99 cents store or discount grocery in the austin tx area?
Posted by admin | Under Discount Groceries Tuesday Sep 29, 2009I saw a story on 99 cents only in Los Angeles where they sell 1$ groceries. Including frozen and fresh vegetables. I also saw a story where a store bought groceries that were discontinued or marketed for a certain promotion or holiday and sold it at a discount. I am not sure where that store was. SO does anyone know of anywhere in the Austin texas area like that. We have dollar stores but I am looking for a grocery store. thanlks!
I am in Austin, and I have been looking for something like you are talking about, and I have had no luck. It seems that HEB just about has a monopoly on groceries now, and they have gotten to be very expensive compared to groceries in San Antonio and Houston. HEB somehow manages to run out competition.
We don’t even have a bakery surplus store here in Austin anymore as far as I know.
For some groceries, such as canned soup, pasta, cereal, etc, you might try Big Lots. I recently bought olive oil there for $3, normally $4.50 at regular grocery store. Pay attention to the prices, though. Not everything is a bargain – you can end up paying more at Big Lots than you would at a grocery store if the grocery store is having a sale.
Wal-Mart, by the way, seems to be much cheaper than HEB. A couple of recent comparisons that I did over the past two days:
El Milagro tortilla Chips $3.53 at HEB, $2.59 at WalMart
Banquet Frozen Meals $.99 at HEB, $.88 at WalMart
2-lb bag of carrots – $1.89 at HEB, $1.39 at WalMart
Navel Oranges $2/lb at HEB, $.54 each at WalMart (each weighs about 3/4 pound, so about $.80/lb.
Milk at Walgreen’s was $3.19/gallon. Still close to $4 at HEB.
Check and see if there’s an Aldi around you. Good stuff for cheap – no frills.
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I’m not in Austin but I am just a few hours east of you in Lufkin. Do you have a sav-a-lot? They have pretty inexpensive food. They have it here. Another similar store is Aldi.
And Big Lots, Family Dollar, and Dollar General all have pantry aisles. Depends on the size of the store how good they are.
Oh yeah and check the ethnic markets, and the ethnic sections of regular stores. Lots of times, you can get food with another language label and it is cheaper.
References :
I posted a link below for the 99cents only store you’re talking about, there were many locations in TX, I didn’t see any in Austin proper, but I don’t know the names of any suburbs or surrounding towns that might be near there.
Also there is a store here in CA I like to shop at for cheap groceries called Grocery Outlet. There aren’t any in TX yet, but I found this article talking about how they’re be in TX soon!
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FNP/is_17_42/ai_107999711
References :
http://www.99only.com/locator/results_list.php?zipsearch=&showsurrounding=&zip=&state=TX&statename=Texas&country=&countryname=&city=&name=&radius=100&user1=&user2=&user3=&user4=&user5=&order=city
I am in Austin, and I have been looking for something like you are talking about, and I have had no luck. It seems that HEB just about has a monopoly on groceries now, and they have gotten to be very expensive compared to groceries in San Antonio and Houston. HEB somehow manages to run out competition.
We don’t even have a bakery surplus store here in Austin anymore as far as I know.
For some groceries, such as canned soup, pasta, cereal, etc, you might try Big Lots. I recently bought olive oil there for $3, normally $4.50 at regular grocery store. Pay attention to the prices, though. Not everything is a bargain – you can end up paying more at Big Lots than you would at a grocery store if the grocery store is having a sale.
Wal-Mart, by the way, seems to be much cheaper than HEB. A couple of recent comparisons that I did over the past two days:
El Milagro tortilla Chips $3.53 at HEB, $2.59 at WalMart
Banquet Frozen Meals $.99 at HEB, $.88 at WalMart
2-lb bag of carrots – $1.89 at HEB, $1.39 at WalMart
Navel Oranges $2/lb at HEB, $.54 each at WalMart (each weighs about 3/4 pound, so about $.80/lb.
Milk at Walgreen’s was $3.19/gallon. Still close to $4 at HEB.
References :
Google, yellow pages, my own personal experience.
I haven’t seen any. Wish we had an Aldi.
Big Lots does have pantry goods, but the above poster is absolutely right you have to be careful that you are really spending less.
Another thing I’ve noticed is sometimes you pay as much for the "bargain item" due to time and gas.
Start checking out ethnic grocery stores for meats and vegetables. Fiesta and Indian/Asian grocers are usually cheaper for meat.
References :