The sticker shock of ringing through an almost $10.00 pound of butter yesterday sent me thrifting again. I took a random, albeit small, sample of commonly stocked items and went on an online search.

It’s been a while since I’ve done a grocery store comparison. Here is a link to my Wal Mart vs Safeway grocery list back in 2014. Wal Mart vs Safeway ~ Food Thrifting. I think my next investigation will be into price comparison from that 2014 list with groceries today.

Interestingly, Safeway and Calgary Co-op have websites that don’t easily let you look up prices. I guess they don’t want people to quickly see the differences between their stores and others. However, once I logged into online shopping it was quite simple to look up items.

I deliberately ignored any special deals/savings but of course that would make a big difference. I also saw an in store demonstration at Sav-On Foods compared two shopping carts with total cost between “name brands” and  their “no name” or Sav-On brand and I was shocked at the difference. I guess I’m probably late to the game, but only no name brands will go in my cart from now on.

I’ve left Costco out, it requires a membership that some can’t afford and the sizes of some products require a lot of room to store. I remember a presentation once that said that these stores have a “lost lead”, they drastically reduce one item and the rest are priced higher to recover the loss.

Safeway used to be tied to Air Miles which was a bonus, but they’ve abandoned that program this past month.

A few years ago I was able to easily shop at Wal Mart for cans and boxes of goods and then head across the mall to Safeway for fresh fruits, vegetable and meats. It is time for me to start doing this again.

But — I am fortunate in being able to afford groceries. Did you know that Food insecurity affects 1.15 million, or one in six, Canadian children under age 18. 

Love,

Smidge