Bachelor on the Cheap

A lot of grocery shoppers like the convenience of grocery shopping at Walmart Supercenters.   Some folks like it because of the retailer’s everyday low-price approach.  There are no loyalty card or digital coupon marketing games trying to tease you into buying more of something that you really don’t need or items that weren’t budgeted for.  Others like Walmart because in addition to the everyday low prices on groceries, they can also shop for electronics, home & garden, sporting goods, clothing, and other general merchandise for one-stop shopping.  We also tend to be creatures of habit when it comes to groceries, typically frequenting the same store because we get comfortable with it.

As the largest retailer, Walmart has a volume purchasing power edge when it comes to setting prices.  Week in and week out, Walmart beats the mainstream grocery store – a.k.a., Dillons (Kroger) in the Wichita metro – in the overall price for a cart full of groceries.  With few exceptions, just about any given item you have on your grocery list is going to be cheaper than the Dillons price, unless Dillons is running a sale.  In competing against Aldi, the price gaps between the two stores are almost negligible, putting product quality at the forefront in terms of shopping preference.

BachelorontheCheap.com has been conducting weekly grocery store price reviews for the Wichita metro since December 2022.  At times, the cost comparisons have been eye-opening, with some significant price gaps between the stores reviewed.  Some weeks have been quite competitive, especially around holidays and events like the Super Bowl.  Prompted by my own curiosity and some reader feedback however, I’ve taken the price comparisons a step further to answer the following question:  “Do prices vary from one Walmart store to another in town?”

I’ve done a Dillons v Dillons comparison, so doing one for Walmart is the logical follow-up. 

Here’s this week’s side-by-side Wichita Metro comparison of grocery store prices for Walmart and just Walmart.  I’ve listed the online prices for the following Walmart Supercenter locations and will do snapshots for three totally different locations in future reports. 

  • Walmart – Greenwich & Kellogg
  • Walmart – West 21st St N
  • Walmart – Derby

Covering the basics, this list is the same as my regular weekly grocery store price review list comparing Aldi, Dillons, and Walmart, a cost comparison of 25 grocery essentials.

Here’s what I post with each weekly review of Aldi, Dillons, and Walmart but the same applies to this Walmart v Walmart snapshot:  Prices stated are online prices and for items available at the time of the review. Remember that the featured items are the store brand for each respective store unless otherwise labeled (this is BachelorontheCheap.com after all, and 8 out of 10 name-brand foods aren’t worth the extra price). Prices can vary from store to store, as store managers have the flexibility to adjust prices, lower or higher. 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:

  • With just two exceptions, prices mirror each other from store to store, in this case, one east-side location, one west-side location and also hitting the south suburb of Derby. 
  • Let’s talk turkey, er, chicken.  See what I did there, with the play on the poultry…  Some shoppers consider the lack of a meat counter where you can buy select meats by the pound to be a negative.   Without a meat counter, shoppers are restricted to a few choices of pre-packed meats, in this case, chicken.  The target shop for chicken in this review was a standard two-pound package of boneless/skinless chicken breasts. That typical two-ish-pound package typically has three large chicken breasts in it.   Walmart’s store brand, Great Value, doesn’t offer that.  They do have the name-brand Tyson available, but the price is $4.64/lb for the desired package of 3 large, boneless/skinless chicken breasts, about 2 pounds.  The total cost for that type of package – $9.37.  An alternative is also Tyson, but it’s a package of 6 boneless/skinless chicken breasts, much smaller portions, but the per pound price is $3.14 for a total package price of $9.48 that weighs around 3 pounds. Walmart does have a store brand option but only as a family pack.  The price per pound goes down to $2.97 but your out-of-pocket cost goes up to $15.18 in buying about 5 pounds of chicken which may mean going over budget or sacrificing something else on the grocery list for some folks. 
  • The Walmart online pricing is the same as in-store.   As a matter of perspective, Aldi online pricing is higher than their in-store shopping prices.  Aldi uniquely does this to cover their employee cost of personal shopping for your delivery or pickup order.  If you’re curious, Dillons online pricing is also the same as their in-store shopping pricing.
  • The price for flour is lower at the Walmart Supercenter on West 21st St N vs the other Walmart locations reviewed.  Why the price is $2.12 rather than the already lowest price of $2.24 at the other Walmart locations compared to Aldi ($2.45) and Dillons ($2.49) is a bit of a puzzle.  Chalk it up to management team discretion, but it’s not a “keeping the price lower vs. the neighborhood competition” thing. 
  • Milk at the same location is considerably lower than the other two stores reviewed.  That’s not a typo on the spreadsheet. This too is the store manager’s discretion coming into play.  It could be lower in price because they have a bunch of milk approaching the expiration date they need to quick sale, it could be a pricing strategy based on consumer behavior.  It’s interesting to note that Dillons has a bit of an anomaly in milk pricing too, an isolated low price ($2.49) at its store on 21st and Maize, just a hop, skip and a jump from the Walmart on 21st.  A price war on just milk? 

So in this first Walmart v Walmart comparison, prices are flat out consistent from store to store aside from the two exceptions noted.  The high/low price gap from store to store was only $1.02, which makes the isolated low price of milk even more intriguing. 

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

Have you bought your ham for Easter yet?  Price comparisons coming soon.

$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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