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Wal-Mart Edges Out Fry's in Tucson Store Brand Pricing Survey

October 27, 2009

The Arizona Daily Star surveyed store-brand offerings at major grocery retailers in Tucson last week, and Wal-Mart's Great Value was the cheapest for the selected items studied, even when taking loyalty cars into consideration.

K-VA-T's Food City took second place, when loyalty cards were removed form the equation.

The list of groceries included 17 items from milk, frozen orange juice concentrate, cereal and peanut butter to cheddar cheese, mustard, frozen peas, canned corn and pasta.

Without loyalty card discounts, the 17 items cost $30.66 at Walmart's Neighborhood Market, $32.12 at Food City, $35.68 at Albertsons, $37.12 at Fry's Food Store, $38.35 at Safeway and $39.07 at Bashas.

Applying loyalty card discounts, however, Fry's Food Store, owned by Kroger, came the closest (within 24 cents) to Wal-Mart's regular pricing. After the two price leaders, Food City took third place, then Bashas, Albertsons and Safeway.

Because Walmart, Food City and Albertsons do not require loyalty cards for special discounts, their prices in both scenarios remained the same. But Fry's Food Store moved up from fourth place to second with a market basket of $30.90, Basha's moved to fourth place at $35.11, leaving Albertsons and Safeway in fifth and sixth place, with pricing of $35.68 and $36.44, respectively.

Target was not included in the survey because it did not offer store brands for all of the items studied, according to The Arizona Daily Star.