Food City vs. Kroger – MY Store Preference
Thursday, February 26, 2009 Hand-posted by Jennifer
I have three of the major grocery chains near me to do my grocery shopping: Food Lion, Food City and Kroger.
We have one Food Lion and it is out of my way so it doesn’t appeal to me logistically. As far as Food City and Kroger they are practically around the corner from each other in each end of town that I drive so those are both would be easy for me to get to.
There are other bloggers out there that have ad matchups for Kroger and Food Lion but I noticed I never saw anything for Food City. I checked the forums at BeCentsAble, HotCouponWorld, and AFullCup and there wasn’t much being said about Food City if anything at all. Hmm…
I used to shop at Food City years ago and my mom still shops Food City. So, here’s what I did.
I decided I was going to Food City to scout some deals so I could be the one to blog about them. Yeah right! I even drove to the big New store on the edge of town. Disappointment. OK, maybe I’ve lived in the Kroger land of doubles for too long or maybe it just wasn’t a good sale week. Maybe it was just all the RED! I don’t know but I didn’t find much.
I was even excited about going in because it had been so long…and boy had things had changed. Apparently Food City has this new See Red, Save Green marketing campaign – Everywhere in the store! You know what I mean? Red, Red, Red!
There are all these RED sale tags stuck everywhere then a few white ones…it was so visually distracting. This wasn’t the way I remembered Food City and it made me hurry to get out of the store. I wanted something clean. Not the opposite of dirty clean but the easy on my eyes clean. Exit – front door.
So, I left the store with nothing. No deals, no groceries, nothing.
Now, I’m not trying to say Food City isn’t a great store. My mom shops there and she loves it. Maybe Food City is the best chain you have in your town. Whatever. I’m just saying that I love my beloved Kroger even more now! Back to Krogering for me!
How about you? What’s your favorite store? What store do you avoid?
February 26, 2009 at 2:35 PM
Kroger is by far our favorite store! We shop at Ingles periodically--about every other month and when they have their triple coupons. Ingles does a far better job of having a large variety of organics at a reasonably cost, and I also like that they put the organics with the regular foods so that you can more easily do a price comparison. However, everyday items like lunchmeat and bread are usually a bit more expensive there. Kroger also has more variety of coupon options with the mailable coupons and the loadable coupons that they do.
I go into Food City a couple of times a year. We have their kids club card, and periodically we receive freebie coupons in the mail with them. They do not double, and that has been a big frustration for me. However, when I've been in the store in Fountain City the service has been above and beyond. I had all sorts of free coupons, and the store manager and clerk spent well over 15 minutes helping me to figure it out so that they were all free. They never complained about it once! Awesome.
For now I stick with Kroger, Walgreens and Target and occasionally shop at CVS, Ingles, and Food City. (Although in April Walgreen's rebate policies are changing, so I might be going to CVS more often--we'll see).
Looking forward to what others have to say,
Gabe
February 27, 2009 at 2:28 AM
Kroger rulz! I buy everything, EVERYTHING there. I skip walmart as much as possible. I use to do the whole Walgreens and CVS, not so much anymore. I just don't have the time.
March 10, 2009 at 11:12 AM
Hello from a fellow Knoxvillian. We live in South Knoxville-home of bargains! I do not shop at Food City very often. They are very expensive unless you want to buy mostly junky-generics. I do think they tend to have good prices for clearanced meat and produce. Other than that, I get the sales flier (which comes out on Monday) and give it a glance. They sometimes have "buy 1 get 2 free" items which combined with a coupon are great! But they haven't been doing that lately. Also last fall they did some health/beauty/medicine coupons where you would buy 3 things get $5 off. I was able to find some cheaper items, use coupons and with the $5 back some items were less than $1. Haven't seen those lately either. Now I just scan store for closeouts and marked-down perishables. Which end of town are you in? Thanks for all the tips!
March 10, 2009 at 11:16 AM
I am not against generics. When I said junky generics, I meant things like white hotdog buns, store-bought cinnamon rollls, bright orange cheese puffs, and sugary drinks (which also happen to have lots of coloring in them). Yuk. That's all they seem to really have on sale except the meat.
March 10, 2009 at 7:52 PM
Hey Honey! I am in the Seymour area close to South Knoxville. I'd love to chat with a local more so drop me some emails.
I've veered away from Food City up until this last venture and I'll probably just stick to my Kroger clearance , LOL!
March 28, 2011 at 4:31 AM
I like to share a new coupon site called KindCoupons.org. It is also a great site to save money.
September 23, 2018 at 11:32 PM
Look at the bottom of your receipt from your last purchase.
food-lion-survey