Grocery Store Review: Winco

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Since the grand opening sale nearly 3 months ago, I've made it a point to shop at Winco regularly, in an attempt to get to know the store and form an opinion of it.

Which I have.

In short, I really, really like it.

Winco is a little different than other stores we have around here. For one, you bag your own groceries. You also can't use credit cards. And quite possibly the biggest difference I see, the minute you shop at Winco, you suddenly wish there was one right around the corner from your house, because you don't want to shop anywhere else. Is it just me? Probably not because most people I talk to who have shopped at Winco love it.

Being brand new, our stores are clean and well lit. You walk in and are immediately greeted with great deals. This past week it was pork roasts for .98 per pound. The infamous "wall of savings" is next, although I've never been super impressed with the items featured there. They're supposedly the best deals in the store, but I disagree. From what I've seen, the wall of savings features junk food for essentially the same price at Walmart.

However, if you keep walking, you'll soon see one of the main reasons I have enjoyed shopping at Winco: the produce section. First of all, it's huge. I have spent a lot of time looking at each and every item and am just incredibly impressed with the selection. Last time I was there I think I counted 8 different types of carrots for purchase- from shredded, julienne sliced, individually sold, and even in a 40-lb bag. Second, the prices are amazing. Pears for .78/lb, .18/lb oranges that were available around the holidays, and for weeks, avocados have been only .33 each.

If you can make it out of the produce section will room still in your cart, you'll enter the bulk food section. Wow. I can't say I've ever seen a bulk foods section quite as extensive! You can purchase the normal candy items, but the real gems are the bins after the candy- bulk bins of nuts, flours and grains of all different kids, and my personal favorites- spices. The prices are so incredible they deserve a post of their own...which I'm already working on! Suffice it to say- if you haven't checked out the bulk food section yet, I highly recommend it!

The dairy and meat sections of Winco are decent, milk and eggs being somewhat of an exception. Each time I've gone, the milk and egg prices have been at least .10 lower than our Walmart's. The meat prices are good- sometimes even great- but nothing I haven't seen at Walmart or Smith's. Not only that, but the meat didn't look very appealing.

Keep an eye out for these little green tags that indicate a sale item. Sales generally run for about a month, and so far I can't seem to pinpoint an exact schedule. So far the sales have been pretty impressive, especially on cereal. By combining coupons with sales, I've managed to get some of our favorite cereals for around .50-.80 per box.

Walking around the store many times now, I've concluded that their selection is inconsistent. You sometimes have a wide variety of options...and other times, only one option. They don't have a wide selection of diapers, yet the rest of the baby section was decent. Same with canned foods, frozen foods and even cleaning products. With many items, it was either all or nothing, and after a while, it started to frustrate me. I had hoped to find the infamous Electrasol dish washing detergent to be a screaming deal with my $2.50 off coupon. However, they had 1 variety and it was a 32-count box for $7.46 {buying it at Costco would be cheaper!}

Despite the inconsistent selection, I still really like Winco. Their prices are just incredible and for the most part, I've found what I've been looking for. To give you an idea on just how low their prices are, I pulled up the Grocery Comparison post from a few months ago and input Winco's prices for those items. Those who have been reading my blog for a while know that Smith's beat out Walmart and Target and earned the title of being lowest priced grocery store in Utah. {As far as I'm concerned anyways!}

Well, move over Smith's because Winco has arrived! Originally, Smith's was priced 2% lower than Walmart and 3% lower than Target. Winco came in at a whopping 9% lower than Smith's, 11% lower than Walmart and 12% lower than Target!

The downside to all of this is that there are currently only two Winco stores operating in Utah, one in Midvale, the other in West Valley. Two more stores are set to open this year though! The Roy location will be opening this Spring and the Provo location will follow this Fall.  Despite the drive, I feel the savings are worth it, so head over and check it out!