Our price comparisons and ratings of stores for quality show the results of our market-basket price survey and our most recent surveys of consumers on supermarket quality and service. Here are some key findings— 

The area’s two largest chains—Dominick’s and Jewel-Osco—had higher prices, on average, than most of the other surveyed chains. 

The area’s price standouts were Woodman’s Food, Walmart Supercenter, Food 4 Less, Meijer, and SuperTarget. 

Compared to average prices at Dominick’s and Jewel-Osco, the prices we found were substantially lower at the stores we surveyed for Woodman’s Food (21 percent lower than the Dominick’s/Jewel-Osco average), Walmart Supercenter (19 percent lower), Food 4 Less (15 percent lower), Meijer (13 percent lower), SuperTarget (10 percent lower), Ultra Foods (nine percent lower), Walt’s Food Center (nine percent lower), and Caputo’s Fresh Markets (seven percent lower). For a family that spends $150 per week at the supermarket, this seven-to-21-percent price difference might be expected to total $550 to $1,640 during the course of a year. 

Target’s recent reconfiguration of many area stores to include groceries means more Chicago area shoppers have low-cost supermarket options nearby. 

Target recently reconfigured about 40 area stores to include a basic selection of groceries. But unlike the chain’s SuperTarget locations, these stores don’t carry a full selection of groceries; we’ve found they stock about 60 percent of the items in our market basket, compared to over 75 percent at SuperTarget—so using a regular Target may mean you’ll have to supplement your grocery shopping with visits to conventional supermarkets. 

On average, Jewel-Osco’s prices were about four percent lower than Dominick’s. 

Within the Jewel-Osco and Dominick’s chains, we found relatively little price variation from store to store. 

The Chicago area’s largest chains did not get high ratings for quality. 

On the quality side, in a limited survey of CHECKBOOK’s online subscribers, Jewel-Osco and Dominick’s rated at or near the bottom of the list for “quality of fresh produce,” “quality of meats,” and “overall quality.” We unfortunately received too few ratings for Target, Walmart, or Woodman’s to report scores for these price leaders. Results from our previous surveys of consumers found that, for overall quality, Woodman’s scores were among the highest of all the chains, Target’s overall scores were slightly higher than Dominick’s and Jewel-Osco’s, and Walmart was rated lower than Dominick’s and Jewel-Osco. 

Caputo’s Fresh Markets, Walt’s Food Center, and Woodman’s Food prove that it is possible to get high ratings for quality and still have good prices. 

Caputo’s received high ratings from its customers and Walt’s and Woodman’s have received such high ratings in larger surveys we have done in past years. Caputo’s prices were seven percent lower than the Dominick’s/Jewel-Osco average, Walt’s prices were nine percent lower, and Woodman’s prices were 21 percent lower. 

Trader Joe’s overall ratings from our customer survey were among the highest, yet we found its prices aren’t necessarily higher than the prices at Dominick’s or Jewel-Osco. 

Since the market basket we used for our price survey is largely made up of national-brand products, and because Trader Joe’s offers only its own brands, we couldn’t include it in our standard price comparisons that are based on our standard market basket of items. Instead, we had to shop Trader Joe’s using a special survey. In this survey, we included the same fresh produce, meats, and dairy items as we use in our standard survey. For the national-brand items on our list, we first compared the prices of Trader Joe’s store brands to the prices charged by the conventional supermarkets for the comparable national-brand items in our market basket. Then, for a second comparison, we compared Trader Joe’s prices to those charged by the supermarkets for the least expensive comparable item of any brand (including generic brands) they carried. (When comparing prices, we used per-unit pricing—for example, price per ounce.) 

The table below shows the results of these comparisons. 

• In our comparison of Trader Joe’s prices versus the prices of comparable, national-brand items, we found that Trader Joe’s prices were about seven percent lower than the average of the prices found at Dominick’s and Jewel-Osco. 
• When we compared Trader Joe’s prices to the Dominick’s/Jewel-Osco average, assuming a shopper would buy at Dominick’s or Jewel-Osco the cheapest brand (or generic brand) comparable to each item in our market basket, Trader Joe’s price advantage disappeared; in fact, we found its prices were nine percent higher than the Dominick’s/Jewel-Osco average. (But keep in mind that this second comparison doesn’t take into account product quality, and Trader Joe’s received higher overall ratings from its customers than Dominick’s or Jewel-Osco.) 
• For produce, Trader Joe’s prices for the items it carried were about 33 percent higher than the Dominick’s/Jewel-Osco average. 
• For meat, Trader Joe’s prices were about two percent lower than the Dominick’s/Jewel-Osco average. 

Aldi offers incredibly steep savings. 

We also shopped Aldi, which is actually owned by the same company that operates Trader Joe’s, using the same method we used to compare Trader Joe’s prices. As you can see on the table above, Aldi’s prices were an astounding 46 percent lower than the Dominick’s/Jewel-Osco average for comparable, national-brand items, and 36 percent lower than the big-chain average when we allowed substitution of the cheapest brand available at Dominick’s and Jewel-Osco. But these savings come with a downside: Aldi was rated very poorly by its surveyed customers on many of our questions on quality. On the other hand, it is interesting to see that Aldi did score better than Dominick’s and Jewel-Osco when we asked raters to judge stores on “overall quality.” 

Unfortunately, many Trader Joe’s and Aldi shoppers will have to supplement their trips to those stores with visits to conventional supermarkets. 

The Trader Joe’s store we surveyed had only 39 percent of the items in our market basket in stock when we shopped it, and the Aldi store we surveyed carried only 36 percent of the items. 

Sunset Foods, with four North Shore stores, received the highest ratings for overall quality from its surveyed customers, but the Sunset store we shopped had prices that were 10 percent higher than the Dominick’s/Jewel-Osco average. 

The highest prices among stores we surveyed were found at Whole Foods Market. 

Whole Foods’ prices were 55 percent higher than the average of prices at Dominick’s and Jewel-Osco—for the limited number of comparable items we could find at each chain. On the other hand, Whole Foods consistently gets very high scores from its customers on our surveys on quality of fresh produce and meat, and many of the items we could compare between Whole Foods and the other chains were fresh produce and meat items. (See our article on Buying Organic Food for more discussion of costs of organic food.) 

When shopping stores that offer store brand or generic products, you save by substituting these products for national brands. 

When we allowed the substitution of cheaper generic and store brands for about one-sixth of the items in our price-shopping market basket, the total cost for our market basket dropped by about five to six percent at the Dominick’s and Jewel-Osco stores we surveyed. 

For the items that could be compared, based on unit prices (price per pound, for example), the warehouse stores we surveyed offered dramatic savings. 

The surveyed Sam’s Club store, for example, beat the Dominick’s store we compared it to by a whopping 32 percent. And compared to that Dominick’s store, the savings were about 30 percent at the Costco store we surveyed. 

Since you can’t typically get everything you need at a warehouse store, we looked at the savings you might gain by shopping at both a warehouse store and at a supermarket, assuming you would purchase the lowest cost size available at either place. We found, for example, that by including Costco on your shopping schedule along with a Dominick’s store, you might save about 12 percent compared with shopping at the Dominick’s store alone. 

For more information on how warehouse stores compared on price, go to our section Buying in Bulk: Shopping at Warehouse Stores.