The cheapest groceries aren’t at a grocery store

Grocery prices have reached the stratosphere and we’re all scrambling to lower our food bills. Enter Consumer Reports which recently looked at where the cheapest groceries can be found.

My advice to lower your food bill — wherever you shop, plan weekly trips, search out deals and then plan your meals accordingly. I save between 30-50% on weekly trips, as this receipt shows.

Surprise, the winner wasn’t a traditional supermarket or even Walmart, it was Costco.

“Only six chains nationwide had lower prices than Walmart, and the cheapest grocery store in America was none other than Costco. According to the study, groceries at Costco cost, on average, 21.4% less than at Walmart,” reports Delish in analyzing the Consumer Reports study.

But before you run to Costco, keep in mind there are some downsides to shopping there. You have to buy a membership, to start. Costco also doesn’t stock as many grocery products as traditional stores. And you likely have to buy in large quantities, more than a small family might need.

But you could join with neighbors, splitting the $65 membership fee and dividing up what you purchase.

BJ’s Wholesale came in second, another warehouse concept store.

My advice for getting lower prices — shop sales, use coupons and plan your weekly trip, and your weekly menu to maximize your purchasing power. I rarely pay full-price for any grocery item.

My goal each week — to save at least 33 – 40% off full price for my weekly shopping list.

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Why Coca-Cola is Ending Minute Maid Frozen Concentrate

Breakfast takes on a light tone when you opt for low-fat, low-salt, low-sugar options. Pictured here is fat-free yogurt (regular and Greek), low-sodium English muffins, low-sugar orange juice, jams, fresh figs and Smart Balance instead of butter.
Orange juice is more likely to be in bottles on American tables these days, to in frozen cans.

Coca-Cola is dropping its iconic (at least for old people) Minute Maid frozen concentrate in the United States and Canada after a nearly 80-year run.

When it was first introduced, concentrate, essentially orange bits frozen in a can, was the height of convenience. Most people squeezed oranges for juice 80 years ago (it’s true, look it up).

With a can of concentrate, you took it from the freezer and dumped it in a pitcher of water, stirred and drank the stuff.

Today, though, people think nothing of buying big cartons or bottles of OJ and lugging it home.

Plus, I would guess with fewer people eating breakfast at home, home consumption is down as well. So Coke is concentrating on other, more profitable lines.

Coke and Pepsi are both scrambling to stay relevant for consumers who aren’t drinking their main soda offerings as much as in the past.

Pepsi just announced price cuts for some of its snack offerings, for example, worried that more people are gulping weight-loss drugs and turning away from snacks in the process.

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Halfway measures won’t get you to your fiber-eating goal

I had to laugh at a recent New York Times piece titled 4 Easy Ways to Eat More Fiber. These might be easy for some, but they’ll also be distasteful to others and they won’t get you to your fiber-eating goals.

I resolved to eat more fiber years ago and went all-in with a fiber-rich breakfast. I eat Trader Joe’s High Fiber Cereal every morning, even taking it with me when I travel. Two-thirds of a cup has 9 grams of fiber. I eat an entire cup each morning, so roughly 13 grams of fiber.

That puts me well on my way to the daily recommendation of 25 grams. I also eat nothing but whole wheat bread and pastas and I grab whole fruit whenever possible, adding still more fiber.

Back to the Times piece and its recs. I don;t do smoothies, so blending fiber into smoothies won’t help me. I also don;t snack on trail mix or seeds or whatever, so that’s two of the four that don’t help. And I don;t believe in making gradual changes, the first recommendation. At almost 73, I don;t have time left for doing anything gradually.

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Wendy’s hops on the thin mints bandwagon

Wendy’s is bringing back the thin mint Frosty in partnership with the Girl Scouts of the USA which sell thin mint cookies this time of year.

Wendy’s will launch it thin mint Frosty, with either vanilla or chocolate soft-serve topped with thin mint sauce. The non-heart-healthy offering (sorry, I had to remind you) debuts Feb. 16, two days after Valentine’s Day.

Wendy’s also will be allowing Girl Scout cookie sales at its outlets.

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Gold Star Food Recall: Over 2,000 Products Affected

A major food recall, this time from a distributor rather than a processor, is underway. More than 2,000 products are involved.

Minneapolis-based Gold Star Distribution Inc. has recalled food items, pet foods, beauty products and drugs that it distributes in three states, the Food and Drug Administration has announced.

First issued in December, the recall was recently classified as Class II by the FDA. Class II is used for products that “may cause temporary or medically reversible adverse health consequences or where the probability of serious adverse health consequences is remote,” according to the FDA’s site.

Among the products recalled are Pringles, Nutella and Cheerios. The original recall was issued in December due to “the presence of rodent and avian contamination,” the company said. Products had been distributed in Minnesota, Indiana and North Dakota.

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Amazon Shifts Strategy: Goodbye Fresh & Go

A local Amazon Fresh store wasn't very inviting or exciting.

Amazon is pulling out of the grocery store business, sort of. The online retailing giant plans to close its Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go stores. It will focus instead on expanding Whole Foods and its online grocery business.

Amazon has conquered a lot of retail segments over the years, laying waste to smaller competitors. But food retailing is a different animal.

The modern American supermarket industry began after World War II, operating on the principle that large volume could make up for very low profit margins on items sold.

That model requires careful inventory management and pricing strategies since so much of a food retailers product can rot on the shelf if it doesn’t sell quickly.

In meat and poultry, an industry I wrote about for many years, it’s called “sell it or smell it.” That means if you don’t sell the products soon, they will stink, and lose you money.

Food retailing also requires point-of-sale marketing pizazz; you have to convince people to buy more than sale items to make any money off them.

I visited an Amazon fresh store in my area several times. It was dark and dead-looking inside with none of the excitement of a traditional supermarket.

Walmart has mastered the food retailing business. It ranks as the largest food retailer in the country. Kroger, a traditional supermarket chain, is number two and wants to be the surviving traditional chain when the dust settles in the segment.

Target, which has tried for many years to become a food powerhouse, ranks seventh, noteworthy but not overwhelming.

Amazon seems to think direct online food sales will be its future. Delivery is always the hangup with such sales. Home delivery is labor and cost-intensive. But maybe self-driving electric delivery vehicles will someday change that cost equation.

Until then, it seems that traditional supermarkets, and Walmart, have beaten back Amazon in food retailing, for now at least.

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Spring & Mulberry Expands Chocolate Recall Due to Salmonella

North Carolina-based Spring & Mulberry is expanding a chocolate recall first announced Jan. 12. The expansion, announced Jan. 14, 2026, was prompted by possible contamination of product with Salmonella.

“The affected products were available for purchase online and through select retail partners nationwide since Sept. 15, 2025,” the company said.

“The recalled products can be identified by brand name (Spring & Mulberry), with the following identifiers: flavor name, lot codes, and box color,” it explained.

The table below comes directly from the company recall announcement.

Home
Product NameLot NumberBox Color
Earl Grey#025258Purple
Lavender Rose#025259, #025260Light Blue
Mango Chili#025283Orange
Mint Leaf#025255Teal
Mixed Berry#025275, #025281, #025337Purple
Mulberry Fennel#025345Burgundy
Pacan Date#025261, #025265, #025267, #025268, #025339, #025343Yellow
Pure Dark Minis#025273Blue

No illnesses had been traced to the products at the time the recall was announced.

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Small Salt Reductions Can Prevent Heart Disease and Stroke

Studies in France and Britain estimate lives could be saved and hypertension reduced by even small reductions in daily salt intake.

“Using national diet and health data, researchers in France estimated that modest decreases in bread salt content could cut adults’ daily salt intake by 0.35 grams, lower their blood pressure and prevent more than 1,100 deaths.

“Researchers from the U.K. estimated that similar salt reductions in packaged foods and takeout meals could lower daily British sodium intake by 17.5%, preventing more than 100,000 cases of heart disease and 25,000 cases of stroke over 20 years,” reports ABC News.

How much is 0.35 grams? About the weight of a paper clip; it’s also the same as saying 350 milligrams.

Americans on average consume 3,500 milligrams a day of salt, well above the recommendation of the American Heart Association, 2,300, ABC reports. Those of us with high blood pressure should consumer no more than 1,500 msg of salt daily.

That’s harder than it sounds since salt is in everything we eat, literally. My advice — use a digital food diary like LoseIt! to track your daily salt intake and then, when the results startle you, cut back. Your heart will thank you for it.

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New U.S. dietary guidelines mean you’re on your own finding healthy ways to eat

The U.S. food scene is in a world now where up is down and black is white — namely everything science tried to tell us the past half century or so about healthy eating just got stood on its head with new dietary guidelines backed by the non-scientist, non-doctor now in charge of America’s health.

Avoid high-fat foods? No, no, drink that whole milk again, the new guidelines say. Limit red meat intake? No, no protein is good, gobble that red meat down.

About the only point of agreement with the past is to avoid processed foods, although that term — along with others like highly processed and ultra-processed — remain undefined.

How others eat it, the steak normally comes covered in cheese, which I can no longer eat.
Ready to eat steak covered in butter? New dietary guidelines promote eating fats, good luck with that.

So how should you eat?

We’re in an age where you have to find your own way. Start by knowing your body and discussing your specifics with doctors, nutritionists, even friends and relatives searching for answers as well.

I know, for example, that consuming lots of salt sends my blood pressure higher.

I’ve seen it over and over again. So I am committed to a low-salt diet.

I also know that when I eat high-fat foods, I have heart attacks — I’ve had two, — that’s enough to keep me on a low-fat Mediterranean-like diet.

Continue reading “New U.S. dietary guidelines mean you’re on your own finding healthy ways to eat” →
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Thanksgiving 2025 prices through the roof; search out every deal

If you’ve started your Thanksgiving food shopping, you know food prices are through the roof. One store I shop that sold romaine lettuce hearts for $2.99 last year has them for $6.99 this year for example. Its likely imported.

So how do you survive, and enjoy, this Thanksgiving? Track down every bargain you can.

I spent roughly $70 today at a local Jewel, for example, but everything I bought was on sale and so I saved $40 on my bill.

I’m headed to a second store Tuesday to find more bargains, you can’t buy everything you need at one store and expect to save money this year.

Look non-traditional places too. I found light mayo at a dollar store for $1.25 for 10 ounces, for example.

A 20-ounce bottle at my local Jewel was on sale for $3.99, or $2 for 10 ounces if you do the math. This year, more than ever, DO THE MATH.

Good luck.

See all the sale items I bought
My total savings for the trip.
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