Retail vs Big Box Store vs Discount Grocery Shopping

     A lot of my posts have to do with groceries and food. Food is after all the main thing. We will talk about retail, big box and discount groceries. 
     First let's talk about retail grocery stores. I work at a retail grocery store. We are expected to have everything everyone wants. Also to provide all the service that the customer wants and needs. A retail grocery has a wider selection of products. Providing carry out service. Custom service and all the things that people remember about the good old days. The customer actually has someone to talk to with their concerns and wants. Retail stores have all the name brands. Most have their own house brands. From personal experience I have found that my store's house brands are as good as any name brands. Most items are priced higher than box stores and discount groceries. But most customers that come into the store know that anyway and are not price oriented as others. They come to the store to get what they want and do not care about the cost. Our house brand canned vegetables are seventy-five cents a can. Name brands over a dollar. But if you are in a position to pay for what you want we are your store. The quality of our meats are the best. You suffer if you go to big box and discount. The shrink is greater at a retail store. Shrink means food disposed of or waste as they generally have a higher standard of freshness. I know that I have to throw out a lot of good food just because it is "out of date". As the old saying goes. You get what you pay for. Also the retail store can be a social event.
     Now we go to the big box stores. They decided to get into the grocery business about twenty years ago. They would have a few items that everyone used. Then they expanded. They started featuring a few name brands at a low price to get you into the store. Big Boxes are attractive as they have about everything that you need,one stop shopping! As in addition to food you can get clothing, hardware, automotive, garden and just about everything else. Albeit, not the best quality or selection. But decent and available. Something is better then nothing. In the grocery department the meat usually arrives to the store prepackaged. Cuts down on labor and the need for a skilled meat person or persons. Just need someone to carry it out to the coolers. No custom cuts. Just pick out what you want. My experience with Walmart is that the meat is pretty good. The produce is OK too. Maybe not all the variety of a dedicated retail grocery. But the basics. I have found that the shelf life of produce and milk to be longer from the retail store I work at. The milk from my store lasts even past the date. Not sometimes from the big box. Obviously the selection at a big box is limited. They used to have a lot of products of their own label. Great Value. I see that they are slowly phasing them out. As for as prices go their prices are higher now then when the economic downturn accrued in 2008. A lot of people who would not shop at a big box for groceries but as the economy continued to list it became fashionable. As everyone was into saving money. As a result my retail store dropped the price on a lot of staples. Of their house brand. Narrowing the difference of staple prices on house brands in an effort to keep customers. While the box stores capitalized on the trend to save money and raised their prices. The retail stores have to maintain a level of service that the box store is not expected to have. 
     Then we have the discount groceries. The Aldi's and Save a Lots. These are the no frill and basic markets. When I lived in Indiana I had a Save a Lot between home and work. I used to shop there. No name brands to speak of. Unless they were short dated or damaged. Mostly generic name products. But some OK. Limited selection. No real departments. Just put and take. On an experimental shopping visit I went to Aldi. I shopped at Aldi in Indiana in the 1990s. There was one close to home and I liked the products. When Aldi came to the Kentucana market in 1992 I interviewed with them for an assistant store manager position. The interviewer explained to me that there are only one or two manufacturers. of any given product and that all their products and made under custom label for Aldi under contract. Example. Hunts and Heinz make ketchup. So chances are one of these producers are making their ketchup. You get the point. So this is a good place to get staple items. I have found an average of fifty cents less per product then at my retail store. Sometimes as high as a dollar. So if you buy fifty items you could potentially save twenty five dollars. The meat area is iffy at best. You have to get a larger portion then you may want. It is hard to mess up pork or chicken. But the beef sirloin steak I have purchased turned out to be a laminate of steakums. Falling apart in layers as I slow cooked it in an iron skillet on the stove. Still tasted OK anyway. The vegetables are less expensive but again short dated. So there are pluses and minuses for discount grocery shopping. It really depends on the product. 
     All in all a mixture or hybrid shopping plan will get you the best results. 
although when you take in the time and effort involved in this process it my not be worth the time. For me it is a twenty mile round trip to the discount grocery. A six mile trip to the big box. All of which involve the use of an automobile. Also time. If I just get what I need from the retail store that I work at I can bring things home daily in the backpack on a bicycle. Which offsets the hassle of getting into a car to go somewhere. I do not need to question the quality. I have everything available. 
     Most people use their car everyday all the time and do not think about it. It is an event for me to start the car. So being in a situation that I can get by without driving. I am most likely better off buying where I work and using the house brands. How about you.