Best Grocery store for Value?

I'm a Sainsbury's shopper.  In my local area, I've been very disappointed with the quality of the meat and fresh produce of Asda.  At times, I will hit Tesco because they are close and generally only for small bits; however, they are the worst for the guess-where-they've-hidden-the-product-this-week game.  I use to shop there faithfully but became increasingly fed up with moving products and running out of stock.

We have a Waitrose but it is too far away.  No Morrison's nearby.

I agree with most of the others. When I am on tight budget I find asda cheapest, but I prefer sainsburys and we do our monthly shop there.

I do agree that ASDA is the cheapest and they do have some good quality things also.  I've bought several "lounge" pants and a light-weight peacoat (jacket) from there and they have held up a lot better than the Wal-Mart clothes I have bought in the past.  I do hate hate hate hate hate that the ASDA in Wakefield is always extremely crowded everytime I go...but they do deliver for a small fee of £3.50 so for "normal" groceries this is more convenient for me (and still cheaper).

Also I don't think I've seen anyone mention Iceland.  They have some really good deals (and not just on frozen stuff).  I found some things cheaper there than ASDA.

Agree on everyone's opinions, also agree that ASDA is really cheap but quality can be inconsistent and it's always way too overfull with narrow aisles

I would consider that pound shops can be  a false economy, especially if you've just moved and don't know the prices of things. They can be good for some things.

I also think it's worth looking at the way you shop, what you buy etc. For instance, I do all my shopping at Waitrose (via Ocado) we spend around £40 a week by only buying what we need and by meal planning.

We could probably stretch further if DB wasn't a leftovers nazi. He seems to believe that leftovers in the fridge even for an evening will taint all the other food in there, whereas I'll eat anything that doesn't look furry or smelly.

Oh also I would caveat mine by saying we buy pretty much nothing branded (I make all our food from raw ingredients) , no tins (beans etc) or mayonnaises, sauces, ready meals, biscuits, cereals or anything really, aside from Skippy peanut butter () which means that ocado is comparable price but better quality (value) than Tescos but I think Branded goods drastically changes that, branded goods are hugely expensive at Ocado.
 
Tesco always has good branded goods deals imo

Anyways, I wouldn't go to Asda even if it were close! Even if its no longer owned by wal-mart?, I am an anti wal-mart person.

Soulmate! I thought I was the only one who refused to shop at Asda! 

This is going to sound like we're filthy rich, but we get all our fruit and veg via Abel & Cole each week. It means we don't have to lug it home, we get top notch quality produce, we get a huge variety (including things I'd never ever pick out on my own at a store, but I've discovered are really tasty), and because we're not in a store, we end up saving money because we don't end up buying 20 other things along with the fruit and veg.

Meat and larder items are bought in bulk, either from Costco or GoodnessDirect.co.uk and frozen or stored in our gigantic hold (little glass jars are in the kitchen - we refill these from the big bags in the hold, once again avoiding a trip to the store), and stuff like bread/milk/eggs are bought from our local Costcutter, which, due to the concentration of multimillion pound flats in the area, is super nicely stocked but with the same prices as every other Costcutter.

My fiance and I have always put a big pirority on food - we cook things from scratch, which always brings down your food bills rather than buying ready-prepped stuff, and would much much rather buy quality ingredients and make restaurant-quality food at home and make cuts elsewhere in the household budget than go anywhere near the food. I'm not saying this is for everyone (especially if you're short on pantry and freezer space!!) but it works for us, and I definitely think we're getting good value.

Oh, I also cook from scratch as often as possible and don't rely on "branded" goods.  If I need something canned, I generally will go for the store brand to save a few pennies. (unless it's beans. Can't get Tim away from his Heinz Beans).  The only experience I had with meat purchased at Asda was our Christmas Turkey last year, and the only reason we went to Asda was because Tesco was out of turkeys!  I had previously cooked a turkey from Tesco for Thanksgiving, and I was very confused as to why the Asda turkey still had bits of feather attached to it.  I also didn't think the turkey tasted as well, but that also could have been that my attempt at stuffing the Christmas bird was  disaster and I had soggy stuffing. 

What is Abel and Cole? And those of you who get a produce box delivered, where do you get it from?  We're planning on having a garden eventually to grow most of our own veg, but of course that won't really be an option in January!  I know I got some nice produce at both Asda and Tesco last year - Tesco had a lot of buy 2, get 1 free deals on the stuff we used.

I am an avid meal planner.  Here (in the US), I'll take a look at each store's sale flier on Sunday and plan around what the weekly deals are, but I have been given the impression that the UK stores don't really do sales fliers.

Our kitchen is small, but there's room for extra shelving in one of the odd shaped corners, so I think we'll be adding more pantry shelves there for things.

Do you need to be a member of Costco?  Although looking at the list of locations, it looks like the closest one is over an hour away!  (OTOH, it's in the same town as IKEA )

ASDA was until recently* owned by the US Wal-Mart company and some bigger ASDA stores have been rebranded "ASDA Wal-mart"

*"Wal-Mart has sold Asda for £6.9bn to a Leeds-based investment vehicle called Corinth Services Limited for only £200m more than it paid for the UK supermarket chain in 1999."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/6527054/Wal-Mart-sells-Asda-for-6.9bn-in-group-restructuring.html

Corinth is a subsidiary of Wal-Mart, so Wal-Mart technically still owns Asda...they just shuffled it around a bit.


But what we really need in the UK is Target!

Able & Cole is essentially an online greengrocer.

There're a few places around by us that offer veg box deliveries.  There's a greengrocer in our village which I've spoken to that will do tailored deliveries (they deliver to a few people on my street), but it depends on what we're eating / cooking, so its not economical for us as we're more fruit than veg people and on how much I stock up on when I do a grocery shop.  Some garden centres near you may offer veg box deliveries (or they might be able to point you in the direction of a few greengrocers), so it could be worth looking at them.  Farm shops too, have a look for some in your area and see if they offer deliveries or see what their prices are like.  Its a bit more reassuring buying something when you know where its coming fom.   

Soulmate! I thought I was the only one who refused to shop at Asda! 

You're definitely not the only one! I've never shopped at Walmart either!

Teletabby's already given the Abel & Cole link, but yeah, we're stupidly happy with them (if you do a search, there was a thread here a while back about all the different veg box schemes people were members of). We've been getting their mixed organic box for about two years now and it's generally just about right for the two of us (if you don't pack a lunch though it might be too much, but they do smaller boxes), sometimes we have one or two things left over, but other weeks we eat everything with a day to spare - we call that "conquering the box" and my fiance gets a takeaway reward.

I really like with A&C that you can mark the stuff you hate (for us: brussel sprouts, turnips, and tomatoes) so you'll never get those but have a substitute instead, and you can mark the stuff you love (pumpkin, berries, etc etc) so you'll get given those if they're available. And if you go on holiday (or in my case, end up in hospital for weeks on end), you can temporarily cancel your box for that week with only a few days' notice. And everything's in season, organic, and never air freighted, and in general, stuff tends to be either ripe or underripe (like the persimmons we got on Monday are only now just getting soft, or bananas are often green), so I don't think I've ever had stuff go bad before we could eat it like some other people experienced with other schemes in the earlier thread.

Oh, one thing you do need to think about, though, is if there's anywhere they can actually leave the box at your place! We're lucky that we have a gate so we just give the driver the code, but they can also leave them in back gardens, in entryways, with porters, stuff like that, but not everybody has somewhere where stuff won't get nicked!

I hate ASDA and Wal-Mart too.  I feel like my soul is being sucked away each time I go in there, and I don't feel like the quality is as good as other stores, so I tend to avoid it.  I'm still a budget shopper, but I don't set foot in ASDA unless I really have to.

I've been finding I save a lot when I take the time to use my local fruit and veg stands.  There are a handful of them in places like our local indoor market and on a nearby road.  I've been pleasantly surprised just how much I can get for around £10.  I will come home with bags of fresh fruit and veg.  It has been especially handy with the baby since I make her baby food instead of using jars.  My produce bills shot up considerably with weaning, but it's been good for all of us to have more fresh stuff around.

Able & Cole is essentially an online greengrocer.

Teletabby's already given the Abel & Cole link, but yeah, we're stupidly happy with them (if you do a search, there was a thread here a while back about all the different veg box schemes people were members of). We've been getting their mixed organic box for about two years now and it's generally just about right for the two of us (if you don't pack a lunch though it might be too much, but they do smaller boxes), sometimes we have one or two things left over, but other weeks we eat everything with a day to spare - we call that "conquering the box" and my fiance gets a takeaway reward.

I really like with A&C that you can mark the stuff you hate (for us: brussel sprouts, turnips, and tomatoes) so you'll never get those but have a substitute instead, and you can mark the stuff you love (pumpkin, berries, etc etc) so you'll get given those if they're available. And if you go on holiday (or in my case, end up in hospital for weeks on end), you can temporarily cancel your box for that week with only a few days' notice. And everything's in season, organic, and never air freighted, and in general, stuff tends to be either ripe or underripe (like the persimmons we got on Monday are only now just getting soft, or bananas are often green), so I don't think I've ever had stuff go bad before we could eat it like some other people experienced with other schemes in the earlier thread.

Oh, one thing you do need to think about, though, is if there's anywhere they can actually leave the box at your place! We're lucky that we have a gate so we just give the driver the code, but they can also leave them in back gardens, in entryways, with porters, stuff like that, but not everybody has somewhere where stuff won't get nicked!

I think I just fell in love. . I'm a huge fan of organics, since I discovered half my stomach problems don't exist when I eat organic food. One thing I didn't like about one of the other services I had looked at was there was no way of marking what you didn't want, so there would have been a chance that we'd wind up with something from the onion family, which I'm not allowed to have, or the mushroom family, which Tim doesn't like. I like how Abel & Cole have their website set up. This is definitely something worth looking into, at least until our garden actually gets underway and we start producing our own organic veg.

I would probably be home to accept a delivery, and my in-laws are just around the corner, so no worries about delivery there! 

I'm a huge fan of organics, since I discovered half my stomach problems don't exist when I eat organic food.

My asthma has gone down nearly to nothing, I reckon, because of organic food.