How have grocery stores/chains changed in your area since 2020?

I'm getting back to shopping around at different stores, as I did prior to the pandemic. 

Previously, I would shop the deals at several different stores, maybe not each week, but over the course of the month. A couple of examples, I could count on bananas being the best price at Trader Joe's for many years. Milk was routinely marked down to unbelievable prices at both Fred Meyer (now a Kroger store) and QFC (also a Kroger). Fred Meyer had the best clearance rack of all the stores, except for meats. I could find some of the best marked down meats at QFC. Alberstons and Safeway had good loss leaders. And I found filling in around the edges was best done at Fred Meyer for their everyday low prices. Once WinCo opened near us, I often shopped there for the bulk bins. And I'm sure I've mentioned before, we have a farm stand on the highway that I always shopped at when my daughters were in high school (near their school). In the fall I stocked up on long-keeping produce at Country Farms when it was marked down to clear for the year. By shopping so many different stores each week I was able to keep my grocery spending to under $200 per month.

Then came 2020 and the fears. I switched from cherry-picking deals in-person around town to getting pick-up orders mostly at Walmart, with occasional in-person shopping at WinCo. The pick-up orders at Walmart were a pretty good deal. Their prices were still very reasonable. And, if they happened to be out of something I ordered, they substituted something better either in quality or quantity. I remember ordering 2 12-ounce bags of chocolate chips for baking. They were out of the 12-ounce size, so I got 2 24-ounce bags instead.

I slowly got back to shopping in person in 2022. But I stuck to Walmart and WinCo, as I had become accustomed to getting all of my groceries in one haul each week.

Fast forward to this past year. I've noticed so many inconsistencies in pricing between the different stores in my area, so I've gone back to getting the best deals at each store. What brought this to mind is a recent visit to Town & Country, the small NW chain where I found brown free-range eggs for $3.99/dozen earlier in the month. Well, one daughter wanted to buy me a treat from T & C for Valentine's Day, but she wanted me to choose it myself. She knows I prefer treats made with basic and few ingredients. T & C specializes in my kind of products. I had a good idea of what I would want, some of these dark chocolate coconut bars that are lower in sugar than the mainstream chocolate covered coconut candy bars. So my daughter and I went to T & C last Friday and I picked out by small bag of treats. And while we were there, I wandered around a bit, checking prices on many of my "usual" grocery items. This is kind of a high-end grocery store. So it took me by surprise that not only do they carry eggs at a great price for the PNW for right now, but they had several other items that were priced more favorably than Walmart or even WinCo. I picked up 3 dozen eggs while I was there. I'm thinking that Town & Country will be my go-to store for eggs for the next few months at least, picking up a couple of other favorably-priced items as well, as needed.

Meanwhile, I needed a particular brand of a particular supplement that I can only find locally at our Fred Meyer. I stopped in there on the way home from church on Sunday. I checked all of the prices on my "usual" grocery items in Fred Meyer. I've been in Fred Meyer a dozen or so times in the last year. I do buy some gardening stuff there every spring and summer. They're the only local place I can buy composted chicken manure, and the price is pretty good. I also buy my vegetable seeds at Fred Meyer, as they not only have a good selection, but seeds are always discounted there. Those are the good things about Fred Meyer. What I've noticed this last year is their clearance section has shrunk considerably and the prices really don't seem all that great any more. It's hard for me to imagine that Fred Meyer used to be the all around low-price store in my area. Their produce is always more expensive than Walmart and WinCo. And I haven't seen them advertise Senior Discount Day since early 2020. All of the deals that I used to find at Fred Meyer are now gone. I've not seen milk marked down at all in the last year or two there. I used to buy 8 gallons or more of marked down milk (for a steal) and freeze it all. 

And then there's Walmart. Walmart is very close to our house, so when I just need one or two things, I go there. However, Walmart isn't what it used to be price wise. Their prices used to be so competitive with WinCo on practically everything. Now, I often find products for 50 cents to $1 more at Walmart compared to WinCo. What I can say about Walmart, though, is they've increased the variety of options for different foods. I can find some higher end brands at Walmart that I didn't see there before. And it's still close by, so I do go there for some items.

Safeway bought up Albertsons a few years ago. One of the first things I noticed is the deals disappeared. Albertsons and Safeway both used to have great loss leaders, competeing for a share in the business. I check their ads online each week and find very little that I consider a bargain now.

WinCo is the only store that didn't change all that much over the last 5 years. They're also the only store in my area that never offered curbside pick-up. I still really prefer to shop at WinCo over the rest of the lot (except for the few items that I can get elsewhere for less, like the eggs at T & C, or the items that WinCo doesn't sell).

I occasionally have to go to Target for a specific item. I always cruise through the grocery section. Once upon a time I found best prices on some items there. Now, their grocery products all seem much higher priced than expected.

At all stores, I've seen tremendous price increases. But at some stores, these increases have been more excessive than others. One thought I've had is the stores that offered curbside pick-up incurred additional costs for this service, both in hiring additional staff to shop for customers and, as in the case of Walmart, giving away some of their profits in the generous substitutions they made when out of stock of an item ordered. Another thought, in the case of store chain mergers/acquisitions, some chains don't feel the need to compete on price point as they once had.

Grocery shopping on a budget poses new challenges for me. I'm having to reestablish where to buy each item, to get best or close to best prices. My mental shopping "rules" that I once held for myself have all changed. But I like a challenge. So I guess I'll figure this one out.

I did wonder if you'd noticed changes in your local grocery chains, either since 2020 or even some time earlier. Have you witnessed many mergers and acquisitions of chains in your area? Does it feel like stores aren't offering the great loss leaders any more? Do you have some stores that you shop more than others, and has that changed since 2020? Have the huge price increases affected some stores more than others? Just curious if what I've seen locally is happening elsewhere.

Where does frugality go when you're no longer financially strapped?

Baking sourdough bread today because it's fun, and because I can.
And it saves money on groceries.

Does frugality go out the window entirely, or do most folks hang on to some frugal habits and patterns even when they don't need to?

First of all, I think most people become more financially stable over time and not overnight. Few of us have a rich uncle who will leave his entire estate to us. And few of us will win the big jackpot in the lottery in our lifetimes. In this vein, I believe that most people add in a few of the formerly unaffordable expenditures slowly and only in modest amounts. I know in my own case, we never had that moment where we suddenly felt so well-off that we could buy and do anything we pleased. Instead, as finances allowed, we added just a smidge more luxury to our lives than we'd previously had. For example, as we've been able to afford a higher utility bill than in early years, we've still only increased the temperature that we keep the house daily in winter by 2 degrees F. 

Another aspect to consider is the attitude toward one's early frugal choices. Did being frugal always feel like a burden, or did frugality feel more like a series of "smart" choices to achieve an end? I think if frugality was interpreted as some sort of punishment in life, then once a person had greater wealth, they'd be more likely to spend without much care. For my own family, we chose frugality as a means to an end, the end being me staying home with the kids while still affording the American dream of home ownership.

Further down this line of thought is how long one was frugal and how that impacts their choices after financial stability is achieved. If a person has simply always lived a financially careful life, from early childhood through adulthood, many frugal habits are just that, habits. If my husband and I had only needed to be frugal for the first couple of years of our marriage, frugality may not have become ingrained in our way of being. As it is, it took us close to 20 years to become financially well-off enough to not always feel like we were on the edge.

As my husband and I become more and more financially secure, we continue to make mostly frugal choices. We do allow ourselves to spend more in a few areas, but overall we choose to use our finances thoughtfully. We now spend a little more on higher quality items, especially in regards to food.We spend more to buy higher quality beef and more variety in off-season produce. But I still continue to bake all of our bread and cook almost entirely from scratch. We could afford for me to buy some more convenience foods or high quality bread products, but we choose to buy the basics and cook from those. At this point, it feels a bit like financial waste to spend more for convenience that we don't necessarily need.

We continue to build our cushion accounts for emergencies and our retirement. It's possible that we may wind up with far more than we will need in our later years. That's okay with us. We don't feel the need to spend up to the limit every month or use every last penny we have. I see both my husband and myself considering all manner of expenses every day. I believe that we will always carry frugality with us in this life.

How about you? Have you been careful with spending your entire life, or did circumstances lead you into frugal choices as an adult? As you grow more and more financially secure, do you think you'll significantly ease up with your spending, or will you just allow modest luxuries? Will you always consider yourself to be frugal?