Portland - Salem - Vancouver Grocery Prices Comparison

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Portland - Salem - Vancouver Grocery Prices Comparison

Post by SamSpade »

Here's a rundown of recent prices on some core staples in the Portland area. I also did some online research of a few other markets. This was based on a list from a YouTube channel based in New York City, which is where the non-itemized prices at right came from earlier this year.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing
Edit: Added Fred Meyer back into the list.
Last edited by SamSpade on October 22nd, 2021, 6:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Portland - Salem - Vancouver Grocery Prices Comparison

Post by bryceleinan »

Nice work. I’m guessing Freddy’s would probably come in close to QFC prices, or do you think they’d be closer to Safeway?
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Re: Portland - Salem - Vancouver Grocery Prices Comparison

Post by SamSpade »

Oh no! When I was moving columns around to sort from lowest to highest totals I must have accidentally lost my Fred Meyer column. I will work on restoring that later today. The one benefit of Google sheets... (LOL)
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Re: Portland - Salem - Vancouver Grocery Prices Comparison

Post by bryceleinan »

I'm really surprised at how close Freddy's (Fred Meyer) is to the bottom 3, as I have always thought of Freddy's as being relatively expensive...
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Re: Portland - Salem - Vancouver Grocery Prices Comparison

Post by storewanderer »

bryceleinan wrote: October 24th, 2021, 6:40 pm I'm really surprised at how close Freddy's (Fred Meyer) is to the bottom 3, as I have always thought of Freddy's as being relatively expensive...
I'm not surprised at this point. The prices at Safeway/Albertsons have gone up at a much more rapid clip recently than those at Kroger. I know I have shifted a lot of shopping back to Kroger- because Safeway's prices are just simply too high. Safeway can fix pricing (or Kroger follow them up) and I am straight back to Safeway... but now, I just can't justify paying most of Safeway's prices especially for meat and various center store items. They still come out semi-ok on some other perishables with ads.
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Re: Portland - Salem - Vancouver Grocery Prices Comparison

Post by retailfanmitchell019 »

Looking at these charts, Safeway has 17% higher prices than Walmart. Fred Meyer is 5% higher than Walmart.
Seeing that Grocery Outlet's prices are higher than Safeway, I wonder how the hell they are in business...
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Re: Portland - Salem - Vancouver Grocery Prices Comparison

Post by SamSpade »

retailfanmitchell019 wrote: October 25th, 2021, 11:12 am Seeing that Grocery Outlet's prices are higher than Safeway, I wonder how the hell they are in business...
3 things to mention about G.O. -
1)Several of the items would be name branded instead of a store brand. For some folks this would either present
a) more trust in the product
b) a slight amout of cache' to be able to get a "deal" on name branded products.
2) Many items were in larger sizes only. I would have to purchase two pounds of strawberries. Kettle chips were only available in a "sharing size."
3) The ketchup was Heinz branded and in line with what I saw for the same size Heinz at other stores, as the Del Monte (lower cost option) was out of stock. They did have lots of 'off brand' mustard products, I'm not sure why they couldn't secure a dollar store equivalent ketchup. Again, might be a customer base thing.

I've always felt like Grocery Outlet is the store you go to when you know you need something but don't care who made it or how it's packaged. Overall they are pretty consistent in what they stock, but it might have different brand names, scents, sizes from one trip to the next. I do feel their "you saved..." thing on the receipt is definitely bunk.
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Re: Portland - Salem - Vancouver Grocery Prices Comparison

Post by babs »

SamSpade wrote: October 25th, 2021, 12:59 pm
retailfanmitchell019 wrote: October 25th, 2021, 11:12 am Seeing that Grocery Outlet's prices are higher than Safeway, I wonder how the hell they are in business...
3 things to mention about G.O. -
1)Several of the items would be name branded instead of a store brand. For some folks this would either present
a) more trust in the product
b) a slight amout of cache' to be able to get a "deal" on name branded products.
2) Many items were in larger sizes only. I would have to purchase two pounds of strawberries. Kettle chips were only available in a "sharing size."
3) The ketchup was Heinz branded and in line with what I saw for the same size Heinz at other stores, as the Del Monte (lower cost option) was out of stock. They did have lots of 'off brand' mustard products, I'm not sure why they couldn't secure a dollar store equivalent ketchup. Again, might be a customer base thing.

I've always felt like Grocery Outlet is the store you go to when you know you need something but don't care who made it or how it's packaged. Overall they are pretty consistent in what they stock, but it might have different brand names, scents, sizes from one trip to the next. I do feel their "you saved..." thing on the receipt is definitely bunk.
I go to grocery outlet to buy coffee creamer or non-dairy beverages. There is zero consistency.in what they carry but what they have is always cheaper than the traditional grocery stores. Got Silk Oakmilk there today (not expired) for $1.99. it's usually 3.99 elsewhere. Got a jug of coffee creamer for 2.99 that's usually 4.99 at Fred Meyer. The store is random but they do have deals if you are open to going with that they have.
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Re: Portland - Salem - Vancouver Grocery Prices Comparison

Post by storewanderer »

babs wrote: October 25th, 2021, 1:32 pm I go to grocery outlet to buy coffee creamer or non-dairy beverages. There is zero consistency.in what they carry but what they have is always cheaper than the traditional grocery stores. Got Silk Oakmilk there today (not expired) for $1.99. it's usually 3.99 elsewhere. Got a jug of coffee creamer for 2.99 that's usually 4.99 at Fred Meyer. The store is random but they do have deals if you are open to going with that they have.
Grocery Outlet's pricing is usually pretty strong for what they have. Sometimes I see prices there that appear to be obvious errors- both as in too high of a price and too low of a price (no, it wasn't stuff that was about to expire). Also have seen sizes on their shelf tags wrong multiple times on the "too cheap" items, but UPC matches the wrong size shelf tag. For instance a 16oz Tillamook Cheese tagged as 8oz on their shelf tag, and selling at 2.49; scanned 2.49 too.
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