Yesterday when Vince and I went to town, we needed a few things from the grocery store . . not much at all. I wanted to go to Walmart because they have the best price for chicken livers for Rita’s food. United has them but they’re frozen and sometimes, they look weird after they defrost. I like being able to look at them already defrosted before buying them. United had strawberries on sale . . 2 pounds for less than $4. They also had buy one/get one on the 93/7 ground beef but I was hoping Walmart’s strawberries would be about the same price and I would just get them there. Vince wanted to go to Aldi for something and it made no sense to have to go to three stores for just a few things but, thankfully, they’re all pretty close together so it isn’t like we had to drive all around a large city to get what we needed.
Walmart was a total bust and we left there with only brown rice . . also needed for Rita’s food. Their strawberries were more for one pound than the ones on sale at United (2 pounds).
This is Walmart’s zucchini. No, thanks!
This was the celery price at Walmart.
This is the Aldi price for celery. We use a lot of celery. The mealworms get about half a bunch of celery every 5 days. We use it a lot – on our diet, we use it instead of crackers for brie, we use it with pimento & cheese. If we have chicken or tuna salad, we eat celery stalks with that. So, saving 50 cents a bunch us a good bit of savings when we go through probably 10 bunches of celery a month. Well, $5 isn’t THAT much, but it does add up.
There was a time when we knew we’d get the best prices at Walmart, so it was worth going there but lately, it seems either their prices have gone up or we’re so used to Aldi’s prices, that they seem higher. Even without the price consideration, Walmart’s produce has been bad enough lately that I will hardly buy it.
We had a Kroger here and I never realized how much I appreciated their produce til they closed but especially on this diet, when we need a lot of fresh veggies, the pickins seem slim around here.
There’s a local guy who has re-opened his vegetable/plant market but he isn’t fully stocked yet. I’ll be glad when he is!
Joan says
Ha! Your zucchini looks like what is always available in the stores here in Alaska, summer or winter – on a good day! You don’t want to see it on a bad one, and don’t get me started on the prices! Every time I start complaining about the freshness of the produce, my friends who have lived here for 25+ years tell me to stop complaining as it is so much better than before. Funny thing is, we do get nice produce during holiday weeks and when the tourists are in town, so I know it can be done!
Cilla says
I’ll pay premium for organic veggies and local grass fed beef and local organic chicken. I barely use WM as I’ve seen the veggies there that look like the photo above. (shudder). We went to Whole Foods today…..their produce and meats all look wonderful. Trader Joe’s is good as well. Not sure how far south and west their stores are located.
Laura H. says
Whole Foods and Trader Joes are in San Diego County; pretty far South and West 🙂
Judy Laquidara says
I don’t pay for organic because I don’t believe, at least in our area, they’re worth the difference. I’m not sure I trust that they are any different from regular produce but we try to grow as much as we can. We’re just now running out of lettuce. It’s getting too warm in the greenhouse and it hasn’t gotten quite big enough to harvest yet. We have tomatoes in the greenhouse and they should make til we get them in the ground.
Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s are in the south but we live in a very small town and I can’t imagine there would ever be one anywhere near us.
Liz says
My Walmart stores generally have good looking produce – but it is increasing prices so that Aldi and Sprouts beat them. Since I need to be aware of additives, I look at labels of everything and now tend to go to Sprouts and Aldi for most items and then go to WM for certain items.
It’s been interesting to first go to Sprouts ( a natural foods store ) and find that most things I am buying are cheaper than WM.
A Costco is being built in my area – is it worth the cost of admission? I used to have the Sam’s card, but never went since I ended up overbuying.
Judy Laquidara says
We’re lucky to have Aldi and with Kroger gone, we’d be up a creek as far as fresh veggies. I rarely buy anything but fresh. We were talking the other day about how many rows in the grocery store we don’t even need to go down. No cereal, rice, baking goods, boxed foods. We do buy some canned tuna, canned chicken, mayo, olives, things like that but not a whole lot of other stuff.
We have to go to Abilene to Sam’s but they have better meat/seafood than we can get locally. I enjoy wandering around in there so for the $35 or $45 (can’t remember) annual membership fee, it’s worth it for us. I wish we had a Sprouts!
Karen says
I’ve noticed the produce at the Walmart in Versailles has been looking pretty poor lately. I buy most of my produce at Fresh Thyme – love that store.
Linda in NE says
A bunch of celery here is $2.99 and a head of iceberg lettuce is $2.49. Ridiculous! I’ve quit buying both.
Susan says
I can’t compare Walmart, because I don’t go in there more than twice a year, but our Aldi’s has the very best produce around, unless Fresh Market, maybe.
Patti says
You know me I love Aldi’s!!
Have you ever taken the core off the celery and planted it? I did last year. It was beautiful and growing good. Enter the damn rabbit. But I want to try it again this spring IF we ever get the ground dry enough to plow, till and plant. Potatoes aren’t even out.