Wouldn't it be cheaper to shop at Walmart?

Sierra said...

I have another question, with this promo I think it was good to shop at albertsons but do you think we could save more shopping at like walmart or winco when albertsons isn't have a promo. I was looking today at some of walmart's prices and it was still cheaper then the sale price at albertsons, for example the cereal and fiber one bars. I also got bar s hotdogs from walmart with the printable coupons and got them for 17 cents each. When albertsons isn't have a promo I think I'm going to use one set of coupons at albertsons and one at walmart or winco too see what one is better. Have you learn anything about the prices on things at different stores? Oh by the way your blog is amazing, I look at it everyday!!

Alrighty...so...we all know that overall Walmart has the best prices. If you were to go in there with your stack of coupons and buy everything on your list, it would come out to be a lot less than if you went to Albies and used your coupons on the same items. But that's if you go into Albies when things are not on sale. But that is basically the whole point of what makes this system work! You don't just use your coupons because you have them! You wait until that item is on SALE, and in general, Walmart doesn't really have sales. It does rollback pricing sometimes, but really the only way to know when it does is to go into the store and find it. I have noticed that the GrocerySmarts list for Walmart isn't kept up-to-date like the Albies list. So yeah...some of your weekly shopping, in order to get the best prices, is going to be done at Walmart. Most of the time it's going to be cheaper to go there and get your perishables like cheese, milk, eggs, bread. (But keep in mind, even Albies has great prices for these sometimes too, or promos where if you buy certain things you get FREE milk or FREE eggs or FREE bread)

As you start to build up your food storage, though, you will start to need less and less each week or each time you go shopping. Before this last Wednesday, something on my shopping list at least every other week for Walmart was spaghetti sauce. Spaghetti is something my family eats frequently, so I'm always buying sauce. If I were to buy it at Albies just because I was there, even with my coupon, it would still be cheaper at Walmart if I used the same coupon. However, if I were to use that $.50/1 Ragu coupon in one of my previous weeks when I was at Walmart just because I had it, I wouldn't have had it to use THIS week when I got spaghetti sauce dirt cheap at Albies because of the promo (for $.30 to be exact)! Even though I could have used a coupon any time during the last few weeks when I've bought spaghetti sauce at Walmart, I didn't. I saved it until grocerysmarts told me that Albies had it this week for a FIVE STAR price! See, when GrocerySmarts tells you that it's a 3, 4, 5 star price, they are comparing this to the area prices at all stores, not just for Albies. Now I have TEN jars of spaghetti sauce that I got for $.30 and won't have to buy it again for a couple of months. Hopefully by then there will be a great deal on it again. Maybe not the same brand, but that's ok. I just want spaghetti sauce at a great price!

Another example I will give is the Breyers ice cream that was part of the promo this week. So Walmarts regular price for Breyers is $2.57. Albies' regular price for the 1.5qt is $6.39. BIG DIFFERENCE! On a regular day, YEAH, I would want to buy it at walmart and get it for $1.57 with my coupon, because if I were to use my $1/1 coupon at Albies, that would still only bring it down to $5.39. Not a great price. This week it was on sale at Albies for $3.00. If I were to use my $1/1 coupon, that would bring it down to $2.00. That's a pretty good price, but still not cheaper than Walmart, right? But wait a minute. If i do it as part of the promo...and factor in the $10 off $25 savings...by using my coupon I am getting that same ice cream for $.80! That's $.77 cheaper than the everyday "low" price at Walmart.

One more example would be the All Small & Mighty detergent I bought this week. The coupons I used for it came out way back on May 10th. I have bought some in the time since that coupon came out, as that is what we use, and with a family of 5 we go through it pretty quickly. So when I went to Walmart, say...May 15th, yeah, I could think to myself...well, I'm going to go buy it today even though it's not on sale, because we need it any way so I might as well use one of those coupons and save myself $1.00. Walmart's regular price is $4.97, so that would be $3.97. But I didn't. I held on to my coupon knowing that someday it would be at an even better price at Albies. So I paid the $4.97. Then, sure enough, June 10th, All Small & Mighty is on sale for $4.50 (reg price at Albies is $5.99), with my coupon that would make it $3.50, $.47 cheaper than Walmart! That's great, right? BUT (I know you know what's coming :) if you buy it at Albies as part of their promo and with your coupons...I got 11 bottles for $23.80! Even WITH all of the same coupons at Walmart, it still would have come to $43.67 for the same 11 bottles. I saved $19.80 by waiting for it to come on sale. And now I have 11 bottles and won't have to buy it again at a "not-so-great" price for a LONG time, and if I'm lucky sometime soon after that it will come on sale again and I can get it for another great price. :)

So yeah...when things aren't part of a promo, or aren't on a great sale at Albies, then yes, those things will be cheaper at Walmart. But if you use your coupons at Walmart just because you have them...then you won't have the coupons to get the GREAT price at Albies when those things ARE on sale. And since the first shopping trip I went on, there has never been a week without some kind of special promo going on in addition to the stuff that's just on sale for the week.

And if you still need more reason to shop at Albies..."DOUBLERS!" (actually called "Twice the Value" coupons, but we call them doublers) Walmart definitely doesn't use that! You asked about the BarS hotdogs...well, just a couple of weeks ago, I can't remember which exactly, but they were on sale at Albies for $.99. Well, you take that same $.50 off coupon that made them $.17 at Walmart, throw in a doubler with it and now you've just gotten it for +$.01! That's $.18 cheaper than Walmart. Doublers are amazing. You can often get things for close to nothing or absolutely free. Try doing THAT at Walmart!

Another reason to love Albies...they truly do cater to we coupon moms. Most of the time their sale items will go hand-in-hand with our coupons for the week. Coincidence? I think not! They know we shop there, and they try to help us out as much as possible. Their cashiers are experienced with working with all of the coupons, they're very helpful and you'll always find someone roaming the store that you can ask for help. Not to mention their stores are nice and clean. I understand that some things aren't cheaper at Albies and, for now, there are some things that I still get at Walmart every week because they haven't had a great sale on those items yet. But eventually they will and when they do I'll stock up on that item so that I don't have to buy it again until I can get it for the same great price.

Eventually, once my food storage is built up to where I want it to be, and I'm only really having to buy my perishables and produce each week, I won't MIND paying Albies' higher prices, because I will be saving enough on the other things all the time that it will be a small price to pay to pay a bit more to give Albies my business over Walmart, because let's face it...Albies makes this possible! They're wonderful and they DESERVE our money! At least in my opinion.

Maybe seeing those prices actually written down in front of you, you will realize what you're really saving by shopping at Albies. Hopefully this answers your question. :)