Wednesday Wealth Series - Eye Opening Brand Name Comparison Shopping

Often times I get emails from readers asking me questions, looking for shopping advice, and alerts to current deals.  This past week, I got an email from a reader about comparison shopping, and what my thoughts were on this topic.  Fast forward to today... I have never really comparison shopped before I received this email, at least not for everyday items.  I do comparison shop when it comes to big ticket items.  I usually only look at sale ads, and living here in Rhode Island, I know what's a good price, verses a mediocre price. 

So where did I start?  I picked the 4 major retailers here in Rhode Island.  Shaw's, Stop & Shop, Target, and Walmart.  Now there are other major retailers here in Rhode Island, but I picked the basic four, where you could go in and do ALL your basic shopping in one place, IE: health & beauty aids, cleaning, and food. 

What I found was shocking and eye opening.  I randomly picked 10 everyday items, I went by regular prices, not sale prices, though some items were currently on sale at different places.  All four stores that I went to were within 5 miles of each other, making comparison shopping in RI, much easier.  Because stores are all in such close proximity, being loyal to a store here, just makes no sense especially when another store down the road has the same items cheaper.  Here's the break down of the items I recorded:

Now, again these are regular prices, using ZERO coupons, and ZERO sales.  ( I can hear the gasping!)  Okay, let's first look at the comparison between Target and Walmart.  Really there was not that much in difference, when not using coupons, looking at the bigger picture, Target's prices were generally between 2¢ - 10¢ more on each item, with the average being about 4¢ more.  Yet still some items were less than Walmart.  That being said, buying 8 items each week at Walmart instead of Target, over the course of a year will, save you less than $20 per year.  So if Target is closer to you than Walmart, you may be paying that difference in gas if you are driving further for each trip you make to Walmart.  My conclusion, it's basically a wash if you're shopping without (Gasp) coupons. 

Now, Stop & Shop compared to Shaw's.  In the hypothetical shopping trip listed above, I would have saved $3.12 by shopping at Stop & Shop rather than shopping at Shaw's.  Doesn't seem like much, but do that trip each week, and over the course of a year, and your savings will be more than $160!  That's a month's worth of groceries in my house! Or a monthly utility bill!

Compare Shaw's to Walmart =  over the course of a year, that's savings of $768!  That's a vacation!  Compare Stop & Shop to Walmart = over the course of a year, that's savings of $607!  Again, that's a vacation. Granted not a long vacation, but still a nice weekend trip. 

A lot of conclusions have come out of this little project.  The first being, that in today's world, stockpiling is an absolute necessity. Which I plan to go more into detail later on this week.  Shopping sales, and with coupons is also an absolute necessity.  This trip with sales and coupons, I would not expect to pay more than $24.00 for, at ANY retailer.  For all the husbands or wives who give their spouse a little grief for spending countless hours, figuring on where to shop and get the best deals, look at the math above, and then think about the next time you want to give your other half a hard time about saving money!  Matching coupons and sales with stores could save on average more than $2000 per year on everyday items.  That is, well, that's a cruise, or one less credit card bill!

Lesson #1 learned here, just because a grocery store may double their coupons unlike places like Walmart or Target, doesn't necessarily mean you'll pay less. 

Lesson #2 learned here, couponing IS an art form.  No one is born with this gift, it is a learned behavior.

Lesson #3 learned here,  there is SO much more to cover on this topic. 

Lesson #4 learned here, store's do a very good job with signage at making you think you are saving more money by shopping at THEIR store.  Case in point, Shaw's was the BIGGEST offender in this area.  On their Kraft Salad dressing there were signs on ALL the different varieties saying that they have lowered their prices and you were now paying 12¢ less than before.  So they lowered their prices from $3.49 down to $3.37 -  They were STILL $1.37 MORE than Walmart's prices, and STILL 18¢ MORE than Stop & Shop.  Conclusion, you WILL pay more for NON sale items at Shaw's than at any other retailer. 

So all in all, if you have NON sale items on your grocery list, you may want to pick them up the next time your in Walmart or Target, instead of getting them at your local grocery store.  I'll be posting more on this throughout this series, as there is just too much information to be posting it all at once. 


~ Thanks for the email Chris!