Price Wars and My Amazing Shopping Deals

I love price wars. I really, really do. Because stores want to lure you to shop there, they have a lot of loss leaders, and then expect you to buy more expensive things once you're there.

I have a shopping center about a ten minute drive from my house that until now had one large relatively well priced supermarket in it, in addition to the two smaller but also chain supermarkets in my neighborhood, plus a super discount store only open a few days a week and without the largest selection of items.

In that shopping center, though, a new supermarket was opened by a large grocery chain, and oh boy am I reaping the benefits. Forget the fact that lines at the checkout counters are nowhere near as long as they used to be, now we have terrific price wars going on, with both stores trying to compete for you as a customer.

By shopping savvily, you can get some terrific prices.


Here's what I got at my shop this afternoon.

I went to the store with a few goals in mind. First is that I have been running extremely extremely low on produce, as I tried to use up most of my produce before going to Greece, and hadn't really had a chance to go shopping since I came back. My second goal was to get things that I'd need for a birthday party. With everything going on in my life this year I didn't manage to make my girls a birthday party, so I'm throwing them a very belated one in the next few days, so I bought food supplies for it today.

When I walked in, I saw watermelons being sold for 11.5 cents a pound. I haven't bought watermelon yet this summer because even when they supposedly are cheap per pound, because they weigh so much, and so much goes to waste from each watermelon (if you aren't saving the rind), each watermelon ends up being rather pricey. But at this price, I bought two watermelons and paid a total of $3.86. I know two watermelons sounds like a lot, but... part of it is going to be for the birthday party, watermelons last a decent amount of time out of the fridge as long as they're uncut, and I can think of so many delicious things to do with watermelon if I have extra, like tomato watermelon salad (recipe to come), watermelon gazpacho, watermelon smoothies, watermelon ices, etc...

After that, I saw cucumbers and tomatoes being sold for 22 cents a pound, so I bought 5 pounds of cucumbers for $1.10 and 8 pounds of tomatoes for $1.75. Of course we love to eat these, but I do plan on serving the cucumbers cut into spears at the birthday party on a veggie platter.

Red bell peppers weren't quite so cheap at 87 cents a pound, but I figured they'd be really popular on the veggie platter so I bought 1.75 lbs for $1.52.

Carrots were also 22 cents a pound, so even though I still had some carrots left at home, I bought 5 lbs for a total of $1.09, because crudites, and they last a while, and are a staple in my kitchen.

Cantaloupe also at 22 cents a pound, so I bought just one at $1.33 for the six pound one. This will probably be served along with the watermelon at the party, or just in general.

Zucchini was slightly more expensive but still a great price at 32 cents a pound, so I bought 2.7 lbs for 87 cents. I would have bought more, but lately I've had a hard time using up zucchini before it goes bad, so I'm trying to not overdo it.

Eggplant was also 32 cents a pound, so I bought 2 small ones, 1.74 lbs total, for 65 cents.

Cherry tomatoes were half off their usual price; I got three packages for $2.85 and they'll also go on the veggie platter.

We needed more fruit, so I bought a bag of apples that was being sold for 50 cents a pound, so the 5.2 lb bag cost me $2.62.

Nectarines were the second cheapest fruit at 62 cents a pound, so I bought 2.4 lbs for $1.49.

Onions were 19 cents a pound, so I bought 2.82 for 55 cents.

Beyond that I did buy more produce that wasn't super cheap so there's no point in sharing exactly how much those cost, more like why. I bought grapes... because I felt like it and the price finally came down a bit. I bought fresh basil to go with the tomatoes for a lovely salad. I bought bok choy and 2 different types of mushrooms and scallions to be able to use to make homemade restaurant style chop suey. I also bought a mango and avocado to make homemade sushi with them.

Speaking of sushi, I bought two separately packaged frozen sushi grade salmon so I could use that for sushi. Its enough for a few things of sushi, and the pricing wasn't so bad, and definitely will be lots cheaper than buying sushi. It worked out to $10 for all the salmon, which I can use for at least 4 or 6 times of making sushi, and since sushi here costs minimum $10 for a small amount, this will be quite cost efficient. Of course vegetarian sushi would be cheaper, but I don't enjoy it as much.

I've been having a hard time remembering to bring along food when I'm going out to work, and then end up being hangry, so I bought myself some cheese from the cheese counter where its cheaper to be able to take that and have protein and fill myself up with something nutritious instead of junk.

I don't usually buy whole chickens or chicken thighs because they aren't low enough prices to be cost efficient for me, but I saw them on sale today, whole chickens for $1.15 a lb and chicken thighs for $1.29 a lb, so I bought the weight limit at that price, which ended up being 2 package of chicken thighs and two whole chickens.

Cartons of milk, usually locally being sold for more expensive than bags of milk were being sold for $1.11 a liter instead of the usual $1.57 that liter bags go for, so I bought 2, the limit for the sale.

My family drinks grape juice regularly, and usually bottles cost $3.71 a bottle, but they were on sale for $2.82 so I bought 2. I would have bought more but my wagon was getting full.
I saw wine being sold on sale, so I bought 2 bottles of wine.

I bought apple juice concentrate so I could make cheap drinks and serve something other than water at the party, and I also use it to make tasty cocktails.

I bought a large bag of potato chips for the party. I bought some white rice to grind into flour to use to make the cake for the party.

Tomato paste, the kind I especially like, was being sold cheaper than I ever see it being sold, so I bought a few jars.

Lastly, you can get 2 packages of gluten free buns on sale at this store for $1.40 each shop, so I bought 2 packages.

Grand total for this shop?
$129 bucks.

Dirt cheap? No. Pretty decent though for what I bought. I think I scored well.

Did you get any great deals lately? Do you like price wars? Have you had any near you lately? Any great loss leaders you've recently bought?