If you’re like me (most aren’t, which may be a good thing – but I think many of us share this particular trait), chances are you’re probably getting together your grocery list for the next few days on this Saturday. My common practice the few years I’ve lived on Delmarva is to make the list on Saturday and do my shopping on Sunday.
On two Sundays a year, though, I expand my shopping time in an effort to track how the price of food is affecting my budget. Using items commonly found on store shelves and pretty much constant year after year, a couple weeks back I completed my seventh semi-annual survey of grocery prices. What I found was a significant trend that’s accelerating and falls in with what some Wal-Mart naysayers commonly predict.
While Sam Walton’s brainchild continues to lead the grocery pack for the seventh survey in a row (dating back to the Fair Share Health Care Act days of April, 2006), their margin is considerably thinner than it once was. Consider the reduction between Wal-Mart and the second-place store in each survey:
- April 2006: 25.0% (Food Lion)
- October 2006: 19.8% (Food Lion)
- April 2007: 14.3% (Super Fresh)
- October 2007: 20.2% (Giant)
- April 2008: 16.3% (Giant)
- October 2008: 19.9% (Giant)
- April 2009: 9.9% (Food Lion)
Of the four stores, Wal-Mart has jumped the most (by far) since the market basket’s inception. It lends credence to the argument that Wal-Mart lowballs initially to wipe out any competition before slowly raising prices to ensure profitability. However, it’s worthy of noting that often the second-place store has the highest number of sale items or loss leaders among its items. (Super Fresh seems to be the king of this locally.)
It also bears study that Food Lion rebounded well from its previous last-place performance and in doing so pushed Super Fresh back to its traditional basement position. Truthfully the Super Fresh store has a niche market in that it’s the closest grocery store to the university (it’s easily walkable) and thus has a somewhat more captive clientele.
While my shopping habits have changed (I based the selection on items I bought most at the time but rarely buy such staples as pasta and sauce, peanut butter, or bread anymore) I really don’t want to deviate much from the list as it was created but may have to soon because of store buying preference. One example is salsa, where I may have to switch to Pace as the study brand because Chi-Chi’s isn’t as readily found. The same goes for Breyer’s yogurt because I don’t see it at Giant anymore. (Luckily I don’t mind their store brand yogurt but I still prefer Breyer’s.)
Regardless, the result is still that Wal-Mart remains king of the local grocery store jungle – but for how long? While I don’t foresee Food Lion ever matching Wal-Mart price for price on everyday items, there may come a time where the extra drive isn’t worthwhile anymore. The trend will be a focus of mine in future shopping visits.
michael, your “chow” industrious average is an interesting exercise… many buy groceries at the most convenient place and through time expect prices to rise and often don’t realize that they can get cheaper items elsewhere…
i knew a couple who would shop at two different stores and compare items on the list with cell phones and buy the cheapest…
too ofter i find frozen dinners priced, not by how much they cost to make, but what alternative dinners out would cost… a family pan of lasagna for example going for 14 bucks…
i may have ot start makeing my own…
t