I broke my vow b/c WM had the price I could afford to pay for an non-insurance covered prescription medical device for one of my kids. And I've had to go back in there for supplies for the device.
While in there I took a look around. I did my shopping for the 2 weeks to avoid another trip. I spend all I had budgetted and didn't have much produce at all and no meat or eggs. I bought some bananas to avoid another store trip, they were nasty. They were just mush, yet still almost too green to eat. I ususally spend about $85 to $100 on produce for 2 to 3 weeks.
I tried a 2ndX over the course of 6 months. Again my budget was blown and the produce was bad. I had to remember -- this is why I don't shop here and one of the major reasons I stopped shopping here. Where was my brain? Oh yes, ill child.
Meat, never. Produce, I should have remembered my lesson learned from 6 years ago. The produce is rotten or hard as a rock or both. Frozen foods, melted then put in the freezers. I don't have time in my life to make returns and it makes me mad to waste money.
If you can buy edible pears at WM for .50 lb go for it. There isn't an edible pear that has passed these lips in decades. They pick every thing not yet ripe and those suckers never ripen at my house before they turn to rotten.
WM did have some GF pasta sitting next to the gluten pasta.
Can't say I trust the box to protect the cross contamination issue. Nice effort, not buying it. I'd rather pay 2X to 5X more for a known safe product. I did notice some items friends of mine can buy like Kashi were much less than our HFS, say $3 less per box. But we're GF which makes processed foods brand specific and limited.
I had to find out why my budget was blown and I had so little produce to show for it. I hadn't bought tiddly crap, only food items I buy at the grocery store and some household items I buy there too. I've found WM more expensive on things we needed during that time. I had to buy formula, specialty formula. It was $9 cheaper at the grocery store. I was buying some baby foods and they were cheaper at the grocery store. I was buying disposable diapers for a short time and they were cheaper at the grocery store too. I also notice the shampoo I used to use was about .60 cheaper at the grocery store. Kotex cheaper, on sale at the grocery store. Cereal on sale, cheaper at the grocery store. Store leaders are always a better price than WM and I use the store ad leaders to plan out our weekly menus. When I don't, I go over budget.
We don't have Alde's either. I was shopping in a major chain grocery store called Giant. I shop leaders between the only 2 grocery stores we have left in town Giant and Food Lion. BTW - Food Lion marks meat down 2 to 3 days before expiration date. You have to catch it before the seniors run in. I've never gotten anything bad and I have from WM no where near expiration.
Notice WM has changed their ad campaign in the last year or so. It is not Low Prices Always anymore. They no longer ad match either, I tried once about 6 years ago and it was a HUGE headache.
I am sure there are deals to be had in there, but the distances to get there is further than the grocery store and if I pay .50 more on celery this week, I'm still ahead b/c I pay .35 per mile to drive anywhere I have to go. Plus the only deal might be the .50 celery and considering the track record of our local WM and fresh food quality there isn't a point to going in for 1 or 2 items that might be a steal. We don't get ads for WM that include food leaders. So, I wouldn't know if they had a special or not.
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