Grocery Store vs. Wholesale Club

I was at ShopRite this week when I overheard a woman and her daughter shopping for cereal. The daughter picked out a box and said, "This one's on sale." I don't usually do this, but I looked over and asked if they had checked the unit price. They said no. So I looked and sure enough, the unit price on an only slightly larger box of the same cereal was much lower than the box of cereal that was "on sale."

As you should already know, it's not the price of the item that's important, it's the unit price you should be checking. The only way to fairly compare prices is by the unit price. 

Comparing unit prices is an apples-to-apples comparison. For example, for paper towels, the unit price will tell you how much one brand is over another, per hundred sheets of paper towel. So even if one brand seems cheaper, you may find that per hundred, it is more expensive than other brands.

The list below is from ShopRite online. It is all the various brands of honey "O's" cereal they sell. If you first look at the prices, they don't seem too far off from each other (with the exception of "Mom's Naturals.") But when you compare price per ounce (the unit price) even "Mom's Naturals" isn't the best deal, the ShopRite brand is:

• Cascadian Farm Organic Cereal - Honey Nut O's: 10.40 oz , $0.38, $3.99
• Cheerios Cereal — Honey Nut: 12.25 oz, $0.29, $3.59
• Cheerios Cereal — Honey Nut: 17 oz, $0.26, $4.49  
• Cheerios Cereal — Honey Nut: 25.25 oz, $0.19, $4.79
• Kellogg's Crunchy Nut Roasted O's: 10.80 oz, $0.42, $4.49
• Mom's Best Naturals Honey Nut Toasty Os: 20 oz, $0.13, $2.69
• Malt-O-Meal Cereal — Honey Nut Scooters: 19 oz, $0.18, $3.39
• ShopRite Sweetened Honey Nut Toasted Oats Bag: 32 oz, $0.12, $3.97

Big box wholesale stores like Costco and BJ's Wholesale offer what seem like big savings on bulk-sized purchases, but even there you should check the unit prices. With very few brands to choose from, it would appear that you're getting a deal on at least one of them, but I've found that the "savings" at those stores doesn't often beat out the sale prices or store brands at the grocery store.

And at the wholesale clubs, it seems that everything has so much packaging. It's not truly bulk shopping because everything is individually packaged. That is fine if you are shopping for large groups of people or for events where individually packaged is appropriate, but for my small family, it is not the greenest way to shop.