Delaware Valley Consumers' Checkbook Mag

Source: Delaware Valley Consumers' Checkbook magazine

The latest issue of Delaware Valley Consumers' CHECKBOOK magazine, also available at www.checkbook.org ,

The latest issue of Delaware Valley Consumers' CHECKBOOK magazine, also available at www.checkbook.org, compares local supermarkets for price and quality using a 151-item price-comparison market basket and survey responses from more than 3,200 local shoppers. Highlights from the article include:

The price standouts among the surveyed stores were Wal-Mart Supercenter, Redner's Warehouse Markets, Wegmans, Weis Markets, and, in some parts of the area, Giant Food. Wal-Mart Supercenter's prices were about 17 percent lower the average prices we found at Acme Markets, the area's largest chain; Redner's prices were about 10 per cent lower than Acme's. For a family that spends $150 per week at the supermarket, a 17 percent price difference could mean a yearly savings of over $1,300; a 10 percent price difference would total over $750 during the course of a year.

Wegmans' prices were about seven percent lower than those at surveyed Acme stores. In addition to its low prices, Wegmans is by far the top-rated area supermarket chain for quality or fresh produce and meats and for customer service: an astounding 91 percent of its surveyed customers rated it "superior" overall. By comparison, only 37 percent of Acme's surveyed customers rated it "superior" overall, and only 34 percent of Pathmark's surveyed customers gave it a "superior" overall rating.

CHECKBOOK found that at two chains, prices varied significantly from store to store. For Giant Food, CHECKBOOK was able to categorize stores into nine different pricing groups. The lowest priced Giant store CHECKBOOK shopped had prices that were, on average, 15 percent lower than Acme's; the highest priced Giant had prices that were about the same as Acme's. Of the two ShopRite stores CHECKBOOK shopped, one had prices that were about nine percent lower than Acme's and the other had prices that were about five percent lower than Acme's.

Prices at the Genuardi's Family Markets, Pathmark, and SuperFresh stores CHECKBOOK shopped were close to the prices found at Acme stores. Prices at surveyed Genuardi's stores averaged about three percent higher than the average CHECKBOOK found at Acme; Pathmark's prices averaged about the same as Acme's; and Super Fresh's prices averaged about four percent higher than Acme's.

The area's six largest chains did not receive very high marks for quality. The percentage of surveyed customers rating the chain "superior" for "overall quality" ranged from 55 percent for ShopRite down to 50 percent for Giant, 46 percent for

The highest ratings for quality went to Wegmans. Its "superior" "overall" rating by 91 percent of surveyed shoppers, compared to 88 percent for Henning's Market, and 84 percent for both Trader Joe's and Whole Foods Market. (Because Trader Joe's offers mostly only its own brands, it was not included in price comparisons.)

The highest prices CHECKBOOK found were at Whole Foods Market-43 percent higher than the big chain average. On the positive side, Whole Foods consistently gets high scores on CHECKBOOK's surveys on quality of fresh produce.

Membership warehouse stores CHECKBOOK surveyed offered dramatic savings. For items that could be compared, based on unit prices (price per pound, for example), the surveyed Sam's Club store beat the Genuardi's it was compared to by a whopping 32 percent.

Since shoppers can't typically get everything they need at a warehouse club, CHECKBOOK looked at how much you might save by going to both a warehouse clubs and a regular supermarket, assuming that you would buy the lowest cost size available at either place. CHECKBOOK found, for example, that by shopping at Costco and ShopRite, you might save about 12 percent compared with shopping at the ShopRite store alone.

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