Ahhhh, grocery shopping.
For literal YEARS I was ordering a Metro Market pick up order very single Sunday-- before the panny, even. I liked the app, enjoyed the money off on gas, and had a pretty routine grocery order. Over the years, we also shopped at a variety of other places-- Costco, Whole Foods, Aldi, Trader Joes-- it all depended on our schedule and menu, etc. We usually ended up with a Metro Market order to pick up, a Target order to pick up, and a visit to another store as well every Sunday.
It has been hard for us to be one-store shoppers-- but that is, sort of, the dream.
Metro Market has been getting SO expensive, though, since January 2025. The app still gives access to good coupons, but the everyday prices are increasingly bad. I would run in the store midweek and spend over $100 no matter what I was buying. Ben and I even started grocery shopping in person because our usual $300 grocery order was getting smaller and smaller every week, and we wanted to see what the heck was going on in there.
We realized that right now, when we have a teeny bit of schedule margin on the weekends, we like grocery shopping together. It's fun to go on a run and then go to the store.
For a couple of weeks, we went to Aldi then Costco right after-- but this was inconvenient because we needed to go to another store to get name brand stuff, so we either added it onto a Target pick up or still found ourselves at Metro Market.
This was not only super expensive, but it was also just kind of a bummer. Our Metro Market store is old and small and dim and ... not fun to shop.
So, we've (temporarily?) switched our loyalty to Hy-Vee, which is big and bright, and airy and pleasant. And sooooooo expensive. But! Sometimes, we can only shop there with no need for Costco at all, so maybe, eventually it will be more convenient AND more pleasant?
We have fun exercising early and going straight to the store. Our store has a dietician, and there is a rack of recipe cards at the front of the store, which is clutch when I have holes on my weekly menu calendar. When Ben was out of town with Cooper, I did online shopping from HyVee and was charmed by the meal suggestions on the website, too (I decided I did want pork chops, potatoes, and green beans and rigatoni with peppers and lean ground beef in a jar of premade sauce, plus broccoli and crusty bread).
A money saver? No. But I can pay with Apple Pay and get 2% back! More fun? YES. And! Minnie found the style of cake she's like for her bday party (in 11 days **gulp**)
Ever since Rob retired and we moved here, he comes with me to Costco. Not every single time, but more often than not. It's like a date! Kind of. That cake is super cute and I want to eat it.
ReplyDeleteWell first of all, I LOVE that cake!!! My daughter would have loved it too at that age (sigh! I miss those days!)
ReplyDeleteUgh, grocery shopping. It's just impossible to get the lowest prices on everything without going to four or five different stores, and I DON'T WANT TO DO THAT.
I don't grocery shop with my husband- I don't think we'd have as much fun as you and Ben do. My husband is a more spontaneous shopper, while I like to stick very closely to my list, and I almost always get the cheapest version of whatever I'm buying. When he shops, he comes home with the strangest things, and I'll be like WHY DID YOU GET ORGANIC SALSA FROM WHOLE FOODS??? Maybe it would be better if we shopped together and I could reign him in a little.
I did a comparison shop of Hy-Vee versus Woodman's when Hy-Vee first opened in Janesville. For the EXACT SAME groceries, Hy-Vee was almost the same price except for produce. Produce prices at Hy-Vee are off the rails. The cost at Woodman's $30.49 and would be $44.17 at Hy-Vee back when I did this data gathering in February 2023.
ReplyDeleteHy-Vee is 100% more pleasant than Woodman's, but it's selection isn't as great (they don't have the tea that either of us drinks OR my husband's yogurt) and the produce prices made me gasp. So we're a Woodman's family with an occasional trip to Costco and stops by ALDI after work every so often.
But man, Hy-Vee is beautiful.
Grocery date FTW!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was young I used to chase prices at different stores, but it became too much of a lift, so I settled for trying to just shop at one store whenever possible, with side trips to TJs and Costco.
I was a first time Hy-Vee customer last week! We don't have them where I live, but it was the go-to place for both Springfield and Des Moines. I was impressed by their prepared food section.