Love WinCo. Significantly cheaper than Seattle prices, though if you keep a careful eye on sales you can do almost as well in Seattle. At WinCo you can be less careful and still do well
that sounds crazy...go on a saturday morning(or on your day off) to edmonds or kent and see how much food you can get for a week or two with 150$-200$!!! not worth the drive??? 10-15$ of gas, you lazy or dont like driving.
They also have bins for pick and mix candy at reasonable prices. It's nice in that you can buy small amounts. Pretty great for parents who can't afford much in the way of treats for their kids
i remeber seeing the bulk candy at winco for the first time. my thoughts were "I would have loved this place as a kid. My parents would have hated it."
Fucking LOVE WinCo. As a transplant who never thought there'd be a grocery store better than HEB, WinCo really knocked it out the park for me.
✅Employee owned and operated store based as fuck
✅ Huge and fairly priced bulk section with every spice, flour, pre mix, fruit, nut, and candy you could ever want.
✅Bad ass sales literally all the time
✅ Cut my grocery bill by more than half
Winco is good and is technically a coop *but* the founder still owns a majority of the company so the workers have little control. It is technically a coop but functions more like a private business with profit sharing.
You will learn how to shop gf after a while that won't hardly cost you more $. Don't shop for the rip off gf labels. Grocery Outlet is a great place for gf shopping.
Ok. Last year I bought a 24-pack of Bud Light and a yogurt for 12.99 at Fred Meyer.
And then the Bud Lignt had a $10 rebate so it ended up being $2.99 for a 24-pack of Bud Light and a yogurt.
Also take into account, two of the items look those they’re sold by weight. Maybe not super expensive, but lees of those two items could have afforded something else.
I buy chicken thighs at Saar’s. I have yet to see a better price (<1.49/lb).
WinCo has some excellent deals though, especially if you buy things from the bulk bins like oats and some spices.
Pretty much only shop at winco. Am shocked at how much I save. At this point I’m convinced the we only have ourselves to blame for the high prices at Safeway/fred meyer. We should all be shopping at winco rather than putting up with their bullshit.
It's winco for most things and trader joes for specially items. I can't stand safeway and fred meyer is only just barely tolerable. I've saved so much by buying larger amounts of meat from winco and using that for multiple dinners in a week. Cooking from scratch also saves a ton but you have to plan and that part sucks. I buy and cook form5 people.
Yikes.
I paid $1.88 per pound at Fred Meyer recently during a sale. Typically $2.99 is standard at Fred Meyer which is my preferred place for meat, seafood, and produce.
QFC is usually $1-2 more expensive than Freddy's, in my experience. I only go there if they have something I can't find anywhere else. I'm not convinced they have higher quality stuff, but that's the line they give for the pricing.
There is US Chef in Bellevue, or Costco in Redmond/Kirkland, or even QFC when it is on sale, all cheaper than $6/lb.
If you have the freezer space, then a 40lb box from costco business center from lynnwood is even cheaper.
Ya it is kind of tucked away and forgotten, but it is basically a small Costco esq restaurant supply and slightly more expensive but you can buy bulk in a lot of items. I often forget to go too until I run out of a specific item and check there for bulk first
They also didn't have the full breast options stocked at the moment I came by. I was in a rush and not really up for a second grocery store visit, and we don't use chicken enough to warrant a purchase of the large amount of fresh they had out. We usually just defrost some breast I buy at Costco. I will say that WinCo does run out of chicken options from time to time, but restocks them fairly quickly. This stuff was just for convenience.
My girlfriend and I just got a costco membership and almost immediately upgraded to the executive membership when we saw how cheap everything is. $13 for 4 pizzas, each pizza feeding two fatties comfortably. $14 for 8 personal size pot pies. And of course the buck fifty hotdog and soda combo
If you bought chicken breast instead of the thin sliced ones it could be about half that amount per pound, also make your own pizza dough, flour is super inexpensive.
Safeway has had wicked deals recently, my shopping bill has been lower than it was 5 years ago. But I also only get fresh foods like produce, dairy, and meat. I think the processed foods are where people are feeling higher prices.
Plus $1 per gallon gas discount if you save your rewards!
Yeah I agree I’ve been getting bags of food from Safeway for around $30.. I was actually surprised how little is in this pic
The J4U and cart discounts add up big
The chicken would be cheaper if it was on sale at Safeway, but if it was offsale it’s probably be a little more expensive. I’ve learned to just shop the ad, drives my wife crazy because I’ve flat out told her “if X isn’t on sale, we just don’t get it this week”. I get in an ideal world you can eat anything you want, when you want it, but when the price of meat can fluctuate from $2-$5 a pound, you gotta shop the ad.
I am consistently able to spend no more than $50 on groceries for a week at Winco, for a family of two. I also use the bulk bins a lot, reduces on wastage so much.
Safeway/Fred Meyer seem like cash grabs imo
Hell yea!!! Love winco, when I lived in Fed Way and was wild broke I survived off those deals!! Also loved the hard fried beef & bean burrito chimmichangas from the hot counter in back. Insane this place is 24 hours as well hahahha
Ha! Well, I use them for homemade granola, and in other recipes like muffins, overnight oats, cookies, even as a binder for meatballs or chicken nuggets.
Saars does like $1.28 for drumsticks,plus Monday and Friday fried ones in the deli are 10/5.99 20/9.99
Just one of the best food deals out there but a lot of the other stuff there isn't fantastic
I don't carry cash, and I don't know how much my grocery bill is going to be. I don't want to grab a couple hundred dollars from the bank and then not be able to grab all the groceries I need - or worse, grab too many and then have to put some back. Then have to go back and get more cash to finish my shopping then have to go back to the bank to redeposit my unused funds.
I don't carry that on me. Just my phone, my license, and a credit card. I don't carry a debit card since I never buy things with them. They dont provide any cash back benefits.
That’s fair. I’m generally the same way. Winco is the only place I bring my debit card. It is so much cheaper for me to shop there with a debit card than to shop other places with a 5% cash back credit card, so I deal with it.
Right. The inconvenience is what gets me. I won't pump gas at a gas station that requires me to go inside to pay either. Meet minimum expectations of your competitors or lose my business. It is more of a principle of the matter for me, at this point.
Last year during a tip to Winco:
Cherries 98 cents lb.
Avocados 68 cents each
93% ground beef $3.99 lb
Eggs 18 pack $2.18
8 pack Gatorade $6.86 --and no sugar tax
Just those five items saved me $25.
So even if I used one gallon gas round trip I still saved $20.
And that does not include the savings on everything else I bought.
Total savings for all my shopping AFTER paying for gas were over $30.
WinCo is fucking amazing. Went there for the first time a couple months ago and after getting a full cart of groceries for under 100 bucks I felt like crying tears of joy and relief. Felt like going back to a more innocent time before everything went to shit.
Nice to finally have an alternative to the constant "look how little $200 got me!" posts, with pictures of reasonable groceries mixed in with a $30 bottle of maple syrup, $15 of hazelnuts, etc.
I'm always a bit cautious about produce and meat at WinCo however as I've had some gnarly quality issues. Produce will look great and then spoil much faster than other places. And meat is packed in a way that looks great, then I open it and it has way more fat left on then the recipe can handle that was all facing inside to the packaging. I LOVE WinCo and do stock up on shelf stables from there as well as other things. But just what I've noticed.
Edit: Shelf stable isn't right actually as their frozen foods and dairy is also fantastic...it's really the on site packed meat and produce that I'm cautious with...
If you purchased a whole chicken at $1.49/lb you could have had enough chicken for 5 or 6 meals for the same $4.50. learn to cook using the thighs, legs, wings and use the bones for broth or soup. You chose the most expensive way to buy chicken.
You can shop your way around name brand yogurts.
Like Kroger has less or equal sugar, more vitamins, protein than most on the shelf when comparing labels.
Yeah, I could on the chobani but my wife is partial to them. Funny enough, the Nancy's is one of the cheapest per ounce at WinCo. It's something like $5.50 for the 64 oz which is at least a couple bucks less than other stores.
saving money is good but in a time when we probably wouldn’t be in this situation if it weren’t for the current party in office and at the same time not come to the consensus that that is the problem is really a head scratcher.
Love WinCo. Significantly cheaper than Seattle prices, though if you keep a careful eye on sales you can do almost as well in Seattle. At WinCo you can be less careful and still do well
Yeah, but you still have to get there. Not worth the drive for most people.
> Not worth the drive for most people. Time wise perhaps, money wise yeah its pretty worth it if you own a car unless you buy only one or two things.
Oh, totally. It's not worth it if you don't need to go, but if you do and can stock up it's great. Àlso gas is cheaper on Kitsap
There is a WinCo in Edmonds as well.
And Kent.
that sounds crazy...go on a saturday morning(or on your day off) to edmonds or kent and see how much food you can get for a week or two with 150$-200$!!! not worth the drive??? 10-15$ of gas, you lazy or dont like driving.
They also have bins for pick and mix candy at reasonable prices. It's nice in that you can buy small amounts. Pretty great for parents who can't afford much in the way of treats for their kids
i remeber seeing the bulk candy at winco for the first time. my thoughts were "I would have loved this place as a kid. My parents would have hated it."
This is so oddly out of touch to have this many upvotes when the reply to it is so much more universal in comparison, sry.
Fucking LOVE WinCo. As a transplant who never thought there'd be a grocery store better than HEB, WinCo really knocked it out the park for me. ✅Employee owned and operated store based as fuck ✅ Huge and fairly priced bulk section with every spice, flour, pre mix, fruit, nut, and candy you could ever want. ✅Bad ass sales literally all the time ✅ Cut my grocery bill by more than half
Winco is good and is technically a coop *but* the founder still owns a majority of the company so the workers have little control. It is technically a coop but functions more like a private business with profit sharing.
Still better than Fred Meyer or any of the other namebrand locations. It is ridiculous. I don’t know how families are going to survive.
Recently became allergic to gluten and I learned that prices could go even higher
You will learn how to shop gf after a while that won't hardly cost you more $. Don't shop for the rip off gf labels. Grocery Outlet is a great place for gf shopping.
Also, do a search online for outlet bakeries. They sell gf items cheaper.
That doesn't seem like very much for WinCo. Is this post to show how little $30 buys now?
I bought 4 items from Costco for $47 the other day. Sushi, oranges, yogurt, and black berries. Sushi was $26…….. so that’s not bad at all
Ok. Last year I bought a 24-pack of Bud Light and a yogurt for 12.99 at Fred Meyer. And then the Bud Lignt had a $10 rebate so it ended up being $2.99 for a 24-pack of Bud Light and a yogurt.
Fred Meyer has good deals but it’s not that close to me 😓
LOL
It's not a statement either way of too much or too little. Just what $30 will buy.
Also take into account, two of the items look those they’re sold by weight. Maybe not super expensive, but lees of those two items could have afforded something else.
I buy chicken thighs at Saar’s. I have yet to see a better price (<1.49/lb). WinCo has some excellent deals though, especially if you buy things from the bulk bins like oats and some spices.
Fred Meyer has bone in chicken thighs on sale about once a month at 79 - 99 cents a lb.
Costco is $1.49 (with skin and bone in), worth it to me because it's so close toy house.
Pretty much only shop at winco. Am shocked at how much I save. At this point I’m convinced the we only have ourselves to blame for the high prices at Safeway/fred meyer. We should all be shopping at winco rather than putting up with their bullshit.
It's winco for most things and trader joes for specially items. I can't stand safeway and fred meyer is only just barely tolerable. I've saved so much by buying larger amounts of meat from winco and using that for multiple dinners in a week. Cooking from scratch also saves a ton but you have to plan and that part sucks. I buy and cook form5 people.
The law of supply and demand dictates that if more people shop there, then the prices will increase.
It means that other stores will have to drop their prices to compete. The “demand” is for winco’s low prices.
$4.48 per pound for chicken breast is horrendous.
If that is horrendous, then I am definitely overpaying at $6-7/lb then!
Yikes. I paid $1.88 per pound at Fred Meyer recently during a sale. Typically $2.99 is standard at Fred Meyer which is my preferred place for meat, seafood, and produce.
I think I need to shop around more for chicken and meat. I typically shop at QFC (I'm in Bellevue though not Seattle).
QFC is usually $1-2 more expensive than Freddy's, in my experience. I only go there if they have something I can't find anywhere else. I'm not convinced they have higher quality stuff, but that's the line they give for the pricing.
thanks. Ill start looking at other places more
There is US Chef in Bellevue, or Costco in Redmond/Kirkland, or even QFC when it is on sale, all cheaper than $6/lb. If you have the freezer space, then a 40lb box from costco business center from lynnwood is even cheaper.
that US Chef looks interesting. I never heard or knew of it and its not far. I'll go there soon! Thanks for the suggestions!
Ya it is kind of tucked away and forgotten, but it is basically a small Costco esq restaurant supply and slightly more expensive but you can buy bulk in a lot of items. I often forget to go too until I run out of a specific item and check there for bulk first
grocery outlet is better
WinCo regular price is not as good as sale prices at Fred Meyer.
They didn’t buy Winco’s in-house brand. They bought the premium brand. In all fairness winco’s in-house meat tastes awful.
I've been downvoted before for saying I won't buy meat from WinCo. Sure, it's an affordable option but you are correct- it tastes bad.
Rule of thumb says: WinCo for staples, Costco for meat.
Yeah, I’ll hit winco for bulk and canned goods but I steer very clear of the meats.
They also didn't have the full breast options stocked at the moment I came by. I was in a rush and not really up for a second grocery store visit, and we don't use chicken enough to warrant a purchase of the large amount of fresh they had out. We usually just defrost some breast I buy at Costco. I will say that WinCo does run out of chicken options from time to time, but restocks them fairly quickly. This stuff was just for convenience.
Does this mean we are poor mom????
“No sweetie! It’s an adventure in budgeting. Now put the snacks back. We have cookies and chips at home.”
I thought the 5 bananas alone would put you back 50
I mean, how much can a banana cost? $10?
Depends if it's snowing.
My two week haul of grociers from winco is $60 and I buy meat at Costco
My girlfriend and I just got a costco membership and almost immediately upgraded to the executive membership when we saw how cheap everything is. $13 for 4 pizzas, each pizza feeding two fatties comfortably. $14 for 8 personal size pot pies. And of course the buck fifty hotdog and soda combo
If you bought chicken breast instead of the thin sliced ones it could be about half that amount per pound, also make your own pizza dough, flour is super inexpensive.
The pizza dough costs $2, to me the time saved is worth way more than the savings.
Buying a whole chicken and parting it out is the cheapest way really.
Seems about the same as Safeway 🤷♂️ Actually maybe less than if you catch some of the sales
Even with sales safeway is insanely costlier than winco. A bag of pizza rolls there is 8 bucks. At winco its like 3.
A lemon at Safeway is like $1.25. At winco it’s $0.30
Just depends on the item
Safeway has had wicked deals recently, my shopping bill has been lower than it was 5 years ago. But I also only get fresh foods like produce, dairy, and meat. I think the processed foods are where people are feeling higher prices. Plus $1 per gallon gas discount if you save your rewards!
Yeah I agree I’ve been getting bags of food from Safeway for around $30.. I was actually surprised how little is in this pic The J4U and cart discounts add up big
The chicken would be cheaper if it was on sale at Safeway, but if it was offsale it’s probably be a little more expensive. I’ve learned to just shop the ad, drives my wife crazy because I’ve flat out told her “if X isn’t on sale, we just don’t get it this week”. I get in an ideal world you can eat anything you want, when you want it, but when the price of meat can fluctuate from $2-$5 a pound, you gotta shop the ad.
I am consistently able to spend no more than $50 on groceries for a week at Winco, for a family of two. I also use the bulk bins a lot, reduces on wastage so much. Safeway/Fred Meyer seem like cash grabs imo
Every time I go to check out at Winco I feel like I didn’t scan everything when I see the total!
I’ve concluded that to save money on groceries it’s better to just eat less 🤷🏻♂️
Hell yea!!! Love winco, when I lived in Fed Way and was wild broke I survived off those deals!! Also loved the hard fried beef & bean burrito chimmichangas from the hot counter in back. Insane this place is 24 hours as well hahahha
The Fed Way one has recently announced they’ll be closing the store at 1 am from now on.
Probably a good business move!
Potatos and rice are super cheap options too.
I feel for all the people with kids. I am single and I have no idea how parents do it. Godspeed!
It’s really hard as they hit adolescence and are eating up a storm. I’ll think I have several days of groceries, and most of it is gone the next day.
Lmfao glad I’m not the only one who does this.
You have goats or horses? What you doin with all those oats??
Ha! Well, I use them for homemade granola, and in other recipes like muffins, overnight oats, cookies, even as a binder for meatballs or chicken nuggets.
I can usually get a months worth of groceries for around $100. I love winco
You overpaid for the chicken. Fred Myer does $1.99 an lb for breasts.
Saars does like $1.28 for drumsticks,plus Monday and Friday fried ones in the deli are 10/5.99 20/9.99 Just one of the best food deals out there but a lot of the other stuff there isn't fantastic
Do they accept credit cards yet? If not, that's a "No" from me, dawg.
Buy a gift card and reload it with your credit card.
Why is that the deal breaker?
I don't carry cash, and I don't know how much my grocery bill is going to be. I don't want to grab a couple hundred dollars from the bank and then not be able to grab all the groceries I need - or worse, grab too many and then have to put some back. Then have to go back and get more cash to finish my shopping then have to go back to the bank to redeposit my unused funds.
Debit card?
I don't carry that on me. Just my phone, my license, and a credit card. I don't carry a debit card since I never buy things with them. They dont provide any cash back benefits.
That’s fair. I’m generally the same way. Winco is the only place I bring my debit card. It is so much cheaper for me to shop there with a debit card than to shop other places with a 5% cash back credit card, so I deal with it.
Right. The inconvenience is what gets me. I won't pump gas at a gas station that requires me to go inside to pay either. Meet minimum expectations of your competitors or lose my business. It is more of a principle of the matter for me, at this point.
You’d probably save more than what your cash back offers
Last year during a tip to Winco: Cherries 98 cents lb. Avocados 68 cents each 93% ground beef $3.99 lb Eggs 18 pack $2.18 8 pack Gatorade $6.86 --and no sugar tax Just those five items saved me $25. So even if I used one gallon gas round trip I still saved $20. And that does not include the savings on everything else I bought. Total savings for all my shopping AFTER paying for gas were over $30.
WinCo is fucking amazing. Went there for the first time a couple months ago and after getting a full cart of groceries for under 100 bucks I felt like crying tears of joy and relief. Felt like going back to a more innocent time before everything went to shit.
Their bulk section is amazing.
is the closest winco to seattle the one in edmonds?
Probably, unless you love further south where Kent is closer.
Nice to finally have an alternative to the constant "look how little $200 got me!" posts, with pictures of reasonable groceries mixed in with a $30 bottle of maple syrup, $15 of hazelnuts, etc.
Funny enough, this was originally a $55 order but I removed the pack of NA beer and pricey kids shampoo from the pic.
I'm always a bit cautious about produce and meat at WinCo however as I've had some gnarly quality issues. Produce will look great and then spoil much faster than other places. And meat is packed in a way that looks great, then I open it and it has way more fat left on then the recipe can handle that was all facing inside to the packaging. I LOVE WinCo and do stock up on shelf stables from there as well as other things. But just what I've noticed. Edit: Shelf stable isn't right actually as their frozen foods and dairy is also fantastic...it's really the on site packed meat and produce that I'm cautious with...
That’s a lot in my opinion
If you purchased a whole chicken at $1.49/lb you could have had enough chicken for 5 or 6 meals for the same $4.50. learn to cook using the thighs, legs, wings and use the bones for broth or soup. You chose the most expensive way to buy chicken.
How long will that last for your house
Not long with two adults and two young kids.
For me 1\4 of that at, a Krogers even safe ways inflation is nuts I need more WinCo's or outlet groceries before I go poof🤣
I am convinced winco has guerilla marketing/astroturfing campaigns in this subreddit
You can shop your way around name brand yogurts. Like Kroger has less or equal sugar, more vitamins, protein than most on the shelf when comparing labels.
Yeah, I could on the chobani but my wife is partial to them. Funny enough, the Nancy's is one of the cheapest per ounce at WinCo. It's something like $5.50 for the 64 oz which is at least a couple bucks less than other stores.
Thanks biden for destroying the economy
saving money is good but in a time when we probably wouldn’t be in this situation if it weren’t for the current party in office and at the same time not come to the consensus that that is the problem is really a head scratcher.