 Re: Convince me to try Save-a-Lot!
I think Save a lots vary a lot from store to store. It is my nearest grocery store and is owned by the owners of the other grocery store in town. They have basically the same meat and it's fine. They also get a lot of name brand items and specialty cheeses, etc., that I think come from the other store. In this town (southern Illinois), they are building a new Walmart SS, so about a year ago, the owners began renovating Save a Lot. (I think they realize the IGA can't compete with WM, but the SAL can.) It is now much cleaner, doesn't smell bad, and has more name brand items. I stop in occasionally, with the price of gas, I should go more often.
BTW, do you know why SAL's smell so bad? My brother has worked in grocery stores for over 30 years and told me why. SAL's tend to be in old grocery stores, bought when other grocery chains built newer bigger stores. Anyway, in the old grocery stores they used to cut their own meat from hanging beef,etc. The smell of the meat (i.e. blood) gets into the concrete floors, floor drains,etc., and it is almost impossible to get it out. I know it doesn't make the smell any better, but knowing it is not from current bad stuff somehow made it easier for me to take!
The reason SAL has such limited variety is that is their business model! They carry fewer items and therefore can have lower prices. Again, according to my brother, the selection in grocery stores has exploded in the last 30 years. That results in much more labor to order the right things, keep them stocked and rotated, mark down what's not moving, get rid of excess, etc. The fewer items makes it easier, i.e. less expensive, for the store.
Jimmy Dean sausage is always $1.99 a pound.
Butter is almost always $1.99 a pound.
Shredded cheese is $1.49 for 8 ounces.
Canned tomatoes, tomato sauce, etc. is $.49.
Canned vegetables $.39
Canned soups $.49
These prices may have changed, I haven't been there much lately. Still, before couponing, I saved a lot of money at Save a Lot. If I run out of coupons or miss the deals, SAL is still my best bet. If I run out of something that SAL carries and it's not on sale elsewhere, I go there rather than WM or the other grocery stores.
When we lived on a very tight budget for a couple of years, we did 95% of our shopping at SAL. (That was before I knew about Qponing). They have some generic health and beauty items as well as paper towels, toilet paper, etc. When we shopped there, we limited ourselves to eating what we could get at SAL. There were very few things we would go to another store to get (i.e. coffee, I can't handle generic coffee!). It wasn't so bad, my kids didn't complain and my dh, who is rather picky about food quality, devised recipes to use the things we could get at SAL. (Our favorite was a ground beef vegetable soup that used canned mixed vegetables, which I would NOT have eaten any other way.)
Again, given my choice, I prefer the selection and quality of foods I get with coupons. But, I am glad SAL is there to provide an alternative to Super W/M in our town! | 
...(free is good.... say it out loud)...
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