Comparing Publix, Kroger, Aldi's, Sam's and Wal-Mart for groceries

Which is your favorite grocery store in Snellville?

For me, it's Publix, hands down.

Best service, most knowledgeable/helpful employees - the prices are good on some things, not so good on others, but overall the service overrides everything else. But here's a list of what NOT to buy at Publix . If you combine coupons (most double) with the buy-one-get-one free deals, you can get lots of stuff free or almost free. They will ask you if you need help, you don't have to hunt someone down. I have never, ever had a bad shopping experience at the Snellville Publix on Scenic Highway in Snellville. As good as it is, the Publix store in Loganville at Cooper Road and Highway 20 is even more incredible, service-wise.

Kroger is okay for the things I don't buy at Publix. You can find some deals there if you pay close attention. Kroger also doubles coupons, but they don't double .35 cent coupons and Publix will.

Aldi's Snellville (Hwy 124/Scenic Hwy) - no name brands, can't use coupons, but they say their savings more than makes up for that. You can use a debit card but no credit cards. You need to bring your own bags. Bring a quarter for the shopping cart. I understand why they do all that, but it can be a pain if that's not what you expect when you walk in there. They buy older fruit and vegetables in order to save money and pass the savings along to you, and as a friend of mine (who is a loyal Aldi customer) told me, you need to plan to eat it right away if you buy it from Aldi's, because it will spoil fast. (Illinois)

Sams Club Snellville (Hwy 124/Scenic Hwy) you need to pay a membership fee. There's too much hassle involved for the savings...if you really know prices and compare you will see that they more than make up their money they save you on the "loss leaders." Loss leaders are the items that are super low, to entice you into the store...then they make up their money on overpriced items. I've always felt like the checkout process is like a cattle drive. (Headquartered in Bentonville AR)

Wal-Mart Snellville (Hwy 124/Scenic Hwy) - Savings on groceries, but if you have a problem like moldy bread (I did), expect a fight with customer service to get your money back. (Headquartered in Bentonville AR)

Target on Scenic Hwy in Snellville also has a grocery section. You can find some really good deals on cereal, dairy, and snacks sometimes. Avoid their condiments the prices on those are sometimes twice what they are from the regular grocery stores. Avoid their laundry detergents. Service: I was denied use of Target store coupons I printed out from the Target website. The Snellville Target would not let me use them, even though they were unexpired, valid Target coupons. It's no use to try to reason with a sales clerk, so I contacted Target headquarters for clarification on their coupon policy, and they never communicated with me.

I have none of these difficulties at Publix. I am very frugal, but good service is worth paying for. Another point for Publix is that if you want to help local people more, Publix is based in Florida and has a large warehouse in Lawrenceville, GA.

$10 off gas cards at Publix

At Snellville Publix stores through Wednesday, you can get a BP or Shell gas card with a face value of $50 for $40 plus tax.

BUT you must get the coupon that's in the weekly sales circular. Look for the sales flier near the front doors of the store.

Some stores (or perhaps all) are limiting to 2 the number of gift cards you can purchase in this deal, and you need to have the actual coupon.

UPDATE: Hubs told me when he used the card at the gas station (in our case, Shell) it was as easy as using a debit or credit card at the pump. So, if you have been concerned that it would be extra trouble or inconvenient, it's not.

Snellville Publix Deals Jan 29 thru Feb 4

Here are some good deals from Publix this week - most of these are the buy one get one free deals, and I kind of round the prices out, so these prices may not be exact.

Arnold select rolls, were 2.99 half price $1.50

Assorted Snickers, Milky Way, 3 Musketeer miniatures bags (9-11.5 oz bag) 3.70 1.85
There is a .50 cent coupon you should see if you have it. The coupon will double to $1, so the final price after coupon is .85 cents

Birds Eye Viola frozen meal kits 2.80 1.40

Coles Garlic Bread 2.80 1.40

Curly's Pork or Chicken w/ BBQ Sauce 18 oz tub 5.70 2.85
(this appears to be like Lloyd's BBQ)

Dean's Dip 1.98 .95
I used a coupon so was able to get two of these for .44 cents each.

General Mills Chex Mix 2.55 1.28
If you have the .50 cents off coupon for this, it will double so you will pay only .28 cents per bag.

Gia Russa Select Spaghetti Sauce 5.80 2.90
For me, even at half price, this is too high. I look for Ragu that's on sale sometimes for 1.66 or less, just to give you an idea of prices.

Hunts Tomatoes - with coupons, I was able to get several cans for .20 cents each.

Keebler Town House or Club Crackers

Kellogg's Frosted Flakes, Froot Loops, Corn Pops, Apple Jacks, Rice Krispies: $4, sale price $2.
I used coupons so was able to get 4 boxes for 1.25 each.

Kraft BBQ sauce 1.60 .80

Kraft Mayo 4.30 2.15
This is a pretty good price, even though I think the retail is inflated. If you have a coupon, then this is a good thing to stock up on, just be aware of expiration dates to make sure you can use it on time. Or consider donating to food bank.

Kraft Velveeta 3.60 1.80

Lays Potato Chips $4 $2
Pair this with the Dean's Dip at half price, and you have a nice Super Bowl Sunday snack deal.

Lipton Tea bottled Green Tea $8 $4

McCormick Chili Seasoning Mix 1.40 .70 cents

Mrs Paul's Fish Frozen 4.50 2.25
This is for the small boxes, so not the greatest deal in the world, unless you have good coupons for it, or really like this fish.

Wheat Thins $3.50 1.75

Oscar Meyer Beef Franks 4.19 $4.19 2.10

Pepperidge Farm Goldfish 2.19 1.10
Good deal to stock up on at this price. I have to hide them from the kids and dole out the bags. lol!

Planters 16 ounce glass jar 3.19 1.60
Definitely a good deal to stock up on, expiration date is in 2010 and the glass will keep them fresh. If you can find them unsalted also, they're nice to have on hand for recipes that call for peanuts.

Quaker Chewy Granola Bars $3 1.50
Again, a product with an inflated retail value. $1.50 is not a great deal for these, but they are so good I bought a couple of them. The packaging says 25% less sugar. Opened up the box and found out how they achieved that. Each granola bar is about 1/2 inch shorter than it used to be!

Quaker Oats Oatmeal (old fashioned type, in the canister) 2.65 1.60
With a retail price of 2.65, I expected this to be the large canister, but it's a small one. I had coupons, which made each .75 cents. Good to have on hand to make granola bars and oatmeal cookies, and of course, oatmeal. Also a great thing to donate to the Southeast Gwinnett Cooperative Ministry's food bank.

Snack Factory Pretzel Chips 3.20 1.60

Tombstone Pizza 5.80 2.90
Whenever I can find frozen pizza at price of $3.33 or less, it's a good deal.

V8 Splash Juice 3.11 1.55
I bought the Strawberry-Kiwi flavor. Very good, my 3 year old likes it, too. Keep in mind though, although this product is portrayed as a health food, it does have high fructose corn syrup as one of the main ingredients.

Deals:

Breakstone Sour Cream .99
This is not the dinky container, it's a very large size for .99 cents. Good value. I used a .55 cents off coupon so final price was .44. Can't beat that!

Kraft American Singles $2

Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup 4 Pack 1.99
Only .50 cents per can when you buy the 4 pack. I used a coupon so my final price per can was .30 cents a can.

TGI Friday Appetizers 50% off
Choose from several varieties, the retail on most of these is about 9.00, which is way too high for what these appetizers are. I bought one of the Chicken Quesadillas, because I don't think I could buy the ingredients to make those myself for less than 4.50. They are really good, by the way.

Maybelline Mascara ... the entire line of Maybelline Mascaras are 50% off. I found one with retail of $4.99, so that made it $2.50, then used a $1 off coupon and was able to get it for $1.50.
How is that for a deal?

Ziploc Bags are $2
This is a good value, especially if you want the Quart or Gallon bags. There are usually a lot of Ziploc coupons out there, so look for them before you shop.

Milk Prices Snellville GA

UPDATE July 2010: Price of milk in the SNellville area is generally about $2.08 to $2.28.

Posted in 2008:
The lowest price for milk has consistently been Aldi Foods, located on Scenic Hwy.
They sell a gallon of milk for $2.49.

Kroger and Publix have regularly had milk from $3.19 to $3.39.

Nov 9 - Nov 15, 2008 Kroger Gallon Milk is $3.28

Aldi definitely has some bargains if their location is convenient to you. Keep in mind that you will need to bring your own bags to Aldi, and a quarter to borrow the shopping cart (the quarter is returned to you when you return the cart to the rack). Aldi also does not accept credit cards or checks, so bring Debit card or cash to pay for your purchases. Their prices are low and the products are their own brand, so you can't use coupons there, but you also won't be stuck behind someone like me with a lot of coupons to be scanned! :)

Cccccold Watermelon

I received a great tip today from the lady who works in the Produce section at Publix on Scenic Highway. If you want to buy a cold watermelon instead of a room-temperature one they have on display, just ask them to bring you a cold one from the back! She said they always have many of them refrigerated, because they cut them up for the small serving packages that are displayed cold.

So now you know - if you are heading off to a picnic or something and you want a cold watermelon, just ask. I'm sure that Kroger could also do the same.

I got a big watermelon today, it was $7.99 (might as well say $8, right?) but it's seedless and it's already cold.

Hubs used to like to buy the containers of watermelon already cut up. I did the math and figured out that if you buy your watermelon already processed like that, it's like buying a $22 watermelon! Watermelons are really easy to cut up, and with those handy Rubbermaid or Ziploc containers, you can easily fix your own up to take to work. I usually fix up a couple for Hubs to take to work, and then cut up the rest of it to go into a large family sized Tupperware container, and then we spoon out our 'at-home' watermelon servings from that.

Publix Half Price Deals This Week

The new list of Buy One Get One Free specials from Publix is available. LINK

Besides the BOGO list, which is pretty good this week with 28 items, including selected Post, Kelloggs, and General Mills cereals, Publix also has good deals on California Seedless Grapes (usually 1.49 to 1.99 per pound) for .99 cents. They don't list it on their buy one get one deal, but it is essentially half off the usual price. The Publix sour cream is also on sale for .99 cents, which is pretty good.

A lot of Kellogg's products are in the Buy One Get One sale, and it has been difficult lately to find Kellogg's on sale or with coupons, so I plan to buy a lot of Kellogg products. The Kellogg's products that are on BOGO sale are selected Kellogg's cereals, and Kellogg's Pop Tarts. Eggo Waffles are also on the half price sale. The waffles are good to stock up on, because they are frozen items.

Bags of Snickers, Milky Way, and Twix Miniatures are also on the BOGO sale, with the final price of about $1.60. I always think it would be good to buy ahead for Halloween, but I have to be realistic and know that the bag would probably not last until Halloween. We love chocolate too much around here for that! I like to live in a fantasy world that I can resist chocolate. ;)

Publix BOGO Deals

Just add your coupons for super savings!

PUBLIX:

Lysol Antibacterial Kitchen Cleaner (3 bottles) and Lysol Multi Surface Cleaner (3 bottles) for .35 cents each after buy one get one special and .50 cent coupons that doubled. 6 spray bottles for a total of $2.10 when the retail price for one bottle is $2.79 (16.74 regular retail for 6) is not too shabby! Six for less than the retail price of one.

Orville Reddenbacher Microwave Popcorn in the 6-packs retails $4.39, is one Buy One Get One Free Sale at Publix in Snellville. That makes each box $2.20. There are.40 cent off coupons circulating that will double to .80 cents each, making your final cost $1.40.

Electrasol Powerball Gelpacs are buy one get one free - not sure of the price, I forgot to write it down because they were out of the product. I went to customer service and got a rain check to be able to buy up to 10 at the BOGO sale price. The clerk told me that the rain check is supposed to be good for 10 days, but added that they wouldn't be firm on that, so I could bring it back just whenever and they'd honor it. So this is like a private sale that will last a long time for me. Always ask for a Rain Check when they are out of something. It only took 5 minutes max to get the Rain Check.

My personal goodies

Yesterday I was able to get a box of Post Honey Bunches of Oats cereal for free (Manufacturer coupon I received for sending in 5 coupons from competing cereals) $3.79 retail value.

Three packages of Banquet Chicken Dinner, retails $1.79 each (I had emailed Banquet with complaints about a couple of their products)

I saved $24 with manufacturer coupons.

Want to order coupons? Check this page out.
Need to print some free coupons?
Want to look at the store's sales flyers? Look here.
Need a way to organize coupons for maximum savings? Look here

Be warned, saving money can be addicting!

UPDATE: I returned to Publix and they did have the Electrasol in stock. After my $1.50 off IPC (Internet Printed Coupons) I was able to get two large packages for only $1.20 each.

Publix Printable Coupon for $5 Off

Here is a printable coupon for $5 off a purchase of $35 or more, good through June 24th at Publix stores. Publix Printable Coupon