Bachelor on the Cheap

I recently sampled the Spicy Chicken Mac & Cheese Bowl from KFC.   One of those “Available for a limited time” menu items, KFC’s Chicken Mac & Cheese Bowl is a quick lunch or dinner for just $5.

It wasn’t very good.  I like the concept and I’m actually a fan of the classic bowl, but the spicy version was poorly executed, the Bowl is NOT worthy of a repeat buy and I can make a better copycat version of the dish.

In doing so, it struck me that shopping for the dish would be something to highlight in this week’s grocery store price comparison with a twist.  Instead of my usual buy-the-store/discount brand at all stores approach (8 times out of 10, the name brand is NOT worth the price compared to the store/discount product), this week I’m doing a direct name brand vs. store/discount brand comparison.

Here’s this week’s side-by-side Wichita Metro comparison of grocery store prices for Aldi, Walmart, and Dillon’s, shopping for KFC Spicy Chicken Mac & Cheese Bowl – Copycat version ingredients.

Prices stated are in-store shopping prices.   Prices can vary from store to store, as store managers have the flexibility to adjust prices, lower or higher. Aldi does not have the flexibility of the other stores reviewed. Prices are good as of this writing and could change by the time you make that grocery run. 

Takeaways from this week’s price review:

  • Aldi is the cheapest place to shop for the copycat dish.  It’s a small list, but the savings at Aldi are significant, especially vs. buying the name brands at both Dillons and Walmart.  Shoppers can save a whopping $4.75 vs. buying the name brands at Dillons and save $2.88 vs. Walmart.  You could just about take the Aldi vs. Dillons savings and go buy a $5 KFC Bowl after shopping!  The Aldi savings in the store/discount brand comparison were under $1 vs both Dillons (59 cents) and Walmart (90 cents), but it was a bit surprising to see Dillons came in cheaper than Walmart on the budget buys, not a normal thing.  Of note, Aldi’s Kirkland brand of chicken nuggets was a 29-ounce bag, vs. the 32-ounce bag of Tyson nuggets available at both Dillons and Walmart.  For those of you who are not familiar with Aldi, they carry a few name brands, but their business model focuses on private labels and how they’re able to keep their overall prices so low.
  • Dillons was the most expensive place to shop for name brands, no surprise there and even if using the Dillons loyalty card, shoppers will not see a $4.75 discount, and fuel points won’t make up enough of the difference either.    The only deal at the time of the shop was for the discount brand Banquet Chicken Nuggets, which gave Dillons the price edge over Walmart in budget shopping.  If you’re curious about how the Dillons loyalty card plays a role, check out the related article link, “Mainstream Grocery vs. Discount Grocery: Dillon’s (Kroger) vs. Aldi. 
  • Walmart came in quite a bit cheaper than Dillons in the name-brand comparison, a savings of $1.86.  They charge $1.01 less than Dillons for Tyson Chicken Nuggets and look at how much Dillons gouges their customers for a brick of Kraft cheese!  Dillons loyalty card be damned, makes you wonder how many other name-brand products Dillons is possibly gouging their customers on and for how much. 

Have an idea for a shop?  Send me a grocery list email.

$pend Wisely My Friends…

~ Mike

Related: Copycat Recipe: Kentucky Fried Chicken Mac & Cheese Bowl

Related: Grocery Stores in Wichita

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

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