I am shocked (shocked!) to report that, after doing some comparison shopping today, it turns out that the Wegman’s in my area is *cheaper* for *MANY* things than my local Stop & Shop! WTF?!
Today, my wife and I took our Stop & Shop receipt from our shopping trip two days ago over to Wegman’s, because I was starting to get really annoyed at Stop & Shop’s knack for discontinuing stuff I regularly buy, and because I had a theory that shopping at Wegman’s might actually be no more expensive than shopping at Stop & Shop.
In a sense, I was wrong. It isn’t just “no more expensive”, it’s actually quite a bit cheaper for everyday items that we buy all the time! Here are a few examples:
- Baby red potatoes: We buy them in a little plastic container at Stop & Shop – 1.5lb for $3.99. Wegman’s sells them loose for $1.89/lb, so our 1.5 lbs would cost over $1 less at Wegman’s! I don’t honestly recall seeing baby reds loose at Stop & Shop. I’ll look next time I go.
- Kraft Singles at Stop & Shop were $3.69. The same size at Wegman’s was $2.79.
- Milk at both places was the exact same price.
- I buy the Tropicana Orange/Tangerine juice. At Stop & Shop it’s $3.49. At Wegman’s it’s $2.79.
- Welch’s Grape Juice at Stop & Shop was $3.59. Wegman’s had it for $3.19.
- Plums and Peaches were each $.40/lb cheaper at Wegman’s, and were notably better looking as well, not to mention the fact that the selection of produce at Wegman’s kicks Stop & Shop’s ass. Corn looked really expensive to me at 5 for a buck, but we haven’t bought any yet this year. Last year corn at Stop and shop was 10 for a buck.
- Thomas’s English Muffins were $3.99 at Stop & Shop, and $3.19 at Wegman’s.
- Are you seeing a pattern? We’re not talking about saving 10 or 15 cents here. We’re talking about upwards of $.50 for lots of stuff. Shocked I tell you!!
So, of all of the things we checked, I think there was one thing that was more expensive: white turnips. It’s so rare that we buy them that we discounted it, but my wife did mention that they looked much better, and were much bigger than the ones at Stop & Shop.
Also note that we didn’t compare meat prices. We’ve been doing a pretty good job of cutting our meat consumption, really, and we have a lot of local farms that sell meat as well – there are lots and lots of meat options in the area we live in. I am an avid griller and smoker, and I read books like “How to Cook Meat” in my spare time. I’m no meat scientist, but I talk to butchers, and they are typically really happy to see someone under the age of 50 who actually knows what pork shoulder is and how to cook osso bucco. Wegman’s, I can tell you, has superior meat, but the prices for most of it are pretty high. I go there if I’m entertaining company or if I can’t get the cut I want at Stop & Shop. In general, Stop & Shop’s meat section is nothing fantastic compared to anywhere else. They don’t have a very big selection, though they do have some discount prices for some things, like huge packages of chicken thighs and stuff.
While I stay on top of meat, my wife stays on top of produce. She bought lemon basil at a farmer’s market this morning and the lady said “most people don’t even know what this is”. Same with fiddlehead ferns, which we love (if only they were in season longer).
I’ll have to follow up on this in the future. There were some things (like dog food) that I *believe* were significantly cheaper at Wegman’s (like $2 cheaper), but my memory could be faulty. The other nice thing about Wegman’s is that they carry most, if not all, of the things we used to buy at Stop & Shop until they discontinued them.