Muleskinner

Issue date: 4/17/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Illustration by Nick Lower: Muleskinner [Click to enlarge]

Last year, the price of eggs increased 40 percent. The price of milk increased 26 percent. The price of food has been steadily increasing since 1990, leaving consumers in a proverbial pickle. Because 14 percent of all household spending is on food, and no one can live without it, there is cause for concern for people of all ages and income brackets.

Due to these rising costs, the Muleskinner decided to study local grocery stores prices, comparing store brand to national brand items, to determine which stores have the best values for the consumer's grocery dollar.

All grocery stores in Warrensburg, which include Aldi, Wal-mart, Bi-Lo Country Mart and Parkers, were studied to determine prices of a few typically-used food items, including bread, milk, eggs, pre-processed cheese slices, sliced turkey, peanut butter, mayonnaise and ketchup. We also included one convenience-type store, Walgreens, to see how much more expensive these items if purchased as convenience items in a sore open 24 hours.

We found that it is more cost efficient to buy store-brand items, rather than nationally advertised brands, such as Kraft, Heinz, Wonder, etc. To buy all the above items at Wal-mart in their store brand, Great Value, it would cost the consumer $19.44. To buy the similar nationally-branded items, the cost would go to $22.82, saving the customer $3.38.

The same was true of the findings at Parkers and Bi-Lo Country Mart, where customers could save about $6 when buying the store-brands Always Save and Best Choice, rather than the brand names.

Although some might say there are certain items that must be name brand in order to fit a certain taste and quality expectation, many stores guarantee their store brand products.

For example, Aldi, where the entire list of grocery items selected, can be purchased for $15.93, has its own line of private label products with a "double guarantee," meaning if the customer is dissatisfied with the product, Aldi will refund the purchase price and replace the product.

After averaging the total of Wa-lmart's, Parkers' and Bi-Lo Country Mart's store brand items, we determined the consumer saves 82 percent by buying Aldi's private-label brands, compared with the other store brands.

Continued...

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