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Wow, what a difference 12 weeks makes!

I’ve been conducting grocery store price reviews in the Wichita Metro for quite a few weeks now, so I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the total savings and price gaps for the three stores reviewed every week since reviews started, Aldi, Dillons, and Walmart.  Target and Trader Joe’s have been included in some past reviews, but not for each week.  Highlights for those stores are noted below.

Over a 12-week period of shopping, from the inception of the BachelorontheCheap.com weekly grocery store prices review on December 12, 2022 through March 7, 2023, Aldi is consistently the cheapest place to shop.

Total review cost over a 12-week period:

  • Aldi – $727.53
  • Dillons – $790.90
  • Walmart – $745.23

Savings gaps:

  • Aldi vs. Dillons Savings – $63.37
  • Aldi vs. Walmart Savings – $17.70
  • Walmart vs. Dillons Savings – $45.67

Takeaways from the 12-week shopping look:

  • Aldi was the cheapest place to shop in 8 of the 12 weeks reviewed.
  • Dillons was the most expensive place to shop each and every week.  Even with the use of the Dillons loyalty card and taking advantage of fuel points, you won’t make up the difference of $63.37 in the gap with Aldi.  Dillons runs some great specials, “buy” all means take advantage of those, but know that prices for all those other items you need to buy typically run higher, even for the store brand, so a cart full of groceries will cost you the most at Dillons, despite the sale, despite the loyalty card.  If you’re curious about how the Dillons loyalty card plays a role in shopping, check out the related article link, “Mainstream Grocery vs. Discount Grocery: Dillon’s (Kroger) vs. Aldi. 
  • Walmart was the cheapest place to shop in 4 of the 12 weeks reviewed.
  • Target was reviewed for a two-week period, the first two weeks of grocery store reviews.  They weren’t the cheapest, but they weren’t the most expensive either.  Reader feedback was overwhelmingly like, “I don’t shop there for groceries,” so they were dropped.
  • Trader Joe’s was added per reader request soon after Target was dropped.  Reviewed for a two-week period in January 2023, they were the second-most expensive place to shop, behind Dillons in the highest price for both weeks.  But in considering they feature private label and organic products and screen ingredients, excluding products that use Genetically Modified Organisms (“GMO”) as ingredients as well as items with synthetic colors and artificial flavors, it wasn’t exactly an apples-to-apples comparison.  Pitting regular products vs. organic wasn’t a level playing field, so they were dropped from further reviews.   I love the store but in a budget battle, it’s not a fair fight.  A review of Trader Joe’s, Natural Grocers, and Whole Foods is in the future.

The Aldi savings vs. Dillons is significant and that amount is conservative, in pretty much sticking to a shopping list of staple items.  If you project the savings on just 25 essential items over the course of a year, the savings would be $253.48.  I look forward to posting more shopping reviews and cost comparisons, including an expanded staple items list, product vs. product reviews, and specialized shopping, like Easter ham for dinner and all the sides!

$pend Wisely My Friends…

~ Mike

Related: Grocery Stores in Wichita

Related: Mainstream Grocery vs. Discount Grocery: Dillon’s (Kroger) vs. Aldi

Related: Food Review: Great Value bacon not such a great value

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