ALDI. There are certain things I grab at Dollar Tree and a few things we have to throw on a Walmart or Kroger list since ALDI doesn't have as big of a selection.
Mostly Kroger and Costco
I usually shop at aldi, but if I can't be awake during Aldi's store hours sometimes I go to foodlion or Walmart(🥲)
I'm broke as shit and don't wanna support companies that treat their employees like garbage, but sometimes my sleep disorder makes aldi a non-option, and foodlion is more expensive than aldi or Walmart
Sometimes I go to Hmart, my local asian grocer, or other regular grocery stores if I'm looking for something specific. The instacart app is super helpful for browsing what items different places carry
At a local-ish chain called Tops, mostly. I live in Upstate New York if anyone wants to look them up. Pretty standard grocery with decent daily prices, and they still run weekly deals and coupons in the paper like most places used to do about 20 years ago. Even with my dietary restrictions, I can get most of my groceries there for a decent price.
Anything I don't get there, I get at the other local brand called Wegmans. They are pricey, but have more specialty food, partnerships with local farms for really good seasonal produce, and some items that they have made for their own name-brand that are cheaper than the big name alternative.
I also make it a point to stop at farmers markets and the like throughout the year. Most of them have partnered with programs that allow you to use, and even double, your food stamps/EBT (I don't use it but give rides to friends who do), and getting to connect with the local farmers is always nice.
Wegmans is awesome, their pharmacy is especially. Sometimes they drop things off the shelves I want and have to go to a different location for, but they are things I can stock up on if needed. I admit I haven't really gone to Tops much, though the Millennium games in the same plaza is neat. Public Market is a treasure, especially for the EBT part. Lot of local produce for cheap and the selection of goods overall is impressive to someone who grew up with Walmart.
Their pharmacy has been hit and miss for me, and I ultimately had to stop going there because they allowed their pharmacists to refuse to fill a script if they had a "moral objection". This resulted in my usual location having their pharmacist refuse to fill my HRT script. That was years ago though, so they may have changed that?
Oh man I love Wegmans!
I went to college in Western New York and I miss Wegmans so much. SUCH a great chain. Between Wegmans, Tops, and Aldi you can find anything.
Publix. They're in that middle bracket where I can still afford to shop there and yet they also seem to pay their employees a living wage.
Mix of Von’s, Trader Joe’s, Sprouts, and Aldi
Also my garden supplies an ever increasing supply of vegetables fruits and herbs to the point where besides winter I don’t really buy much of those
I also go to a little bakery close by every weekend
Mostly at Aldi, but I get about half my produce from farmstands and farmers' markets in season.
Most of my herbs and bread come from the neighborhood mutual aid group; a couple of neighbors have waaay more basil and mint than the could ever use, and are happy to trade for used kids' clothes, light carpentry work, and having my burly ass more furniture for them.
safeway
I do the bulk of my shopping at Aldi, but I don't like their versions of certain products, so those I get at Giant. For example, Aldi's chicken breasts seen to either include rib meat or be pumped full of too much extra saline, so I definitely get my chicken at Giant.
Aldi. Walmart. Giant eagle.
Mostly Publix. Somethings I buy at Kroger because either Publix does not carry them or Kroger has a better sale. Walmart Neighborhood Market for quick trips.
When we live on post, always the Commissary when we live off-post the closest decent grocery store. Currently that is a HyVee.
I get most of my produce, seafood, and various Asian ingredients from a couple of local Vietnamese grocery stores.
I get my American products and general stuff like dish detergent mostly at Safeway (though I'm now switching to QFC because my local Safeway got rid of the shopping baskets and I don't like to use carts).
I get my Japanese food from a local chain called Uwajimaya.
I get non-seafood meat from any of the above.
I go to a lot of stores....
There's a supermarket I walk to most of the time. There's a food co-op I also go to sometimes, but it's a little farther and pricier. There's another grocery store I'd go to sometimes when I was dating someone who lived closer to it. And rarely I'll get something from some of the other little markets along one of the main streets.
Walkable, healthy, neighborhoods are great. This isn't even a super expensive area.
Mostly sprouts. Also Kroger or Albertsons and Costco. I'd like to start using HEB more. Peppers, tomatoes, herbs, etc grown at home in season.
Winco, Uwajimaya, Fred Meyer.
Wish I could shop at one place instead of all three, but they all have different things.
It’ll be a cold day in hell when Winco decides to sell loose-leaf genmaicha and Uwajimaya sells freezer burritos.
Trader Joe’s and wal~mart. But definitely noticed that somehow Walmart is 30% more expensive than Trader Joe’s. So more and more of my shopping is going to TJ. Between the food at Trader Joe’s being better, costing less, and not feeling as gross, i question why i even need the brand name snacks.
Mostly MarketBasket or Costco. Occasionally Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, or Hannaford
HEB, sams club, sprouts, trader joe's, Walmart, in descending order of frequency.
Chinese and Indian grocery stores for some specific items.
King Soopers, Costco, and for special dishes that need harder to find ingredients, whole foods.
When they are in season, farmer's markets. There's a few in my area.
Once a year I go in on local beef with some friends and get about 50lbs of different cuts. I try to limit my consumption of store bought beef.
There are only two choices in my town, Walmart or the local chain (I think they have 3 total locations within the state), we shop exclusively at the local chain. There are a few vegetarian items only sold at Walmart and that is about all we go there to get.
Europe or Australia in particular, if I'm chasing pristine quality.
A standard supermarket about a mile away. Because it is across a stroad it's not super convenient to walk or ride, so we usually drive. Plus we tend to buy once a week so the load often is too big for our bikes.
Grocery Outlet, Costco, Trader Joe's, and Stater Bros in that order. GO and SB are the only ones in town (except a Safeway, but they have almost the exact same stuff as Staters but 10% more expensive for no reason), Costco and TJ are about an hour away.
75% HEB, 25% Kroger
Hy-Vee, Aldi, or the Natural Grocer, depending on my grocery budget for the week
...almost exclusively from sprouts, supplemented with occasional trips to target or HEB when we need paper products...
My family is two adults, three cats, and two dogs.
I get dinners from hello fresh. Meats from the local butcher. Produce and dry goods from both stater bros grocery and sprouts grocery. If I make it early enough on the weekends in spring and summer I try to go to the farmers market for produce.
I work in food service too and bring home a lot of samples, so those end up in my pantry when we can't finish them at work.
Primarily Aldi but occasionally Kroger for things Aldi doesn't have or if I'm too late for their hours.
WINCO for most shit, fancy local chain for luxuries. One specific Lucky's, their meat counter has the best deli bacon of the grocery stores locally.
You mean get my groceries right? Do makes no sense in this context and so I'm left to guess what you mean. I cook them in my kitchen but I supose most people do. I eat the mostly inithe dinning room. But I never do groceries.
In the butt
Wait, what were we talking about?
Bad jokes out of the way, it's a mix.
80% is from pretty much the last locally owned store in the tri county area. That's all the staples, plus in season produce.
In reasonable driving range we have an aldis, though it's the furthest out, so it's kind of those things where we only go there when we're already going to be in the area.
The closest chain is kinda unique in the area, and would peg my location too close for comfort, but that's where we go for more specialized products.
However, I source a good bit of our meats (damn near all of it tbh), dairy, and some produce from friends, family, or locals that sell to individuals rather than only to big buyers. Some of that is available at the farmer's market, but the meats and dairy aren't. My cousin runs a dairy. So there's some beef here and there that's raised well and treated as kindly as it gets before slaughter. Milk from his cows is amazing.
We have a pet chicken that keeps us in eggs unless we're doing something big, but the son of one of my old patients raises chickens for both meat and eggs. Actual free range, though they do have an electric fence and such to minimize predators. The chickens aren't as big as what you find in stores, but holy crap is it worth it. The price is a little higher, but not out of reach, and he'll cut a deal for bulk purchases. He'll cut a better deal if you turn a hand when it comes time to process, but I'm too busted up for that nowadays. The eggs are bomb. Until we got a pet chicken, I'd never had better.
Pork is more hit or miss. There's a couple folks that raise them, but they don't always sell to individuals. So we don't eat much pork. I can usually get bacon, country ham, livermush, and sausages, but not the usual cuts like loins and hams. When they do sell to individuals, the line is long for those because it's a good bit cheaper than stores. The processed stuff costs about the same, but it's yummier. Luckily, people sleep on it, so I can usually call up and have something along those lines from someone.
I can also get goat products. Mostly milk and cheese, though they do slaughter a beef goat now and then. I freaking love goat cheese.
I don't think I've bought any beef or chicken from a store in maybe three years? Last time was when we were doing a backyard get together and my cousin couldn't hook me up. I think it was longer than that for chicken. Eggs are even longer ago than that. I've been getting eggs from that guy since before his dad died, and the last time I couldn't get enough from him was maybe a decade ago. Not that any of that is really on topic, but I thought it might be an extra look at the benefits of being in bumfug nowhere.
