In the US the discounted supermarket and grocery stores occupy a considerable market share of the overall grocery sales. Most people visit these discounted stores mainly for price savings.
The US Supermarket and Grocery store industry can be classified under three broad supermarket chain categories namely 1) discounted stores 2) hypermarket and warehouse chains like Walmart, Target and Costco and 3) premium supermarket chains like The Kroger Co, Albertsons Company LLC.
According to statistics 20% of the largest retail stores in the world are grocery and supermarket chains, by this demographic one can conclude that supermarkets are quintessential and play a major role in our daily life. Over the last 5 years there has been a rise of 0.9% in the revenue obtained from supermarket stores in the US. The largest market share in the US Supermarket and Grocery store industry is owned collectively by the big three supermarket chains: The Kroger Company, Albertsons Company LLC and Publix Supermarkets Inc. The products that fall in this industry are fruits & vegetable, fresh & frozen meats, dairy products, beverages, frozen foods and other non food items.
Most supermarket and grocery stores in the US specialize in a niche category, when you want to shop for your groceries look for the right niche that is best for you in terms of budget and the product line you are interested in. When you have a tight budget you need to do your grocery shopping wisely, the discounted grocery stores cash in on this convenience of low pricing that they offer to their customers.
In the remainder of the article I will be listing some of the best discounted and grocery supermarkets in the USA. Based on your convenience you can either buy the groceries online or by visiting the brick & mortar store of your desired choice. The brick & mortar store option is what most people prefer for buying groceries in the US, especially for shopping fresh food items like meat, milk and vegetables.
Aldi
Aldi is a German discounted store which mainly caters to the needs of grocery shoppers looking for low-priced groceries. Aldi is our # 1 recommendation for the cheapest in this category, the only catch with Aldi is there’s not much variety in the product line unlike hypermarket and wholesale chains like Costco, and Walmart. Most of the products sold here bear the private label of Aldi and can be bought at cheaper than average prices.
WinCo
WinCo is a small discounted supermarket and grocery store which is based in Idaho and has at least 100 stores spread across California, Arizona, Texas and Pacific North West. WinCo is a privately held, employee owned supermarket chain. The store is popular for its under-pricing strategy to position itself in the market against bigger players like Walmart and other chains in the US. It’s a common sight to see advertisements on its sign boards that compare WinCo’s prices to Walmart and others. Grocery shoppers visit this store to take leverage of lower prices for the same food item found in other stores while there are a lot of product categories for customers to choose from, you will not find much variety in the categories. When you shop at WinCo you cannot pay using the credit card mode, Winco accepts only cash and debit cards forpayments. The store sources its products by having direct tie-ups with factories and farmers and doesn’t believe in having middlemen to source them as the costs may shootup.
Fareway
Fareway is another highly successful discounted based in the Midwest with 122 grocery stores across Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska and South Dakota, offers the same convenience of low pricing like other discounted stores to the customers. The chain believes in having smaller stores and fewer employees as one of its strategies to cut operating costs for saving money.
Trader Joe’s
Trader Joe’s is a chain of American grocery stores based in Monrovia, California owned by the same family as Aldi. This chain of supermarket describes itself as “your neighborhood grocery store”, most of the products sold bear its own brand name although you do find products from other outside labels. Trader Joe’s is the exclusive retailer of Charles Shaw wine.
Salvage Grocery outlets
There are quite a good number of salvage grocery outlets in the US and if you do shopping with a little bit of commonsense at these salvage outlets you could be saving as much as 50% each time when compared to typical grocery stores. The interesting thing about the stores in this category is they have stocks of food items that are either nearing their expiration date or have damaged packaging. Buying food items from such salvage grocery stores is surely not a bad option when your budget is too little. Most of these are operated independently but Grocery Outlet Bargain Market owns a few of these in the US state of Pennsylvania.
