Grocery shopping can be a chore for some and a break for others. But it’s something that needs to get done routinely for everyone.
Whether you love it or loathe it — the experience can come down to two things, location and prices. So we checked out both.
To help Treasure Valley consumers, the Idaho Statesman visited four grocery stores on June 11 to find the best prices for some common grocery list items.
Here’s our 25-item shopping list:
Boneless skinless chicken breasts (per pound)
Ground beef 80/20 (per pound)
Dozen eggs, large
Whole milk
Cheddar cheese block (8 ounces)
Rotisserie chicken
Apples (gala)
Bananas
Baby carrots (1 pound)
Bagged salad mix
White rice (2-pound bag)
Spaghetti
Canned black beans
Canned diced tomatoes
Peanut butter (Jif)
Breakfast cereal (Cheerios)
Oatmeal (Quaker, 42 ounces)
White sandwich bread
Frozen mixed vegetables
Frozen pizza (Red Baron)
Frozen chicken nuggets (Tyson)
Toilet paper (6 count)
Paper towels (12 count)
Butter (1 pound)
Crates of fresh fruit and apples inside a grocery store. Valerii Apetroaiei Getty Images/iStockphoto
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.
The interior of a grocery store. Tom Werner Getty Images
So which Treasure Valley grocery store had the best prices overall?
It’s important to note that some places had promotions or sales but we did our best to just pull the price for an accurate comparison. The following prices do not include tax.
Overall, Winco had the cheapest prices for the entire list at $74.78, followed by Walmart at $80.13. Third place was Albertsons at $93.13 and fourth was Fred Meyer at the most expensive with $100.88. If you’re more of a compare-by-item consumer, we’ve added a table down below.
