[Okey Dokie]

Need general reputations of LV grocery chains, i.e., "higher prices" "dirty stores" "great produce" etc. etc. I'll be there next week to snowbird for two months....looking forward to seeing "real life Las Vegas" as opposed to "tourist Vegas" that I know so well.

[yellowsnow]

Here's an article I wrote about this very topic. Enjoy your time in Vegas!

Frugal Vegas: An Ongoing Guide for the Financially Challenged

Making ends meet in Las Vegas is a tough proposition. We live in the land of the jackpot—cash is king, but the paychecks are often lower than the court jester. Luckily, bargains and deals abound to stretch our actual or alleged dollars. Vegas is a small city and almost all the deals are within easy shopping distance.

(Warning: If you can fry an egg on the sidewalk, it’s a cinch the bacon will be ruined by the time you get it home. Always carry a cooler in your car. The bargain’s wasted if you can’t get it home the way you bought it.)

FOOD FINDS

You’ll find all the usual deals and coupons in newspapers and circulars. But here are three places worth checking out first:

1) The 99 Cent Only Store. Located all over the valley, nothing over 99 cents, they’ll sell you real food for real cheap money. Go early—the inventory’s the best. Meat, fruits, dairy, vegetables, bread/bagels, paper and cleaning products . . . all for less than a dollar each. And what you’ll find may surprise you; the stock changes every day. (Unlike the market, it won’t kill you, either.) Sometimes it’s fresh blueberries and raspberries; other days, maybe steak, mushrooms, and tomatoes.

Advisory: Everything isn’t a bargain. It helps if you have a basic idea what these items cost at the regular grocery store. Read the labels, package sizes, and expiration dates. A 12oz package of pasta for 99 cents is OK but the 16oz package is a better deal. Shop with your brains. For less than a dollar, most of us can afford to try something new or a brand we aren’t familiar with. Be prepared to be surprised. Especially by the high quality.

2) Your Friendly, Neighborhood Hispanic/Mexican groceria. There are several chains and quite a few independents as well. If you are a Spanish speaker, great. If you aren’t, they usually speak some English, you can always point, and so can they—and they’re usually willing to do it. Dust off your High School Spanish and give it a try.

The usual low-price winners are the meats, fruits, and vegetables. But it’s a perfect opportunity to try different food on the cheap. (The dollars, not the quality.) The service is actually well above average, and they’ll even throw you some bones. (For your dogs. Just ask.)

Here’s one example. Last week’s best find was sliced sandwich ham, 99 cents a pound; and, Monterey Jack cheese, $1.49 a pound. If you’re a lime addict those little green fruits are real steals all spring and summer, averaging about three pounds for a dollar. A 14-ounce can of La Lechera (Nestle) sweetened condensed milk taking you for $3 a can in the big supermarket can cost you less than $2. And if there’s a key lime pie in your future but you don’t want to make it yourself, the panaderia (bakery) is a perfect place to buy the fruit of their labor, not to mention such other treats worth trying as queso Napolitano (flan), tres leches (cake), and empanadas de queso (triangular pastry stuffed with sweet cheese).


3) Angel Food Ministries. Eat cheap and help the less fortunate generously—all at once. Impossible? Don’t tell Angel Food Ministries, which lets you do just that.

They now have two working locations in Las Vegas and a very nicely working Website. Go there and pick out food packages you want to try. The prices vary but they’re affordable—and with choices, even. You visit the location you choose and pay in advance by a particular deadline, then you show up on delivery day with a box and pick up your order. This requires some advance planning on your part—but the deal is great.

And they use the profits to feed people who are really hungry.

The menus and their concurrent packages and prices change monthly, but here was one very inviting item on the menu when your observer gave it a look:

The Signature Box. (Their name, not ours; $30.) They call it “[b]alanced nutrition and variety with enough food to feed a family of four for a week,” and they’re not just spouting rhetoric, either:




1.5 lb ribeye steaks, 4x6 oz.
3 lb. IQF split chicken breast
1 lb. boneless center-cut pork chops
2 lb. macaroni and beef, dinner entrée
1.5 lb. breaded all-white meat chicken nuggets
1 lb. 80/20 lean ground beef.
1 lb. bake or fry fish sticks
1 lb. frozen corn
1 lb. frozen baby lima beans
1 cellophane-wrapped iceberg lettuce
2 lb. sweet potatoes
15 oz. pork and beans
1 lb. rice
32 oz. two percent shelf-stable milk
1 dozen eggs
dessert


Remember: Don’t forget the cooler!



Links:
99 Cent Only Store
99¢ Only Stores - Home - The Right Store... Now More Than Ever!

King Ranch Market
Welcome to King Ranch Markets

Liborio Markets
Si es de Allálo Tenemos Aquí

La Bonita Supermarket
La Bonita Supermarkets

Mariana’s Supermarkets
Mariana's Markets

Angel Food Ministries
Welcome*- Angel Food Ministries

[MediocreButArrogant]

We have several Whole Foods out here. That should pretty much cover "higher prices". Costco, Whole Foods, and Smith's cover about 90% of my grocery shopping, with Ranch99 (big Chinese supermarket) the other 10%.

[dance_or_REBEL]

Fresh and easys are located all over Las Vegas as well if you are on a budget.
There's also a chain that I had never heard of until I moved out here called Albertsons, and I for one found each that I've been too a little on the grungy side, i.e. produce was not fresh.
Von's is another chain that offers delivery services, and they are spread out through LV as well.
Like above poster said Whole foods is the higher priced of all of them, but their selection is always fresh and they offer harder to find gourmet foods.

[jjameson922]

Do all the stores you mentioned clearly specify the grade of their meat? I personally will only buy choice and I have noticed many grocery stores and chains basically only carry select. Then without labeling it, they will claim it is on sale and it really isn't on sale if it's select, a grade cheaper than choice.

[MediocreButArrogant]

Originally Posted by jjameson922

Do all the stores you mentioned clearly specify the grade of their meat? I personally will only buy choice and I have noticed many grocery stores and chains basically only carry select.

I've noticed that at Vons, which is the same company now as Safeway. They sell "Safeway Select", which is USDA Select, and try to market it as being as good as USDA Choice.

Smiths sells USDA Prime in the meat case. I thought their other meat was USDA choice, but I just took a look at a Porterhouse steak I'm thawing in the fridge and it isn't labeled. Costco is all USDA choice except for a small selection of USDA Prime. IIRC, USDA Prime bone-in Ribeyes are $15.99/lb at Smith's and $9.99 or $10.99/lb at Costco. I read an article in the WSJ that said a decline in the business of high-end steakhouses was responsible for USDA Prime showing up in supermarkets and at membership stores. BTW, Smith's is having or was having a really good meat sale recently, Ribeyes and New York Strip, cut either as steaks or roasts were $3.99/lb.

I've seen USDA Prime at Whole Foods, but I'm not sure what their regular meat is graded.

[bodyman5001]

I don't want to mention the name of the store because I might be wrong about it but my girlfriend and I went into one of the really large Mexican stores. It was on east Trop or Flamingo, not sure which.

This was a couple of years ago and I looked everywhere in the meat section for anything that said USDA...none of it had anything that I could find. I wouldn't eat it.

I would just buy ribeyes at Costco..mmmmmm.

[las vegas drunk]

Originally Posted by dance_or_REBEL

There's also a chain that I had never heard of until I moved out here called Albertsons, and I for one found each that I've been too a little on the grungy side, i.e. produce was not fresh.

I am not being mean, but this has to be the funniest thing I have read in a long time. To me, it is almost like saying you never heard of Walmart or Burger King. I have not lived here long either, but Albertsons is a major chain that is all over the USA, and has been at least since I was born 34 years ago.

[aacole]

Originally Posted by bodyman5001

I looked everywhere in the meat section for anything that said USDA...none of it had anything that I could find. I wouldn't eat it.

I have noticed this at many carnicerias and supermercados...I would suspect that most meat is select or choice, but I don't think that is the focus in most hispanic families.

Just realize the grading has nothing to do with the edibility, safeness or overall quality of beef. It just has to do with how much intramuscular fat (marbling) is in that particular piece of beef.



This is an example of prime, choice and select. Most restaurants use choice unless otherwise stated. In fact, in a lot of those mexican supermercados they usually have a cafeteria or taqueria right in side. I bet they use select and I'm sure it tastes great.

[DavieJ89]

Originally Posted by las vegas drunk

I am not being mean, but this has to be the funniest thing I have read in a long time. To me, it is almost like saying you never heard of Walmart or Burger King. I have not lived here long either, but Albertsons is a major chain that is all over the USA, and has been at least since I was born 34 years ago.

Im an east coaster and I know Albertson's. They used to be a very big name in the Orlando area, but slowly they are shuttering all their stores

they are only keeping one in the whole state of Florida now in Windermere (near Tiger Woods' house believe it or not) There used to be so many around here now they are extinct here in Florida.

I'll miss them until I move to Vegas in October