Who has not stood in the supermarket checkout line looking at a week`s worth of groceries, anticipating the bill, wondering, ”Am I getting the best deal in this store? Would my dollars go further elsewhere?”
The ads say, ”Shop and compare,” but who has the time to visit half a dozen supermarkets on the chance of saving $2 or $3?
A recent Tribune survey may help. Members of The Tribune food staff visited 30 Chicago area supermarkets in Du Page, Cook and Lake counties with a shopping list of 43 commonly purchased items during a four-day period, Sept. 13 to 16.
What they found scotched some rumors, such as city stores charge more than suburban stores, and confirmed others, such as different stores in the same chain charge widely different prices. And though the results are by no means conclusive, they provide for interesting comparisons. (For the price chart and survey details, see page 4.)
Specifically, for the 30 supermarkets visited, we found that:
– The Butera supermarket at 4608 W. Belmont Ave. came in with the lowest total, $84.58, and the Omni store at 2550 N. Clybourn Ave. was close with $85.07. There was a spread of about 25 percent between the most expensive-Sunset Foods in Highland Park ($106.20), an upscale North Shore market with excellent service and beautiful decor-and the Belmont Avenue Butera, a basic urban grocery in a Northwest Side Chicago neighborhood.
– The stores on the North Shore had slightly higher prices than those in Du Page County and significantly higher than those in the south suburbs of Homewood and Hazel Crest, even within the same chains.
– Some stores located in the city had higher prices than those in the suburbs and some offered lower prices. The city included the second highest priced store (Dominick`s at 3012 N. Broadway, $105.72) and the lowest priced store (Belmont Butera).
– There could be a wide range of prices among stores from the same chain: the six Dominick`s stores we visited showed a variance of 12 percent while Cub`s was 7 percent, Jewel 6 percent and Eagle and Treasure Island just more than 4 percent.
– The supermarket pricing structure is so intricate that despite checking almost 1,300 individual items, no store was consistently higher or lower than the others. In each store there were products that represented a savings and those that cost more than the competition, so that depending on what you bought, you could come out spending more or less than at other stores.
Warehouse stores low
Not surprisingly, the warehouse-style stores that aggressively trumpet low prices (Cub, Auchan and Omni) were among the least expensive in the survey, but the two Butera stores that were checked also came in low. (The Omni Superstore, which is owned by Dominick`s but which, like Cub, requires shoppers to bag their own groceries, was almost 11 percent cheaper than the lowest priced regular Dominick`s supermarket.)
In analyzing the results, we found that prices in the city and suburbs are not that much different. The most expensive Jewel store in our survey, for instance, was in Highland Park and the cheapest was in the city. With Dominick`s, the highest prices were at a city store and the lowest in Hazel Crest. Cub`s Burbank store ($92.18) was much higher than its Downers Grove facility ($86.08), with the city Elston Avenue store in the middle ($90.19). Treasure Island`s Broadway city store ($99.99) was 4 percent higher than the company`s Glenview supermarket ($95.82).
Comparing the North Shore stores (Sunset, $106.20; Jewel, $100.69;
Dominick`s, $99.58, and Treasure Island, $95.82), all are at the top of the survey range, while the cluster of south suburban stores (Dominick`s in Hazel Crest, $94.30; Eagle in Hazel Crest, $91.43, and Walt`s in Homewood, $88.58)
tend to be lower. The Naperville stores (Dominick`s, $98.13; Jewel, $96.48;
and Eagle, $92.68) are somewhat in the middle and the Bridgeview/Burbank group (Cub, $92.18; Eagle, $89.86; and Auchan, $88.13) tend toward the low end.
The largest price spread within a chain was the 12-percent difference found in the six Dominick`s stores surveyed. The second most expensive store in the survey, the Dominick`s at 3012 N. Broadway, totaled $105.72 compared to the 17th, a Dominick`s at 3330 W. 183d St. in south suburban Hazel Crest, with $94.30.
On the other hand, Jewel, with a range of 6 percent in the six stores surveyed, went from a high of $100.69 in the Highland Park Jewel at 799 Central Ave. to a low of $94.92 at the new Jewel store at 443 E. 34th St. on Chicago`s South Side.
Competitive environment
A Dominick`s spokesman explained that all prices for the 98 Dominick`s supermarkets are established at the corporate level and are based on three factors. ”First,” he said, ”there is the base cost of the item to the chain. Next, the cost of the operation of individual stores may vary and some of that could be reflected in the price. And thirdly, the competitive environment, the location of the store in relation to other supermarkets, also is a determining factor in how items are priced.”
A Jewel spokeswoman`s explanation was similar, saying that Jewel tries to have competitive prices with other stores in an individual store`s so-called ”trading area.”
Of all of the shopping list items priced, the most volatile were the pork loin chops. Because this had a significant effect on the total marketbasket price, we also compared prices without the pork. Surprisingly, when we eliminated the pork we found a cluster of lower-priced stores within $3 of one another (Auchan, $78.29; Butera/Belmont, $78.91; Omni, $80.03;
Walt`s/Homewood, $80.44; Butera/Evergreen Park, $80.78; Cub/Elston, $80.95, and Walt`s/Tinley Park, $81.11). A list of different products might well rearrange the order of these stores.
The retail grocery business is very competitive, experts say, and price is a primary factor in where people shop. That is why there are so many sales, prominent prices in newspaper ads, in-store coupons and other promotions. The more complicated the weight and pricing system, the more difficult it is to determine what gives you the most for your money, as many shoppers toting pocket calculators to the store will attest. For instance is it cheaper to buy 4 pounds of oranges for $2.49 or a dozen for $2.69? You`ve got to weigh them to compare.
More than just price
Whether onions are 10 cents less a pound in one store certainly is important, especially when the economy seems to be approaching a recession. But other factors also determine where one chooses to shop-service, convenience, cleanliness, quality of fresh produce and meat, diversity of merchandise, friendliness of store personnel and other amenities.
The task of finding the most appropriate supermarket is one which only can be determined by the needs of the individual shopper. Certainly a North Shore shopper is not going to drive down to Butera in the city just to save a few dollars. Sunset Foods may be higher priced but customers report it has excellent service and a selection of specialized merchandise as do some of the other stores whose prices tend to be higher.
On the other hand, competition is the name of the game, and those with automobiles might find it just as easy to drive two blocks in one direction as in another to save a little. In the south suburbs of Homewood and Hazel Crest, for instance, our shoppers found strong price competition between the closely located Jewel, Dominick`s, Eagle and Walt`s, a small chain which prides itself on friendly service and well arranged stores.
The chart may be helpful to shoppers depending on their particular situations, so we have included all the prices. Competition between stores may bring confusion to the supermarket patrons but it also insures that prices stay within reason, and for that shoppers can be thankful. –
Supermarket rank by price
Following is a list of the supermarkets surveyed, ranked by price with the costliest first:
1. Sunset, 1812 Greenbay Rd., Highland Park $106.20
2. Dominicks, 3012 N. Broadway $105.72
3. Jewel, 799 Central Ave., Highland Park $100.69
4. Treasure Island, 3460 N. Broadway $99.99
5. Jewel, 3531 N. Broadway $99.83
6. Dominicks, 227 Skokie Hwy., Highland Park $99.58
7. Chipains, 8821 W. 87th St., Hickory Hills $99.28
8. Dominicks, 7000 S. Pulaski Ave. $98.77
9. Dominicks, 1295 E. Ogden Ave., Naperville $98.13
10. Dominicks, 3145 S. Ashland Ave. $97.63
11. Jewel, 117 E. Ogden Ave., Naperville $96.48
12. Jewel, 2128 Mannheim Rd., Westchester $96.32
13. Bockwinkels, 750 W. Northwest Hwy. Barrington $95.99
14. Treasure Island, 1409 Waukegan Rd., Glenview $95.82
15. Jewel, 3644 S. Archer Ave. $95.11
16. Jewel, 443 E. 34th St. $94.92
17. Dominicks, 3330 W. 183rd St., Hazel Crest $94.30
18. Eagle, 1290 E. Chicago Ave., Naperville $92.68
19. Cub, 7600 S. Cicero, Burbank $92.18
20. Eagle, 18242 Kedzie Hazel Crest $91.43
21. Cub, 2627 N. Elston Ave. $90.19
22. Eagle, 8630 Harlem Ave., Bridgeview $89.86
23. Eagle, 2015 W. 63rd St., Downers Grove $88.74
24. Walt`s, 2345 W. 183rd St., Homewood $88.51
25. Auchan, 7755 Harlem Ave., Bridgeview $88.13
26. Walt`s, 16039 Harlem Ave., Tinley Park $86.48
27. Cub, 1212 W. 75th St., Downers Grove $86.08
28. Butera, 2627 W. 95th St., Evergreen Park $85.85
29. Omni, 2250 N. Clybourn Ave. $85.07
30. Butera, 4608 W. Belmont Ave.$84.59
How the survey was conducted
Here`s how the survey was done:
Before any stores were visited for The Tribune`s Supermarket Price Survey, the shopping list was developed with a family`s shopping needs in mind. So that accurate comparisons could be made, it was limited by necessity to mostly brand-name products, meat and produce items that were common to all large stores.
Food staff members who participated in the survey all are experienced supermarket shoppers and used the prices marked on the shelves or on the merchandise itself-as a normal shopper would. The store managers were not informed of the project, nor did they participate in any way.
Stores in the survey were selected to represent different (but not all)
areas of the city and suburbs with an eye also toward finding spots where stores of different chains were clustered.
Six stores each from Dominick`s and Jewel, the area`s largest chains, were picked. There were four Eagle markets (a suburban chain), three Cubs, two Treasure Islands, two Buteras and two Walt`s. The remaining stores were the Dominick`s-owned Omni Super Store, 2550 N. Clybourn Ave., a warehouse-style store; the upscale Bockwinkel`s, 750 Northwest Hwy., Barrington; the French-owned hypermart Auchan, 7755 Harlem Ave., Bridgeview; the North Shore Sunset and southwest suburban independent Chipains, 8821 W. 87th St., Hickory Hills.
For some meat and produce items, the per pound prices were computed for predetermined weights. In the few cases in which products could not be found on the shelves in the specified brand and size, the price of the item from another store in the same chain was used so that the totals would be comparable. Price totals do not include tax.
Because the list was drawn up arbitrarily without regard to any particular store or chain, any markdowns or sales were accepted as part of the normal shopping experience and the lower prices were used in the survey results.
For the most part the items shopped fell into predictable patterns with one exception-pork loin chops. The shoppers chose the least expensive center- cut loin chops available in the meat cases, but these seemed to vary depending on the particular butchering. The prices ranged from $1.68 per pound on special to $4.99 per pound, obviously not on special. Because of this variance and the fact that the chops represented a significant percentage of the whole bill, we also included totals without the pork for purposes of comparison. The biggest difference in the porkless comparison is that it makes Sunset Foods much more comparable to the Highland Park Jewel and Highland Park Dominick`s stores and puts its price total below the Broadway Dominick`s.
Obviously, money-conscious shoppers would not limit themselves to our particular shopping list, especially when there often were comparable and cheaper versions available. For instance, in many stores another brand of tuna fish was on sale at a significant savings over the Starkist brand, which we specified.
Neither does our list allow a shopper to take advantage of quantity buying or a store`s private-label brands that often reflect considerable savings over the name-brand products.
