Comparison Shopping Trip

Before my days of clipping coupons, looking at weekly store ads and watching sales I used to do the bulk of my shopping at Wal-Mart (and a little bit at Costco). Although I still shop at both of these stores on occasion, I have discovered that what often seem to be the most expensive stores are usually the cheapest ones to shop at as opposed to these stores which opt for "everyday low prices" instead of weekly sales and promotions.
What I used to think of as "expensive stores" were really only expensive to the non-bargain savvy. I didn't know how to judge a good sale, and utilize coupons to their full potential. I also would occasionally scan the ads and get frustrated by what seemed to be pages full of terribly-priced items. I just thought it was cheaper, less time consuming and certainly easier to just go to Wal-Mart for my main shpping trips. It certainly was easier, but now that I have some experience under my belt I see that it definitely was NOT less expensive.

To prove my point I thought it would be interesting to do some comparison shopping. I chose to use my grocery trip from this past Wednesday (I shopped at Copps/PickNSave, Festival Foods & Piggly Wiggly) to compare, simply because it was the freshest in my mind.
I didn't think that the sales this week were that great (compared to previous weeks) so I also thought this would maybe sway the vote in Wal-Marts favor, home of "Always Low Prices."


First I went to Wal-Mart and collected all the pricing info for the products I bought.
Here's the run-down of how the stores lined up:


I should point out, as I stated in my previous blog post the original total price (price before sales & promotions) at Copps/Festival Foods/Piggly Wiggly was about $138. As you can see by the above chart the total Wal-Mart price for the same items is only $104.45. Wal-Mart obviously wins the "everyday" price comparison. But, as I said above now I watch the sales and plan my shopping trips and meals around sales instead of my shopping trip around what I feel like eating for the week. You can see that the total price after sales/promos for Copps/FF/PW is only $88.24. Even before coupons are factored in I am already saving about $16!

By carefully scanning each stores ad, and using my Price Point sheets I am able to determine what items in the add were actually a good deal, or "loss leaders" (items that the retailers sell at a loss in order to lead you into the store) as opposed to the prices in the ads that were rubbish.

Perhaps though you still aren't convinced. A $16 price difference might not be enough to persuade a busy person to take the time to look through ads, compare prices and make multiple stops at various grocery stores instead of one stop at a SuperCenter.

Here's where the real money saving comes into play:
I maximized my savings by then matching up those items I planned to purchase to manufacturers coupons. I was also able to take advantage of a couple "FREE item" coupons (one for a free box of Always Inifinity, and one for a free tube of Crest Pro-Health Toothpaste) for even more savings. Copps had 2 promotions running this week which required various minimum purchases in order to get the best price, and these "free item" coupons allowed me to reach those minimum limits without spending more money out of pocket (See this post for more information on how to use coupons for free items in the best way).

Also Copps has weekly "Double Daze" in which they double 5 manufacturers coupons, up to $1, with a minimum $25 purchase (before coupons). I was able to combine the double daze discount with each promotion (I did two separate transactions, one about $26 before coupons and the other about $39 before coupons, so I could double 10 coupons). This is what I like to call "double dipping," when I can get two (or more) different (non-coupon) discounts applied towards the same product.

Because of the various promotions I could take advantage of at Copps which aren't available at Wal-Mart, I increased the value of my coupon savings there. Below I have complied the list of all the coupons I used, and outlined which I would have been able to use at Wal-Mart had I purchased the same items there, and which I was able to use at my Copps/FF/PW grocery trip. (You'll have to double-click on the image to enlarge it)


As you can see I used almost $30 of actual coupons (it varied because the two "Free item" coupons would have deducted a different amount at each store depending on the item's purchase price). At Wal-Mart my coupons would have been scanned at face value, and that's all. My $104 total would have been brought down to $75.69 after using coupons, which is a savings of about 28%. Not bad.

But, by shopping the sales, and combining my coupons to promotions and doubling some, when possible I was able to increase the value of my coupons to $56.55! This brought my total from $88.24 down to a low $31.69! Now my savings has become about 64% off the sale price!

Sales + coupons + catalina promotions + double coupons =$31.69
"Everyday low price" + coupons = $75.69

Is that now worth your time? Just something to think about.