For a long time, I’ve wanted to find out which grocery stores are really the cheapest. I recently moved to Cambridge from Union Square in New York, where there were three main options: Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, and Food Emporium, a local NYC chain. I was surprised when people in my building continued shopping at Food Emporium after Whole Foods opened, saying it was cheaper; based on every price I saw, I thought Food Emporium was actually more expensive. And I didn’t think Whole Foods was that much pricier than Trader Joe’s, if you stuck to the generic 365 brand. The Trader Joe’s was so crowded and unpleasant that we pretty much always went to Whole Foods (and the Union Square Farmer’s Market, of course).
But now I’m about to go deep into debt, as I’m going back to school. Plus, I have a lovely TJ’s a few blocks away, which isn’t crowded at all. And I have some time on my hands. So I decided to compare prices on more than 30 products I commonly buy. I went to Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, and Market Basket; I’ll go to Shaw’s and Hannaford’s and add them to the chart if I have time. I’ve created a Google doc with the prices of each item at each store. If anyone would like to contribute and add their own grocery stores, please do! Just contact me via the About Me page.
For the most part, I looked for the lowest price I could find on any given product, with the caveat that it had to be something I would actually buy. I’m not going to buy a gallon jug of balsamic vinegar or 5 pounds of carrots, so I ignored them even though they were cheaper. I also ignored the cheapest ground beef at TJs because it didn’t look very good.
The total bill:
Whole Foods: $150.94
Trader Joe’s: 126.08
Market Basket: $106.99
Whole Foods does well with milk, yogurt, eggs, and basil. Trader Joe’s is good for olive oil, balsamic vinegar, canned tomatoes, frozen food, and a couple produce items. Market Basket pretty much wipes the floor with them everywhere else. In this Google doc, I’ve highlighted the store where each product is cheapest (ties are highlighted in green).
I was amazed by how much the small differences in prices added up. It’s easy to buy something at Whole Foods knowing that it’s $1.19, compared with 99 cents at Trader Joe’s; but it’s a lot harder when all of those small differences are staring you in the face. Whole Foods is about 20% more expensive than Trader Joe’s and 41% more expensive than Market Basket.*
*A few caveats:
- Trader Joe’s is frustrating because much of its produce is priced by the item, not the pound, making it very hard to compare. And there are no scales, so it was tough to figure out the per-pound price. I’ve made a note where I had to estimate per-pound prices.
- It’s possible some of these stores have lower priced versions that I just couldn’t find, though I looked pretty hard for each product.
- This ignores the question of quality. I’m not sure I can convince my husband to forego the meat at Whole Foods. I prefer to buy meat from well-treated animals, and based on the Whole Foods brand I certainly trust their meat; however, I don’t actually know whether it is better than Market Basket meat. The produce, however, looked perfectly good at Market Basket, so I’m definitely willing to give it a shot.
- I went to the Whole Foods at 340 River St. and the Trader Joe’s at 748 Memorial Drive on Monday, August 15 and I went to the Market Basket at 400 Somerville Ave on Tuesday, August 16.
I think you should pitch this story to the Boston Phoenix as – new in town, some time before school starts, blah blah, planning your shopping year in beantown etc….
Hannah, you rock. Happy to know that you’re sharing the knowledge and my move to Cambridge next week will be one step easier. See you on campus!
Amazing post. Thank you for sharing.
Some people hate grocery shopping. But I like it. So I usually have particular stores where I buy x or y and not z or a. For example, I always get potatoes at the local Food Co-op because someone once told me about the poisons they put in the ground to grow regular potatoes. And, anyway, the organic one taste better. But I always get broccoli at Shaws because it tastes fine, and is much cheaper.
There used to be and maybe still is a small grocery store in Cambridge called Evergood Market which is about two short blocks from Harvard Square on the right on the way to Porter Square. If it’s still there – I would recommend it for sometime shopping because it’s small, you can get through it quickly, the prices were very good and the produce and meat and chicken were good. Then they’d have funny amusing items like special shortbreads from Scotland or surprises like that.