I did worry that it would end up costing me more, because the food warehouse chain undercuts the bulk food store on a number of key items. After a month though, it’s clear I spend waaaay less shopping at the bulk food store, because it has changed the way I eat. I eat more grains and pulses, and fewer sausages, commercial yogurts, and pizzas.
Now I plan my week’s menu, make the shopping list, buy JUST the ingredients I need. At the supermarket, I’d go there with a mental list of stuff I absolutely needed, buy that, and toss in other stuff that looks like a good buy. I’d end up buying more food than I really need for a week, and darn it if I didn’t eat it all anyway because - well, it was cheap!
I suspect that the key to saving money for me is to stay out of the supermarket altogether. Even if I have to pay higher prices somewhere else, staying out of the supermarket environment stops me over-consuming. BTW, I live in NZ, and I *used* to think I was supermarket savvy LOL.
July 17th, 2008 at 5:52 am
Food prices are going up along with the price of oil. Sad how our great country is sliding. One of the things I changed was buying bottled water by the case at Costco. Even though it isn’t all that expensive I started to think about all of the plastic that we are filling in our landfills. So I went online and purchased a counter top water filter that puts out water at a cost of 10 cents a gallon and no plastic waste.