Which Store is the Best Value to Shop for Groceries in the Twin Cities?

According to consumer magazine Twin Cities Consumer Checkbook, shopping at Walmart is the cheapest place to buy groceries in the Twin Cities. A family of four who spend $150 on groceries a week at an averagely expensive store would spend $1248 less than average by shopping at a Walmart Supercenter. The next cheapest is SuperTarget, $546 cheaper over a year than the average grocery bill. Rainbow and Cub are around average for typical grocery items.

Unsurprisingly, Kowalski's, Lund's, Byerly's, and a typical co-op, the Wedge Co-op, were significantly more expensive. And the most expensive place to shop? Whole Foods, almost $4,000 more expensive than the average grocery bill over a year.

The prices are before saving strategies like clipping coupons which can make the chain grocery stores even cheaper than the high end and co-op stores.

I fell on the time saving side on the value of my time vs. money saved coupon debate, plus I usually forget the coupons or impulse buy things I don't need so my money saving strategy for food shopping in Minneapolis/St. Paul is to divide my shopping up between various stores, buying specific items where they are cheapest.

While milk and other staples are usually cheapest at Target, other items are often cheaper elsewhere, and the chain grocery stores don't have a lot of items that I want. I buy basic items at SuperTarget, make an occasional trip to Trader Joe's, I buy some produce at my local co-op and I buy other produce and Asian ingredients from a local market, Shuang Hur on University Avenue, which has great prices for rice, noodles, tofu, produce, and lots of wonderful ingredients that just aren't available in the chain grocery stores. In the summer I buy a lot of produce at farmer's markets, often it's cheaper than the chain stores and when it's more expensive, I justify it because it's fresher, tastier, and benefits the local economy more.

The downside of this is that there are now three or four stores I visit regularly and all the more opportunity to impulse buy things I don't need. I didn't know that I really needed to make bubble tea at home until I saw tapioca pearls to make the bubbles at Shuang Hur. It worked out much cheaper than a cup of Bubble Tea from a tea shop like the Tea Garden, so I can consider that a saving...