Wide price range on monthly survey items

Katherine Anderson shops two or three stores for her groceries, after taking a look at the ad circulars, but when she's stocking up, she goes to a warehouse store. Ida Martin does every speck of her grocery shopping at one store, because she's been told it's consistently less expensive. And Kent Campbell trolls a geographic area for his groceries, shopping the best deals at two or three stores that are within a couple of blocks of each other.

On Monday, during its monthly fantasy shopping spree, the Deseret News asked shoppers how they save on their groceries — and heard some very different approaches.

Bill Burton says he never uses coupons, but pays attention to ads and buys a lot when things are cheap. Neither he nor Anderson plan meals in advance. And while she and Martin shop as they need things, he goes once every two weeks, period.

Each month, this newspaper compares prices on a dozen different grocery items at five stores, looking for what's happening to the average price. So far, the shopping spree has yielded a stunning range for identical items at different locations. On Monday, for example, a shopper at one store would pay $1 for a 12-ounce bag of Birds Eye Steamfresh corn, while a few miles away the price was $2.29. And for that same 141-ounce box of Tide laundry powder, you could pay anywhere from $10.99 to $16.99.

If you just add the grocery items, the low-cost store was $56.55, while the identical items at a different store cost $68.80. And no store was the cheapest on every single item, nor was one store the highest on every item.

What does it tell you, then? Hopefully, the average price can give shoppers an indication of how their favorite stores trend in terms of prices. If items always cost less than the average, you're probably saving some money. If it's always higher, then you might want to think about that — or at least toss in a few coupons. Price, though, experts note, is not always the main reason someone chooses a store. Some people shop where it's close and others may just like the people there, for instance.

Overall, our shopping spree — which also includes 10 gallons of regular unleaded gasoline; a night for one at the movies, including treats; and a large pepperoni pizza — would have cost a little less this month than last month. The $116.96 total was down 1.6 percent from December and 2.3 percent less than the first month we shopped, September 2009, which serves as our base.

e-mail: lois@desnews.com

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