Bachelor on the Cheap

Being a Wichita foodie isn’t just about knowing where the best restaurants are in the Wichita metro, it’s also about knowing where to get the best ingredients so you can make great eats at home, to include copycat dishes!

Here’s this week’s side-by-side comparison of grocery store prices for Aldi, Dillon’s, Walmart and Trader Joe’s. 

Covering the basics, this week’s list, dated January 23, 2023, includes two new items, adding canola oil and sugar.  The new total of essential items is now 25. 

Last week’s list dated January 16, 2023 contained 23 essential items and it’s interesting to note that prices were mixed week over week.  For those same 23 items, Aldi dropped $0.87, the Dillons total went up $0.99, Trader Joe’s was down $0.64 but only because they didn’t have American cheese slices in stock, otherwise the total price would have been an increase.  Last but not least, Walmart fell $0.66, so that’s two price drops and two price increases, respectively. 

Keep in mind that items featured is the store brand for each respective store, unless otherwise labeled.  Prices can vary from store-to-store, especially for Dillons and Walmart, to a lesser extent Aldi.  Store managers have the flexibility to adjust prices, lower or higher. Trader Joe’s is the only store listed where prices are the same regardless of the Trader Joe’s location.   They proudly promote that.  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 was the cheapest place to shop this week, for the third consecutive week.  The price gap with Dillons is growing larger.  Back in December, the weekly gap was typically $2 – $3 in total price, this week it’s $10.05.  It’s no coincidence that the gap has grown as more items are added to the list. 
  • Dillon’s continues to be the most expensive place to grocery shop on a week-to-week basis even WITH the use of their loyalty card.   Check out the related article link, “Mainstream Grocery vs. Discount Grocery: Dillon’s (Kroger) vs. Aldi.  Look how much more they charge for plain ol’ sliced white bread, Kraft singles and Roma tomatoes.
  • Trader Joe’s was the second-most expensive store to shop at of the four, but as I mentioned last week they feature private label and organic products and they screen ingredients, excluding products that use Genetically Modified Organisms (“GMO”) as ingredients as well as items with synthetic colors and artificial flavors.  So it’s not exactly an apples to apples comparison in pitting regular products vs. organic.  Despite that, they’re still cheaper than Dillons!  And they have the cheapest eggs of the four stores, organic and free range to boot!
  • Walmart was the second lowest in overall price, but had the most expensive eggs.  You would think with their volume bargaining power, that egg price would be lower.  They have the lowest price for milk, $0.99 cheaper than the next lowest price at Aldi.

Don’t see some essential items that you think should be on the list?  Send me an email.

This week’s copycat recipe: The McMock Burger

$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

Enjoy this post?

If you appreciate this cost comparison and want to support more great content on BachelorontheCheap.com, you can help keep this site going with a one-time or a monthly donation.  Thank you so much for your support! ~ Mike