Lidl also has an award-winning wine department that has won more than industry awards. Most of the stores offer about 80 wines at any given time. When shopping at Lidl be sure to bring your own bags, otherwise you'll have to pay for them or go without.

Save-A-Lot keeps their prices low by selling only the most purchased items and selling their own brands. In the words of Save-A-Lot communications manager Dan Kimack: "We carry one size and one variety of each item.

If it's a can of whole-kernel corn, it's going to be one size and one variety — and it's going to be the most popular size and variety. Price Rite Marketplace is a chain of supermarkets found in Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island.

Owned by the same corporation that owns Shop Rite stores, Price Rite is a limited-assortment, deep-discount supermarket meant to compete with no-frills grocery stores such as Aldi, Lidl, and Save-a-Lot.

The older Price Rite stores don't have the service departments found in most conventional modern supermarkets, such as Deli, Bakery, Meat, and Seafood — these departments are replaced by pre-packaged offerings prepared at centralized facilities which reduces costs.

Walmart is the largest food retailer in the US, with over 3, supercenters across the country. You'll find the best deals on items sold under its Great Value brand, name brand cereals and snacks, frozen produce, paper goods, pantry staples, toiletries, laundry detergents and cleaning supplies.

According to Consumer Reports, Walmart consistently ranks toward the bottom of their listing of supermarket chains in terms of the quality of fresh foods and vegetables, meats, store-prepared foods and baked goods.

Marc's Stores is a discount drugstore and grocery chain with stores in northern and central Ohio. Marc's targets the value conscious family shopper. Marc's closeouts is one of the store's most popular departments and features the best buys that Marc's buyers can find worldwide.

The chain has over 60 stores in the Cleveland, Akron, Canton, Youngstown, Columbus, and Dayton areas. SAVE MONEY. SAVE FOOD. SAVE EARTH. US Map Page Find a Salvage Grocery Store Near You. SAVE MONEY SAVE FOOD.

Save Money. Save Food. Save Earth. Cheapest Grocery Stores If You Don't Have A Salvage Grocery Store Near You. Unfortunately, there aren't that many salvage grocery stores around and most of us don't have one within a reasonable driving distance. See if there's a salvage grocery store near you.

BIG SAVINGS ON GROCERY ITEMS AT DOLLAR TREE. SHOP NOW. SAVE THE FOOD Learn how you can save water, fuel, labor and money by wasting less food. If it's rare ingredients and gourmet goods you're after, these are the best places to buy specialty items online. For budget basics and staples at affordable prices, look below for the full breakdown of Walmart, Target and Amazon Fresh to find the absolute cheapest groceries online.

Walmart is well-known for having some of the lowest prices of any national retail chain. In this analysis of the cheapest online grocery delivery operations, its budget-friendly reputation held up.

Many of Walmart's cheapest items come courtesy of its in-house brand, Great Value. To find the cost of buying groceries online at these three retailers, I first generated a list of 37 popular grocery items -- some name brands, some generic -- on the same day and in every grocery category including bread, snacks, dairy, produce, meat, fish, beverages and pantry staples.

I mostly avoided specialty items and organic ingredients for this exercise. For each product, I chose the cheapest available option from all three retailers: Amazon Fresh, Target and Walmart. If an item wasn't available at one retailer, I selected the next closest thing, since that's what a shopper would likely do.

In some cases, a product was only available in a larger or smaller size. In those instances, I prorated the amount and price to ensure it was an even cost comparison. While there are other places to order groceries online , Amazon Fresh, Target via Shipt and Walmart are three of the most popular US grocers with a national presence and the option for online delivery.

You'll also get Amazon Prime Video and a few other perks. As of Feb. All three offer free in-store pickup in some form, although Amazon has fewer locations than Walmart and Target.

Target-owned Shipt will send groceries to your door in a matter of hours but there are some staples, including meat, not available for delivery.

While I tried to use only items that were available for delivery, it wasn't always possible. Target and its national shipping partner Shipt don't have every grocery staple available for shipping, particularly fresh meats and some produce.

If you want to shop for your full list of groceries at Target, you're likely going to have to visit a brick-and-mortar location. In general, Walmart and Target offer the same prices online as they do in brick-and-mortar locations, but not always.

Sales items, in particular, are not always coordinated between online and in-store. Amazon Fresh is mostly online-only save for a few locations, although many products on Amazon Fresh can also be found at Whole Foods.

Hungryroot is a cross between a grocery delivery service and meal kit company and encourages you to go rogue from the recipe. Instacart is a popular national delivery service and functions as a third-party shopper and delivery outfit that allows you to order groceries from a selection of local supermarkets.

Fresh Direct is another popular grocery delivery service and one of my favorites. It's currently only available in the Northeast.

The prices here are a bit higher than the three retailers I analyzed above, but the grocery selection and customer service are both excellent.

Lidl. Andriy Blokhin / Shutterstock Trader Joe's. Shutterstock Market Basket. QualityHD / Shutterstock

Affordable grocery deals - WinCo Foods. Shutterstock Lidl. Andriy Blokhin / Shutterstock Trader Joe's. Shutterstock Market Basket. QualityHD / Shutterstock

Otherwise, keep reading below. Note: This is my fourth update in five years. I did this price comparison in for the first time, and updated it in and then again in With the rapidly increasing inflation, I did a complete update in April to help us all save money on our groceries. I looked at the stores that had the biggest reach.

Walmart is national chain that boosts low prices. Is Walmart really the lowest? Aldi claims to beat Walmart but do they really? Meijer and Kroger are considered higher end grocery stores, but they have a large reach with great sales.

I left those stores out of this comparison because I wanted a true comparison. For the sake of this research, Walmart, Aldi, Meijer and Kroger were the four stores I chose to compare. I started by making a list of the most common grocery items any household would use.

Then, I added some more specific items that our family uses regularly. Finally, I asked the Joyfully Thriving Facebook page for their feedback and got a lot of great requests for items to add to the list.

I wanted a fair representation of various areas of the grocery store so I focused on 10 different shopping categories. The categories I used were:. I came up with a list of items in 10 categories that I compared at all 4 stores.

I made a huge spreadsheet with all the grocery items and then I began comparing prices at the stores. Next, I went through the store and wrote down prices for everything on my list.

I also used the store apps to check some prices. Some products were name-brand specific but many were simply for the cheapest generic version of whatever store brands that particular store carried available.

I did not include fresh produce in this price comparison since it varies so much by season. I compared ounces to ounces. If a size was different than what was listed, I noted that on the price comparison, and chose the lowest price per ounce option as the cheapest price.

I tried to stick to the same sizes as much as I was able. For the sake of true comparison, I used everyday prices and did not factor sales into this list. I simply wanted to know who had the lower prices. Please know that prices vary in different parts of the country.

These prices are Northern Indiana prices as of April Wherever you live, I still believe you can use these results to help you save money on your grocery bill. After multiple store shopping trips and researching through various store apps, my list was finally done.

Once I found the price totals, I went through and started comparing price to see which was the cheapest grocery store. First, I went through and highlighted the absolute lowest price for every item.

If there was a store that tied on the price, both those stores were highlighted. As I was comparing results, I realized that several stores were within pennies of each other. If you were already shopping at one store, it makes sense to pick up other items that are still a good deal.

Keeping that in mind, I went back through the lists and highlighted every price that was within 5 cents of the lowest price. This gave them a mark for the second lowest price. There were a couple times when stores had the exact same price so multiple stores counted as the lowest price.

There were also several times when multiple stores had the second lowest price, coming in close to the lowest. I counted them all, which is why it might not appear to perfectly add up. If you are a number geek like I am, then it should all make sense!

Finally, I tallied up the totals — both in numbers and percentages out of Here is what I found. You can clearly see that Aldi has the most lowest prices and Kroger has the least.

There are a few categories where all 4 stores have prices within a nickel, but only a few. Aldi had the lowest prices on two-thirds of the items on my master comparison list. That is a lot! Years ago, Meijer used to be my go-to store to stock up at everything at a low price — but not anymore!

I was truly surprised by how few of the lowest prices Meijer had. Meijer really does not have the best deals on very many things at all. Aldi was the cheapest in almost a third of the categories.

What I found interesting was that they had the lowest prices on over items but the second lowest on only Also, since Aldi does not carry everything, there were several items on the list that could not be compared at Aldi.

As for Walmart? Walmart is giving Aldi a run for their money. Many of the times when Aldi had the lowest price, Walmart was pennies behind. The advantage to Walmart is that they have everything that Aldi does not.

To some people, this is worth paying a couple more cents on items to not have to go to a different store. Kroger is definitely the most expensive if you shop without sales!

This chart does not take sales into account so it is difficult to see that represented. Kroger also has gas rewards and more digital coupons, both of which Aldi and Walmart do not.

That definitely is worth considering when you are comparing prices. If you are going by the everyday low prices at the store, the clear winner to the cheapest grocery store in is Aldi. Walmart is a runner up, with Meijer and Kroger trailing behind.

Walmart is probably the cheapest grocery store available nationwide with overall low grocery prices. I say probably, because Walmart does not have sales, so that is a factor because sale shopping can save you a lot of money on groceries.

To find the cheapest grocery store near you, do your own quick price comparison at your local grocery stores. Here is how you can do this project in less than an hour. Start by making a list of 20 to 25 items you buy on a regular basis.

Trust me. Pick the top 2 dozen items you use every week and start there. Then, make a list of the grocery stores nearest to you. Maybe you will be surprised by your findings!

Next, take your list and price those 25 products at your local grocery store and the grocery chains nearest you.

Quick tip. Many grocery stores now have great websites or apps where you can view the prices from the comfort of your own home. For Aldi, unfortunately, you have to venture into the store to see the actual prices.

Aldi uses Instacart to fulfill online orders so prices online are slightly higher than in store. If you want a true price comparison, go in person to Aldi to compare prices. Once you have compared prices at your closest stores, hopefully it will be clear who has the cheapest groceries near you.

I did it in , and While prices have definitely increased in the past year, Aldi is still the winner as it was back in Here are the results. I did the original research in when Walmart was the cheapest. This is a huge difference from what we see now!

What can we take away from this? It is important to continually monitor prices because they do change. I will always go where the prices are lowest to get the best value for my every dollar in my grocery budget.

That is why I am shopping at Aldi more. Remember, these price comparisons do not factor in sales. Shopping at different grocery stores to take advantage of sales is a great way to save money.

At the same time, with gas prices increasing as much as they are, we need to be smart shoppers. Gone are the days of running to one store just because.

We need to combine errands and be wise about how we shop. For me, I shop the amazing sales at Kroger because their sale prices usually beat the every day low price at Aldi and Walmart. Then, I do a stock up trip once or twice a month at Aldi where prices are the lowest to fill in the gaps.

This is what it currently looks like for me, but I am constantly reevaluating to be a smart shopper. After this price comparison, I have a list of what I should buy at Aldi and what items I should buy elsewhere.

I also used these prices to create a stock-up list of the best prices for each item — so you can watch for sales at any store to beat those every day prices. That list is included in my printable grocery ebook.

See below for more on that. If you are going to mainly shop at one store — make Aldi your go-to grocery store. But if you really want to save money? Start shopping at more than one store. Knowing the cheap prices on the staples you buy, allows you to stock up your pantry staples, knowing these are the lowest food costs available.

The best way to use this information is to combine every day cheap food items with great sale purchases. Stacking every day low prices with amazing sales is a great way to stretch your food budget. My plan? I plan to grocery shop at Aldi more regularly, stocking up on their cheap groceries, and supplement with sales at Kroger.

I will occasionally shop the meat sales especially ground beef! at Meijer. Walmart will still be my go to when I need a low price pick-up because their prices are close to Aldi on quite a few things.

I will shop where the prices are the lowest to save me money. Fortunately, I have all these stores very close to me, allowing me to take advantage of the different deals. I will also be using the store apps more regularly to check prices.

That is incredibly helpful and convenient! I compiled way too much information to share in one blog post. This blog post is already quite long, but there is still more I could share. If you want a copy of all my charts with prices and statistics, you are welcome to it!

I compiled all my research into a 51 page printable PDF ebook — with lots of detailed lists! If an item wasn't available at one retailer, I selected the next closest thing, since that's what a shopper would likely do.

In some cases, a product was only available in a larger or smaller size. In those instances, I prorated the amount and price to ensure it was an even cost comparison. While there are other places to order groceries online , Amazon Fresh, Target via Shipt and Walmart are three of the most popular US grocers with a national presence and the option for online delivery.

You'll also get Amazon Prime Video and a few other perks. As of Feb. All three offer free in-store pickup in some form, although Amazon has fewer locations than Walmart and Target. Target-owned Shipt will send groceries to your door in a matter of hours but there are some staples, including meat, not available for delivery.

While I tried to use only items that were available for delivery, it wasn't always possible. Target and its national shipping partner Shipt don't have every grocery staple available for shipping, particularly fresh meats and some produce. If you want to shop for your full list of groceries at Target, you're likely going to have to visit a brick-and-mortar location.

In general, Walmart and Target offer the same prices online as they do in brick-and-mortar locations, but not always. Sales items, in particular, are not always coordinated between online and in-store. Amazon Fresh is mostly online-only save for a few locations, although many products on Amazon Fresh can also be found at Whole Foods.

Hungryroot is a cross between a grocery delivery service and meal kit company and encourages you to go rogue from the recipe. Instacart is a popular national delivery service and functions as a third-party shopper and delivery outfit that allows you to order groceries from a selection of local supermarkets.

Fresh Direct is another popular grocery delivery service and one of my favorites. It's currently only available in the Northeast. The prices here are a bit higher than the three retailers I analyzed above, but the grocery selection and customer service are both excellent.

Hungryroot is a quirky grocery delivery operation that functions differently than the others. With a subscription, you'll get weekly deliveries of curated groceries based on your preferences and eating habits.

Hungryroot also populates recipe ideas when ordering and will send you the ingredients to make them if you so choose. Thrive Market is yet another members-only grocery service. Thrive has lots of high-quality and organic meats but no produce or dairy products. com is a good place to find dry goods, pantry items and paper products at low prices but it's not a full substitute for a grocery store since it lacks the fresh foods you would typically buy at a market.

If you don't mind getting your various groceries from different vendors, we've tested to find the best produce delivery services , best meat delivery services and even the best online fish and seafood markets for Why You Can Trust CNET.

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