Western Beef: Beans, beans...
Western Beef is a grcoery chain consisting of about 20 stores in New York and 2 in Florida. Their specialty is, well, beef, and other meats. Instead of a freezer case, they have an entire freezer room dedicated to cuts of meat. Wear your jacket! They also have some pretty good deals on produce.
I used to go there a lot until ALDI opened and until I discovered the produce store. But I saw a great deal there - Goya beans were on sale for 33¢ a can, limit 6. So I took a trip over there today. My plan was to have four or five transactions and get six cans each time, and have enough canned beans to last quite a while.
When I got there, I discovered there was another caveat. It was limit 6 with an addition $10 purchase. Ack! So I looked around the store for what else I would buy.
I found some good deals on tomatoes, red peppers, scallions, and cherries (only $1.99 per pound). I also picked up some lettuce as we're finally out. I picked up a bottle of lemon juice - at 99¢ per quart, it beats ALDI's price by 70¢. I got some packages of frozen ravioli, which were on sale for $1.50 each. And I bought a small amount of a salad from their deli (not pictured below). I split the items into two transactions.
The first transaction ended up being $12.60 before the 6 cans of beans. Great. But the second totaled $9.86 before the other 6 cans. What? I checked the register, and the scallions (whose sign said they were 2/$1.00) scanned at 3/$1.29, cheaper than I expected, but set me below the $10 minimum. At first I tried to talk the cashier into raising the price... and then realized how dumb that was. Instead, I grabbed a pack of gum, which cost 30¢ and put more over the minimum. Whew!
All right, here's the details:
Transaction 1:
1.43 lb tomatoes @ 59¢/lb = 84¢
1 romaine lettuce @ $1.29
0.87 lb cherries @ $1.99/lb = $1.73
1 salad @ $3.20
2 ravioli @ $1.50 = $3.00
1.57 lb red pepper @ 99¢/lb = $1.55
1 lemon juice @ 99¢
6 Goya black beans @ 33¢ = $1.98
Total spent: $14.58
Transaction 2:
6 ravioli @ $1.50 = $9.00
2 scallions @ 3/$1.29 = 86¢
1 gum @ 30¢
6 Goya kidney beans @ 33¢ = $1.98
Tax: 2¢
Total spent: $12.16
Total spent in both transactions: $26.74
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4 comments:
I love that you tried to talk the cashier into raising the price...and then realized the error of your ways! :-)
I've done that, too. At CVS, if they give me trouble about using a coupon value too high, I'm like, can't you just adjust the price? :D Way to roll with the punches on the sale!
I've seen the ads for Western Beef but have been reluctant to drive up there (I'm in E Ft. Laud.) ... are the prices worth it across the board or just the sale items they advertise? I also hate that they seem to always have a 'with a $x.xx purchase' clause on the good deals.
@Frugal in Florida - For the things I buy, I would say it is not worth the trip. The regular prices of their house brand groceries generally are generally higher than ALDI's. They have a large selection of Hispanic items at this particular store, but I'm sure there are specialty stores elsewhere with similar items. I don't know about the meat prices as I don't buy meat at standard grocery stores, but Western Beef might have better prices on that.
Also, they don't take Internet-printed coupons, which is a real bummer.
So I'd say it's not worth an extra trip, but if you happen to be nearby (there's a new store in Pembroke Pines that just opened as well), take a look.
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