Which is more affordable: Rainbow or Cub? (Coon Rapids, St. Louis Park: coupons, home)

[Duk123]

If name brands aren't a huge deal to you give Aldi's a try. You'll still need to shop Cub/Rainbow, but by using Aldi's we've cut our food bill by about 25%.

[MPLSCleveland]

Duk123 brings up a good point. For basic staples, Aldi's rocks. Not to mention, some of their in-store branded products are actually outstanding (I love their frozen cheese stuffed ravioli personally).

[MN-Born-n-Raised]

I know some people in the food resale industry.

Supervalue owns many of the Cub foods. Additionally, Target, Rainbow, Country Markets, Lund's, Byerly's use Supervalue. Meaning, Supervalue is a wholesaler that sells to all of the above stores.

Wallmart and Costco are good alternatives and have no relationship to the near monopoly of Supervalue.

Margins:

I have a friend who is in a meat department manager at corporate of one of these store chains that will be left nameless. He said the margin for Lunds meat department is cost plus 30%. It's 20-25% for the rest of the traditional retailers. He said it is cost plus 10% for Costco and Sams Club. In fact, he said that the cost of overhead for most stores is 10%. So Costco is selling at their operating cost. I don't know what their margin is on their general food items but it is pretty aggressive.

The rational for breaking even is similar to loss leaders: we fill up our cart on higher margin pre-made entries. Of course we all fill the cart full off stuff that we didn't need yesterday.

I do everything I can to buy from Costco (including my gas). Just be careful to only buy what you need.

[Cruz Azul Guy]

Originally Posted by MPLSCleveland

Duk123 brings up a good point. For basic staples, Aldi's rocks. Not to mention, some of their in-store branded products are actually outstanding (I love their frozen cheese stuffed ravioli personally).

For me it's been hit-miss with Aldi's. I like the prices but you have to be a little picky choosy with their products. It's good for canned, frozen and the basics (bread, milk, etc.) but their produce sucks, it isn't fresh. Also, expect there to be one cashier, two max with long lines and waits. Another thing that annoys me is they don't accept credit cards. I'm not a big fan of paying cash or debit, so for me that's an annoyance. In the end, I'll go there to fill up on stuff like canned tuna, cereal, pasta noodles, toiletries and kitchen supplies, etc., but for fresh meats and produce and other groceries I pick up on a weekly basis I'll go somewhere more convenient and that offers higher quality products.

[MN-Born-n-Raised]

Originally Posted by Slig

For me it's been hit-miss with Aldi's. I like the prices but you have to be a little picky choosy with their products. It's good for canned, frozen and the basics (bread, milk, etc.) but their produce sucks, it isn't fresh. Also, expect there to be one cashier, two max with long lines and waits. Another thing that annoys me is they don't accept credit cards. I'm not a big fan of paying cash or debit, so for me that's an annoyance. In the end, I'll go there to fill up on stuff like canned tuna, cereal, pasta noodles, toiletries and kitchen supplies, etc., but for fresh meats and produce and other groceries I pick up on a weekly basis I'll go somewhere more convenient and that offers higher quality products.

In order to charge aggressive prices, they need to cut services or quality. Like not accepting credit cards (2% profit leak), or only having one cashier, charging for bags etc.

I agree that the produce is terrible. Again, I like Costco. They do have some items that are inexpensive. I like the fact that I can get in and out quickly since it is a small store.

[Cruz Azul Guy]

Originally Posted by MN-Born-n-Raised

I like the fact that I can get in and out quickly since it is a small store.

That's what you'd like to think but due to the ridiculous lines the trip ends up taking as long as a cub trip for me and I come away with less product. I'm not sure which Aldi's you go to, but the one on East Lake St and Hiawatha is a zoo. Also, I'd like to be able to see what is available at places like Sam's and Cost-Co, but I'd have a really hard time justifying the annual fee....maybe if I had 5+ kids it'd make sense.

[Duk123]

I don't think that anyone would ever claim that Aldi's meet all of their shopping needs but, buy using Aldi's as one part of our food budget allows us to get some of the more expensive higher quality meats and produce that we like.
In our case living right off of Lowry in North we have to drive right pass Aldi's to get to a Cub or Rainbow so it make alot of sense for us to shop there.

[Cruz Azul Guy]

Originally Posted by Duk123

I don't think that anyone would ever claim that Aldi's meet all of their shopping needs but, buy using Aldi's as one part of our food budget allows us to get some of the more expensive higher quality meats and produce that we like.
In our case living right off of Lowry in North we have to drive right pass Aldi's to get to a Cub or Rainbow so it make alot of sense for us to shop there.

I've seen that Aldi's. Honestly, if I lived near that I'd probably be shopping there all the time too. Where I live there are too many other options though, there is a little Mexican supermarket with fresh and relatively affordable meats and produce 2 blocks from my house...so that may be giving me an unfair bias against Aldi's.

[Duk123]

I've noticed in the last month or so that the quality and variety of the meat and produce at Aldi's have improved alot. They also seem to be getting in larger variety of other products that remove many of our reasons for running to Rainbow.

[DannyBanany]

I loved Rainbow until I went there the other day to get $10 in quarters and the customer service guy said, "Oh no, we don't give out change. You can only get $2 in quarters." WTF??? I mean, I'll still shop there and I like it just as much, but why wouldn't they give me quarters? I bought my detergent, bleach, and softener there. I was just trying to do laundry!