Battle of the Grocery Stores

I'm trying this for the third time....the different grocery store not the blog. Let me preface this by saying in the end I really don't think it matters all that much. Safeway vs. Fry's. They both have ads, they both have sales, they both have their club card to reduce prices. I think some weeks Safeway has good deals and some weeks Fry's has good deals. I'm not about to be that person who goes to 3 different grocery stores every week to find the best deals. My time is worth more than any possible savings I would get from perusing ads, organizing my grocery list and driving to each of the stores.

So why do I keep comparing the two stores? Fry's usually has a much better produce section than Safeway, at least the stores by my house do. Luckily Fry's is close enough that I'd be willing to switch from Safeway.  Access to good produce is important to my shopping experience. I don't want to pay for fresh food when it's not really fresh and I don't like to return to the grocery store at a later date because they were out of what I needed, especially lugging around a 1 year old. This may sound ridiculous and perhaps a little snooty. Here's my thing. In this day in age grocery stores are certainly capable of offering this to their customers and I intend to be a conscience consumer, giving my business to the one who meets the majority of my preferences and needs.

Why have I chosen Safeway as my main shopping arena? It's super close to our house (convenience), I know the store so it's easier to get in and out (convenience and efficiency), and in my last two "scientific studies" of comparing the two stores I found there was no real difference in prices. So I do it for convenience, which is a huge pay off to me. Not to mention since I go to the store weekly a few of the checkout employees know me and Hadley, that's fun.

Ok Fry's is not but a mile, if that, down the road from Safeway, so the extra minute or two it'd take me to drive down there would be worth it for good produce and cheaper prices, if in fact they do have cheaper prices.

This is how I intend to be a little more scientific in my process of comparing: First I have an app on my iphone which is pretty cool. I can scan/type items in (some items aren't in the database though) and have it added to my grocery list. Sometimes it even has the size of the package/can. I can then add the price and quantity, make notes about coupons, etc. It then keeps a running total of what's on my list. As I pick up items I can check them off and it goes into "my cart". I now have a running total of what's left on my list and what's in my cart. These items and prices are all saved for future reference. This is one tool of comparing because I change prices each trip if there are sales, etc. I will also keep a spreadsheet of staple items with prices from both stores. I plan to shop Fry's for one month (about 4 trips) and then compare it to our previous Safeway trip totals.

I want to like Fry's so I can tap into their produce but I will not be a happy consumer when customers and tv ad's alike are doting about Fry's low prices when in fact they are comparable to surrounding grocery stores. I realize saying they have low prices is a marketing technique but so many people I know claim Fry's really is cheaper and I have yet to see that. I even went so far as to claim on Facebook that there was no difference. I will now come clean and say that I did not really do that great of a study between the two and will gladly recant my claim if I find different results.

Let the study begin! Oh and take a minute to answer my two polls on the top, right-hand side of my blog.

***Clarification: After I wrote this post my husband pointed out a miscommunication in it...I will be comparing comparable items as I shop.