My Local Store Became "The Super Cheap Store"!

I wrote quite a few times about the super cheap grocery store that is near my physical therapist's office, that was so incredibly affordable that I made sure to do as much grocery shopping there as possible, despite it being far from my house, because the price difference was just so significant. I never quite understood why that store, which I'll call the TGR store, that is a branch of a chain grocery store that I call the R store, was so cheap, when the branch closest to me, which I'll be calling the SBR store, was nowhere near as cheap. (For those who are local and want to guess what store I'm talking about, R is the first initial of the name of the company, and TG and SB are the initials of the official branch names.)

Way back in the day, back when my blog first started, 14 years ago, I would go to the SBR store and would take advantage of their sales, when one day a week they had lots of different produce for 12 cents per pound, up to 6.6 lbs, as long as you spent $22 at the store. I had not seen prices like that, period, for at least 10 years, probably more, let alone locally. Even the super cheap grocery store that I wrote about, had produce for 25 cents per pound, which was amazing, since produce is at least 3 or 4 times that usually.

But three weeks ago, I went to the local store, SBR, and I was astounded to see the prices. They were lower than I'd seen... ever. 

No, they weren't the 25 cents per pound produce that had me schlepping all the way to the TGR store.

Nor were they the 12 cents per pound that I absolutely loved at this store all those years ago.

This produce was a freaking 10 cents a pound!!!!!

In my life, I have never, ever, ever seen cheaper produce!

Yes, this price was limited to 6.6 lbs, but anything more than those 6.6 lbs were the "non sale price" of 25 cents a pound, which was also the absolute steal price that I saw at the TGR store, which prompted me to make the effort to go all the way there to shop. 

Not everything was at this price. But these were:

• Cucumbers
• Tomatoes
• Carrots
• Onions
• Potatoes
• Beets
• Cabbage
• Watermelon

However, the other produce was still a terrific price.

Purple cabbage was 25 cents a pound.

Zucchini was 35 cents a pound.

Eggplant was 48 cents a pound.

Bell peppers of all colors were 50 cents a pound.

Avocadoes were 77 cents a pound

Apples were between  $1.03 and $1.15 per pound.

In contrast, the usual prices for these (even at other branches of the same chain) are as follows...

• Cucumbers- 77 cents a pound
• Tomatoes- 77 cents a pound
• Carrots-  64 cents a pound
• Onions- 64 cents a pound
• Potatoes- 64 cents a pound
• Beets- 77 cents a pound
• Cabbage- 64 cents a pound
• Watermelon- 38-64 cents a pound
• Purple cabbage- 90 cents a pound
• Zucchini- $1.03 a pound
• Eggplant- $1.16 a pound
• Bell peppers- $1.16-1.29 a pound
• Avocado $1.29-1.68 a pound
• Apples $1.29-$1.41 a pound

...So you can see why I loved these prices so much! 

The first time I saw the sale was right before a holiday, so I asked the manager what the reason was for the low prices, and she asked me if I had a problem with them giving customers a good deal. Of course not, I just wanted to know if those prices were a one time thing.

They weren't.

The past few times I went to the store, no matter what day of the week it was, I saw those same prices.

And no, it was not just produce that was cheaper. Chicken was also at prices I hadn't seen in years, and there were some great sales on other items.

It looks like, for now, my local store, SBR, has become the "super cheap store", and I'm really excited.

Each time I went there and bought things at those low prices, I took pictures to share with you, but didn't get around to writing posts then.  So here's some from a few different shops.

Olive oil lately has gotten really expensive. I used to be able to buy it on sale for $5.69 per 750 ml bottle. Now the price I see everywhere is $14.25, without ever seeing it on sale. But I did see a sale one of these times at the SBR store- $8.54.

Ever since I learned that eating more protein will help my POTS symptoms, I have been buying these expensive gluten free protein bars that cost $6.57 per box, but I saw them on sale for $2.83 so I bought a lot.

Grape juice, which is $4.26 per bottle was on sale for $2.82.

Whole chickens which I never see for under $2.59/lb were on sale for $1.29/lb. 

Chicken thighs and drumsticks, which are usually $3.77/lb and up were $1.93/lb.

These chicken prices were for a maximum of 6.6 lbs, but more than that was its regular not cheap price, so I made sure to get as close to that weight as possible.

Fresh ground beef, while not extremely cheap, was the same price as frozen ground beef that is mixed with soy, so I figured why not buy...

My kids are very picky when it comes to cereal... which isn't so cheap locally. Fortunately there's one store  brand of cereal that they like, and it was on sale for even more than its usual low price, so I got a bunch of boxes.

I got grated cheese and cream cheese from the cheese counter from the store brand because those are significantly cheaper than prepackaged cheeses.

I tried to get the store brand as much as possible whenever possible, including for garbage bags, sandwich bags, zip lock bags, peanut butter, etc... since they are much cheaper.

This last trip, I found something extra exciting- pineapple for $1.20 per pound when it is ridiculously expensive here and I've never seen it for cheaper than $8.57 per pineapple... was on sale for $1.29/lb which worked out to be $3.15 per pineapple! I bought quite a few and I have something exciting planned for them, but that will have to be for another post.

I just had to share how exciting it is that now I don't need to go far to get amazing prices, not to mention how exciting it is that there are these amazing prices, period. Groceries have been so expensive lately, and produce most of all because of technical reasons in my region, so getting a little bit of a breather in the cost of groceries is definitely well appreciated.

What types of prices are you seeing for produce lately? What is the lowest you've ever seen produce being sold for?