Poll of the Day > Cost analysis of Costco vs Safeway.

(+) Yeah! (+)

I got a costco membership a few months ago because they have king crab cheaper than anywhere else, not cheap enough to be worth buying much, but I figure in a year I'd only need to buy 6 pounds of crab all together to pay for the card, and there might be other things that were cheaper there.

Yeah, no, not even close.

So I went a few times, and this last time I decided to really check the prices as the previous times I mainly got a slice of pizza (Very cheap and decently tasty) and some soda (insanely cheap at like 50 cents). That btw is a good deal.

The food though...omg, the cost comparison is rediculous.

Even without sales at all, in general, costco is almost 20% more expensive for the same amount of food as Safeway. A ribeye steak is 17.99 a pound for instance while it's 11.99-13.99 a pound (Base price) at safeway. Also safeways meats are generally higher quality.

But maybe buying in bulk canola oil will be cheaper? Nope, they have a twin thing of conola oil at costco, but in comparison to buying 1/2 as much (twice), it's 2$ more over all at costco (that is only about 10% more....but this is all without specials/deals/points etc you get from safeway).

I went down a straight list of items, although because costco has WAY less variety, sometimes I had to use different brands etc, and honestly NOTHING was cheaper at costco than safeway...again before deals.

That would be bad enough, but then you have weekly specials.

So that 17.99 rib eye steak? Two weeks ago they were on sale for 5.77 a pound (limit one max pack) and 7.99 a pop after that. The boneless ribeyes were 9.99 meanwhile (other then the 5.77 max pack I stuck to boneless as that is a better deal).

Every week they have one kind of steak on sale as well. In addition on fridays (like today) they usually have another (today is 5.99 tri tip steaks which I'm going to grab some of).

There are of course tons of other deals on the weekly adds, that drop prices significantly, and if you store up items, you can just about only buy them on sale.

But wait, that is good and all, and gives me at least 30-40% off on average now each time I shop, but there is more.

Every 100$ you spend at safeway gives you 1 point, but there are usually specials that multiply that, and additional specials that give you points if you spend x amount of money. Last week for instance you got 4 point if you spent 70$ or more, and 3 points if you spent 50$ or more (and they stacked for a total of 7 points), they also had 3x the points on produce/meat/dairy items (so 1 point per 30$). I ended up spending a bit over 100$ (after deductions) and left with 11 points total.

Every 12 points is 20$ off your next order (you can also get $1 off a gallon of gas per 10 points but unless you have a REALLY big gas tank that isn't a good deal).

Net result after everything was factored in, to buy the same groceries at Costco that I got on sale at safeway and after taking away the money from the points I got, was slightly less then twice as expensive (104$ at safeway vs 197$ at costco).

Now mind you, other then buying the steak that was on sale etc, and using just 4 you coupons etc, I didn't specifically shop based on deals. I didn't save as much as I could, I got exactly what I wanted to eat that week. If I had shopped based on deals I could have saved even more.

In conclusion, Costco even if you are extremly lazy and don't use any digital coupons (they go right on your card) and don't shop based on the sales of the week, is WAY more expensive than safeway in every way. You dont' same money by buying in bulk, you don't save money by having fewer options/types of food to buy, you actually spend significantly more.

I bet the quality of the ribeye was better at Costco, especially at the prices you are quoting. Costco sells Prime beef. I also find a lot of stuff is cheaper at Costco. I don't have a Safeway so I can't compare to that (we do have Tom Thumb which I believe is owned by Safeway, but is expensive). For instance you can get 2 jars of Rao marinara for $10, and these are 32 oz jars instead of 24 oz jars. The cheapest I have seen the 24 oz jars on sale is $5.

Cat food, dog food, toilet paper, trash bags, dish detergent, laundry detergent are all better priced. You can buy $100 playstation store gift cards for 89.99. It may not be for everyone, but I find significant value in a lot of products from Costco. I know a lot of people get memberships just for their prices on medication.

Archgoat posted...

. I don't have a Safeway so I can't compare to that (we do have Tom Thumb which I believe is owned by Safeway, but is expensive).

I thought they were both owned by Albertsons.

I'm not sure what a safeway is.

It's like a dangerousway but with fewer accidents.

adjl posted...

It's like a dangerousway but with fewer accidents.

Ah I know of dangerousway.

It's also very important not to confuse either with a freeway, for they are not free.

hungrymike posted...

I thought they were both owned by Albertsons.

I think that it right. I just know Tom Thumb has Safeway brand for some of its generics.

YEah, sadly albertsons bought out safeway a few years ago and the deals have gone downhill big time since then.

I used to save 60% + when I shopped before the takeover. They would often have 10% off your entire order, or 10$ off an order of 50 or more (about once a month for a week). They had way more buy one get one frees etc.

Since then the average you can save (not including points etc) has dropped to 30-40%. If you add the points in that does bring it up a bit more, possibly to about 50%.

That being said, even the BASE price without deals is cheaper than cotsco, and yeah, the meat is better quality at safeway (all of them). Costco meat is slightly above walmart in quality, safeway meat is slightly below Haegen etc (very high priced grocery stores).

Anyway people won't believe that safeway is still so much cheaper, I have literally shown friends the receipt and explained how to use the app to add coupons digitally etc, but they just never switch over.

If you spend $200 a month on groceries, you could save almost 100$ of that by shopping at safeway using the digital coupons and buying based on what is on sale every week.

If you shop for a full family, that could save you significantly more than that.

IF there is a safeway near you, go to their website, and sign up for a card so you can use just 4 you. The discounts you get from the just 4 you digital coupons stack with any specials in store. If a gallon of crystal gyster water is normally 1.25 but there is a weekly sale on their flier dropping it to $1 each, and then a just 4 you coupon that reduces it by 40 cents, each gallon of crystal gyser is only 60cents.

In some cases these combine to allow you to buy/stock up on things for insanely low prices. $1.50 for a can of tuna fish, on sale that week 4 for 3$, with a just 4 you discount of 50cents per can, and you end up paying $1 for 4 cans of tuna.

Back in the day with the 10% discounts etc it was REALLY great, since that stacked with everything else. This was pre-covid and back then boneless skinless chicken breasts were about $2 a pound. A sale would drop em to $1.30, digital coupon drop it to 80 cents and the 10% off your entire order would let you get the chicken breasts for 72 cents a pound.

Now I usually stock up on meats based on the sales. Tri tip bottoms out at $5 a pound, rib eyes are (unless it's a holiday), 7.99 a pound. T-bones are always on sale but I don't really like them anymore, but 5.99 a pound etc. I always have enough meat in my freezer for about a month in case there are no sales (which never really happens).

I stock up on things like chilli (nalleys') when it's $1 a can or less (just recently it was 2 for 3$ and then -1$ from a digital coupon, so $1 each), tuna (deal mentioned above), pasta sauce (both prego for semi-home made where I add beef/sausage bell pepers etc, and Ragu for "microwaved fast" dishes) usually for about $1.50 each. Cheese is ALWAYS on sale at safeway but it also lasts forever in the fridge. I get the lucerne swiss and stock up when it's about $1.50 each package. They have the whole milk Galbani Mozzerella on sale alot as well, usually $6 but often on sale for 3 (which is when I stock up on it). Great to add extra cheese on a pappa murphies pizza, to make lasagna, to cut up and add to a salad etc.

I can't stress enough how much it would help people if they looked into safeway and shopping using digital coupons and based on weekly adds. Winco, Fred Meyers, Walmart, Costco etc, none of them come close to comparing.

That Galbani is cheaper at Walmart without the sale price.

Anyway Costco is for stocking up on cleaning supplies and toilet paper since they are far cheaper than anywhere else.

For food the only things worth buying are stuff like the pinwheel sandwich trays and the bakery stuff like croissants and muffins.

Winco also has some stuff that is cheaper then safeway at base price. It's why alot of people shop at winco/walmart etc, many of those stores even have comparison prices to the safeway near them etc (obviously without the sales) so the people shopping there think they are saving money.

Nothing compares though once you apply the safeway points, just 4 you coupons and especially if you shop based on what is on sale on the circular each week. You can go online to the safeway website and see the circular for whatever store is nearest to you. While there if you log in, you can also add digital coupons onto your card by just clicking on them (automatically works when you check out if you A: scan your card or B: give them the phone number associated with your card.

The card also is where your points are accumulated. I aim to spend about $100 (After all the deals etc) a week and get about 30-40$ off a month that way (somewhere around 10% off in general after all the other sales etc).

It helps A TON if you can stock up on stuff a bit, buying things when they are on sale and waiting till the next sale to buy them again. If you need to buy say tuna fish every week, and you only buy like 2 cans per week, you will only have a sale every few months on tuna fish and over all won't save much.

If you KNOW you use 2 cans of tuna a week though and there is a sale so you buy enough for 3 months all at once, you end up saving a ton, and just buy tuna next time it's on sale again.

It's basically shopping smart, but safeway so far at least, gives you the opportunity to shop smarter than anywhere else. It has so many different methods to save money, that all combine together, that is drastically reduces how much you end up paying.

If you can't be bothered to buy based on sales, don't use just 4 you etc, then winco is probably the cheapest over all. I don't like winco's meat quality at all though, so I still probably would never shop there or at walmart for my general groceres.

Again, Costco has USDA Prime steak, this is not about the same as Walmart. That is a silly statement. They also have choice, which is likely what is in safeway at the highest quality.

I like the Select Brand from Safeway. They have a really good Fruit Punch soda

Safeway is like the worst grocery store in my experience, their stuff is way more expensive than kroger

I used to shop at Costco a lot, but now I do most of my shopping at Aldi. I can buy two gallons of milk for what Costco charges for one. Eggs and bread are cheaper too.

But Costco does win on some things. I got a good (850 CCA) battery for my SUV for $108. I buy most of my lunch stuff at Costco because big boxes full of little boxes are usually cheaper than just buying individual little boxes.

Costco's meat is generally fantastically priced, when you compare apples to apples. They carry USDA Prime and Choice, most grocery stores carry Choice and Select, and sometimes even Standard. And their rotisserie chickens cannot be beaten anywhere. $5 for some kind of giant mutant chicken that usually makes at least 6 or 7 meals for me. They weigh about 3 pounds (1360 g) each; in comparison the chickens from Walmart cost more and only weigh 1 pound, 13 ounces (820 g).

Considering there isn't actually a Safeway in my state the comparison is moot.

Though I stopped going to Costco years ago because BJs seemed to have better prices and selection. And then stopped going to BJs during the pandemic because they'd slowly phased out most of what I actually bought there, and I got annoyed having to buy stuff in bulk when I wasn't going through most of it fast enough to justify it.

There are also Sam's Clubs in my area, but I have no idea what the prices/products are like there, but I'm assuming it's mostly comparable to Wal-Mart, which means I've never been all that interested.