Save-A-Lot Coming While Others Going
On the heels of the announcement that Albertson’s will close several stores in the area, national grocer Save-A-Lot is poised to open two stores in Portland. I’d never heard of them so I did some research. They’re a “limited selection” outfit, meaning they will only carry a small selection of popular items. Their stores are about half the size of a typical grocery store. If you’re looking for choices, this ain’t the place. Because of their limited focus they claim low prices, but then again, who doesn’t? The other thing that sounds interesting is apparently their stores have a “dollar department” section inside the grocery store.
Will it work in Portland? Other “selective” stores such as Trader Joe’s or Haagen seem to do well, but they’re not catering to the value crowd. Their website proclaims “No lobster tanks, cappuccino kiosks or floral departments that drive up costs.” But I like a lobster tank!
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Sounds like Grocery Outlet.
Trader Joes doesn’t cater to the value crowd?? Perhaps, if you’re looking for giant bags of Doritos or Pepsi by the pallet-load. For everyone I know, TJ’s has good food at good prices, and I always see people from every demographic there.
I disagree. Trader Joe’s is great for specialty foods, but you would have to be made of money to buy staples there. If you want to see people from every demographic, try a Winco.
the frozen food aisle at the TJs is pretty choice, though, we get all our freezer staples there.
The problem is, people are making sacrifices in food quality to afford all the extra toys in life. It’s sad because food has become this ‘means-to-an-end’, empty calories and over-processed homogenation just to stay alive, rather than to enjoy.
To me, value is finding quality food at affordable prices… when you talk about food ’staples’, I assume you’re talking about pasta, rice, veggies, milk, eggs, meats, nuts, dried fruits, cereal, cheese, oil, soups, frozen food, and canned goods. TJs has a value position in nearly every category…
I always find it funny/sad that people insist shopping at Wal-Mart or Winco is cheaper. More often than not, these are the same people that walk wout with a cart full of pre-packaged EVERYTHING, which will always cost more per ounce. Try cooking from scratch or part-scratch sometimes… If you have a simple pantry, you save money.
TJ’s has good product offerings and reasonable prices for some things, but they’re not the ‘cheapest’ option out there for other staples.
I find that I need to spread my shopping over three distinct (or four) types of stores over the course of a typical month to get the qualilty/value mix I need: TJs, Winco, a traditional grocery store (relying heavily on coupons & specials) and then a farmer’s market/organic produce home delivery service to fill in around the edges.
TJ’s is great for things like soy milk, chicken broth in aseptic packaging, or olive oil - lowest prices around. But while you can get King Arthur flour cheaper there than you can elsewhere, it still doesn’t come in lower than the General Mills stuff you can find at your local Safeway, for example.
I agree with Betsy - you have to mix it up.
Sure - you can buy everything you need at TJ’s or Haggen’s or Whole Foods - but you will spend considerably more then Safeway or Winco on basics like flour, sugar, canned goods or such. Because yes - we do often cook relatively from scratch - and yes - it is cheaper.
So those higher quality places are fine for the fresh items, and fun things like fancy cheese and fresh bread - although in the summer the farmers market for veggies can’t be beat. And we actually try to buy most of our meat from Gartner’s.
But anyone who lives on any sort of budget is lying if they say they buy all their food at TJ’s.
I don’t have that kind of time to hit all sorts of different stores for various things. I find everything I need at Freddy’s.
That Foster Rd store is going to be right next to a Dollar Tree. Heh.
another thing to think about is who are people shopping for. Betsy, I know you have kids, so your shopping needs to take into account for that. I don’t have kids, so I have more freedom in shopping. Others - tkrueg? kids?
for families, both economically and timewise, TJs may not be the solution, but for single folk or couples without kids, they offer stuff we want.
I’m a fan of new seasons. they have the staples and fresh food and such. it may be expensive for some items, but for other items, it evens out. also, it’s close and i can walk or MAX there, so i’m not spending time and gas money. driving around to find the best deal always seemed counterproductive to me. and spendy