to wegmans or not to wegmans....

VS.

I decided to do an experiment. I am no scientist and I know that my experiment probably has some inconsistencies and maybe even some errors. But here we go.

Our family grocery shops at our Thorndale Giant. We even go to the same checkout lady, Miss Debbie. She has watched Eli grow up for 3 years, lets him bag groceries and gives him gifts for holidays. We love Giant, but there are some things we don't like. It isn't the cleanest establishment, especially the bathrooms. It also doesn't have the best looking fruits and vegetables. Many times there are lines that can be quite long. And most importantly, at least to my two children, their car carts are broken and dirty. But since it was the cheapest in the area, we shopped there, got used to the shortcomings, but loved Miss Debbie and seeing other Coatesville friends. :)

I have been to the almighty Wegmans before and can I just say I feel like a rich person in that place? The bathrooms?? Spotless, have toilet seat wipes and are just beautiful. You may think "who uses the bathroom at grocery stores?"...if you have children, you know that is important. There is a full-on buffet restaurant in there that offers Chinese, pizza, subs, sushi, coffee (ah, my love) and more! Check out lanes?? A million. And the tellers stand at the entrance and are apparently trained to usher people to use their lines whenever anyone is waiting. Basically, this place is pampering and who doesn't like pampering?

But having shopped there, I felt that it has to be more expensive than any other place in the area. You don't get that treatment at a discount store. However, friends of mine would swear that Wegmans has great prices and is as cheap if not cheaper than Giant. Of course I scoffed....however it got me thinking.

I made a list of a sample of staples that we shop for each week when we trek to the store. This list isn't all of our weekly staples, but I thought it would make for a good comparison. So I went to Wegmans and wrote down their prices for each item. Then I went to Giant and wrote down their prices for each item. Then I compared them and here is what I came up with.

Basically, Wegmans would have been only $0.02 more than Giant (Wegmans: $57.57 and Giant: $57.55). The calculations were based on the sale price that week although I did provide the regular price as well. Again, this is just a sample of things we purchase each week and meats and more expensive items may vary. Overall, Wegmans did have more items that were less expensive than Giant, however there were just as many that were the same price for both stores as well.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments section.