Grilling for Memorial Day, Boise? We visited 4 stores to compare prices

With Memorial Day weekend just ahead and barbecues firing up across town, one thing’s clear: not all grocery carts are created equal.

Whether you’re stocking up on burgers, buns or soda, where you shop could make or break your holiday budget.

To help Treasure Valley consumers, the Idaho Statesman visited four grocery stores on May 22 to find the best prices for some popular Memorial Day barbecue items.

Here’s our shopping list:

• Hamburger buns (8 count)
• Hot dog buns (8 count)
• Hot dogs (8 pack)
• Ground beef (16 oz)
• Lays chips (party size)
• Coke (12 pack)
• Watermelon

Boise grocery stores

First things first, where did we go? We avoided stores that require memberships like Costco or Sam’s Club. We visited Walmart Supercenter, WinCo, Fred Meyer and Albertsons — all in the Boise area. Here’s a map of the places we went:

Which Treasure Valley grocery store had the best prices overall?

It’s important to note that some places had promotions such as buy one, get one but we did our best to just pull the price for an accurate comparison. Additionally, Albertsons priced its watermelon per pound ($.059) as did Winco ($0.58) so we calculated the price using an average of an 8-pound watermelon.

Here’s what we found.

WinCo was the cheapest option at $32.82, followed by Walmart Supercenter ($38.11), Albertsons ($38.46) and Fred Meyer ($44.43). If you’re more of a compare-by-item consumer, we’ve added a table down below.

This story was originally published May 23, 2025 at 4:00 AM.