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| Friday, February 22, 2008 |
| Those dented cans are becoming more appealing to shoppers |
 The Wall Street Journal article: One Store's Old Food Is Others' Bread and Butter reports that surplus goods discount grocery stores are seeing an increase in customers. When food prices began to jump last year, Dan McCauley started making weekly trips to SharpShopper, a no-frills discount store here that sells food makers' surplus goods. On a recent weekday afternoon, the 50-year-old's haul included two bags of Archway cookies for just $1 and two cases of vitamin water made by Kraft Foods Inc. for 25 cents a bottle.
Mr. McCauley didn't mind that the "best if eaten by" date on the cookies was two weeks old. "A cookie is a cookie to me," said the vocational-school teacher and married father of two. He says he has slashed his family's grocery bill by 25% since he began buying more food at SharpShopper and less at Giant, a conventional grocer owned by Dutch retailer Royal Ahold NV.
Shoppers like Mr. McCauley are boosting sales at surplus or "salvage" grocers, a little-noticed segment of the food industry, at a time when U.S. consumers face the highest rate of food inflation in almost two decades, along with steep gasoline prices and a sputtering economy. I am not sure if we have these types of discount grocery stores in Boston. We do have food Thrift Shops generally run by the brand that distributes the items. I posted about my visit to a Pepperidge Farm Thrift Shop back in 2006. While my experience purchasing surplus food was a positive one - if I had opened a package only to find it infested with bugs (as one person in the WSJ article did) I would be turned off on discount food shopping forever. |
| posted by Boston Gal @ 10:23 AM *
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| 9 Comments: |
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um yeah... i am 100% all for thrift stores, yard sales, and craigslist, but the discount food stuff like this scares me :(
it is GREAT however for others. my uncle actually visits them weekly down in Florida and swears by them. i went w/ him one time and the prices were insanely good, but the place gave me the heebie jeebies.
if the actual stores *look* and *feel* better, i'd be up for giving it another shot.
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I have seen discounted food at Bldg 19. I don't know if it's stuff past expiration date or discontinued products since I've never looked closely at it.
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just go to the stores dumpsters and it;s all there for free. We only do it during our long cold winters but it's amazing what gets thrown out.
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I cut my food costs by nearly 30% (based on my Quicken records) just by doing most of my shopping at the local ALDI store instead of buying sale/store brand at the regular grocery place.
None of their stuff is expired, dented, or buggy (!), although they are not national brands. Most appear to be the exact same products as the house brands at the regular grocery store but even cheaper.
The store is well-kept in a mainstream retail area on the outlot of a Menards. The smaller store is fast to shop and I don't need coupons or to plan around sales (or wonder if what I want will be there at all).
If the surplus grocery prices for dented/expired/buggy (!!) stuff isn't a LOT cheaper I see no reason to shop there instead.
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Ah, I wish we had Aldis & Menards in Massachusetts. Oh well. I think anonymous 1:17 is right, the closest you'll get is a Building 19, but they don't appear to get very close to Boston proper. There's also Big Lots, and I'd bet Ocean State Job Lot has closeout food also.
For the curious, Interstate Brands has an outlet store locator: http://www.bakeryoutlets.com
Not quite the same discount, but also less sketchy.
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The Christmas Tree Shops also sell a lot of discounted food. I've bought a couple things here and there and all seemed fresh to me.
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I to can second shopping at ALDI. The store might lack some in selection but you can get all basic foods for well less than big chain grocers. I would highly recommend to other shoppers.
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I have purchased buggy food at Stop & Shop in CT and Winn-Dixie in FL. Both stores were main stream and clean. No real way of knowing where the contamination occurred.
I do look for discounted food at Big Lots and at the discounted bins in regular grocery stores.
At Big Lots, Ocean State Job Lots, etc. some of the foods are because of overstocks, mis-done labels (scored big savings on cereal where the color printing overlaid the outlines) etc. Food is food and should be covered by state inspectors. You can always check with local government.
Obviously, avoid bulging cans, retaped boxes, missing labels. You can really save a lot of money.Bellen
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Trader Joe and Aldi share the same parent company. Both stores feature low-priced food selections; Aldi's cheaper but also feels like a low-budget, no-frills, "watch out for shop-lifters" negative shopping experience. The Aldi where I shop always has long lines, grouchy/bossy cashiers, a security guard, and a depressing feel, but I still go.
I can't imagine buying "expired" food. Any food that would still be edible past-date probably is also laden with preservatives. It would be healthier to skip these sort of snack-food items and junk-quality foods. Why not make cookies from scratch and skip the chips altogether? The less processed food you buy, the lower your grocery bills anyways.
Like your blog; this is my first post.
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um yeah... i am 100% all for thrift stores, yard sales, and craigslist, but the discount food stuff like this scares me :(
it is GREAT however for others. my uncle actually visits them weekly down in Florida and swears by them. i went w/ him one time and the prices were insanely good, but the place gave me the heebie jeebies.
if the actual stores *look* and *feel* better, i'd be up for giving it another shot.