WASHINGTON 鈥� There’s a significant spread between prices at Safeway and Giant for the first time in decades, according to聽the latest survey by Washington聽Consumers’ Checkbook.
“Giant’s prices were about 7 percent lower than Safeway’s,” says聽Checkbook Executive Editor Kevin Brasler.聽“Seven percent in the world of supermarkets is a big difference.”
In the聽past, prices at two of the area’s dominant chains have been聽between 2 and 3 percentage points of each other.
With price points in between Safeway and Giant, Harris Teeter gets much higher rankings than those stores for quality of fresh produce, quality of meats and overall quality.
Another standout in this year’s survey is Wegmans, for both quality and price.
Ninety-four聽percent of聽consumers聽rated Wegmans聽鈥渟uperior鈥� overall, putting it at No. 1 among all the chains聽in the survey for quality. Average prices at Wegmans聽are about 11 percent lower than average prices at Safeway.
The most expensive chain in the survey was Whole Foods Market, which ranked fairly high for quality.
聽Customer ratings聽for quality as 鈥渟uperior鈥� overall:
- Wegmans: 94 percent
- Whole Foods Market: 77 percent
- Balduci’s:聽77 percent
- Harris Teeter: 73 percent
- Giant: 39 percent
- Food Lion: 38 percent
- Shopper’s Food Warehouse: 38 percent
- Safeway: 34 percent
- Target: 29 percent
- Walmart: 26 percent
Compared to average prices聽at Giant and Safeway:
- Walmart (two stores): 17 percent and 12 percent lower
- Food Lion: 9 percent lower
- SuperTarget: 7 percent lower
Trader Joe’s tends to carry store brands versus national-brand items.聽But comparing聽fresh produce, meats, dairy items and聽Trader Joe鈥檚 store brands with comparable items from Giant and Safeway聽in the standard survey, Checkbook finds Trader Joe’s overall prices聽are about 4 percent higher.
Checkbook no longer considers Shoppers Food Warehouse聽a “low-cost”聽chain,聽saying its average prices are now about the same as the Giant/Safeway average.
Looking for聽rock bottom prices? Brasler says prices at Aldi聽are almost half聽what Safeway charges.
“Almost half is a lot 鈥� I mean even Costco is not almost half,”聽Brasler says.
Some consumers don’t like聽Aldi stores because they don’t聽carry聽all products and few national name brands.
“You may not like their off-brand of聽Cheerios or whatever it is,” Brasler concedes. “It’s something probably worth checking out though, because the savings are unreal.”
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