After I took a thorough inventory of our current supplies, I made my list of must-haves to get through the month of March. Then, I pulled up the websites for Fred Meyer, Walmart, and Cash & Carry -- stores which are local for me, are my usual low price go-to's, and have their prices listed online. I went through my must-haves list, one by one, and checked each store's current price per item. From that information, I was able to create a shopping list for these 3 stores in order to get the lowest price on each item.
Some store sites make it easy to find their prices by the user providing their store location of choice and using the search bar. Other stores do make you jump through a very small hoop to get the local store's pricing. Walmart is one such store. That small hoop is the navigation of the site as if you were filling a cart online. For instance, this is my local Walmart, found through the grocery.walmart.com page.
By clicking on the orange box "View Store Details," I am brought to this page. See the orange box that says "Start Shopping Now?" Clicking on that box gets me into the price lists for my store. I can use the search box to access pricing for anything that Walmart carries in that store. There's no need to actually put anything into a virtual cart. I just use the search function until I've gone through my must-haves list, then close that tab.
So, on my laptop, I had tabs open for all three of my favorite stores, which meant I could jump between stores to check for the low price leader for each item. It was pretty easy and assured me that I would be getting those lowest possible prices for my area, with one exception. The exception is a local favorite, WinCo. WinCo does not have an online price list. My best way to quickly access pricing information is with my previous shopping receipts. I also have an idea of what items WinCo usually beats every other store in my area.
Once in the stores, I keep my eyes open for special deals not listed online. This week, I found cabbage at Walmart and ground beef at Fred Meyer at unexpected low prices. I made on-the-spot decisions for how much to buy and what to nix from my list to accommodate these purchases. This week, I saved several dollars by using the internet to comparison shop for groceries, yielding an extension of my rather small budget to include more food for our household. I do this for other products. It only makes sense to do this for grocery shopping, as well.
Do you compare grocery prices online, too? What other ways have you found to comparison shop for your groceries?
