Mighty Bargain Hunter

Discount grocery, reloaded

April 7th, 2007 | by mbhunter |

I was saddened when our local discount grocery store went out of business.  After nearly a year, though, it’s back in business with a new twist.

It’s no longer just “scratch and dent” groceries for sale.  About half of the shelf space is groceries as it was before — canned goods, household chemicals, pet food, pre-packaged food, dry goods — and the other half is clothes, toys, tools, and other household items.  There was even a small section of DVDs and video games.  There were a lot of overstocked and salvaged Costco items there.  The frozen food and refrigerated sections were gone.  (No more 99-cent Ben and Jerry’s pints!)

The pricing was similar to what it was before — some of the items were great deals; others were fair deals; and some weren’t deals at all.  Being able to buy the bulk quantities of some items without the membership fee is worth a little, though.

This new format gives the owners more flexibility.  What convinced them to go out of business before was that they couldn’t get the product at as good a price, and the product that they were getting wasn’t as good.  With the new store format, they can adjust the type of stock they carry to what brings in the most money.

Another thing that’s different is that it’s only open four days a week.  A couple of restaurants in the area do this as well.  Having the appearance of scarcity may end up giving them more volume than they would have gotten if they were open every day.  It also helps their labor costs, which are expensive.

As a customer, it’s nice to have more options.  I hope they stay in business for a while with this new format.  I missed it!