We have a new (and only) Save-a-Lot opening next week, and was wondering what everyone thinks about this store chain, and prices, etc. compared to Winco and even Super Walmart..... TIA...

I love everything but the fresh meat and produce. The canned items and frozen stuff are comparable to Aldi's.

There are a few here in Maine. I tried the one closest to me a few years ago when it first opened, they had their own line of generics and I got Ok prices on some frozen items.....unfortunately the store is in a less then desireable area of the city, and to be honest, was kinda icky....so I stick to the Super Walmart. I found Super Walmarts prices comparable though.

I love my Save-A-Lot. It resently had a face lift and is much better than it used to be. Our has meat on markdown on Monday morning. Dairy products are always less than the other local grocery stores. We currently have 2 in my area. The biggest problem at ours is the help. On any given Sat. when the whole town is shopping they only have 2 or 3 registars open so you wait. Remember to bring your own bags to save more.

LAurie in BRadenton

I think there is one in the next town but I haven't been there. I haven't heard anything good or bad. I think the store may be in a bad part of town.

We had one open up around us 3 years ago. LOVE IT. I guess it depends where you are and who owns and operates the store, on how good the stuff is (fresh veggies/meats). At ours there is such high turn around that the veggies and meats don't have time to go bad at my store. I do 95% of my shopping there. I would say half ours is generic and half brand name. If shopping at the local regular grocery store, I will pay $200 compared to $80-100 at Save a Lot for the same stuff.

I have never been to a Save-A-Lot and I haven't seen one around here (FL)
I have seen a lot of posts about them but never been to one.

I like the store near here. The meat is good, but I never buy the produce unless it's something I will use THAT DAY! I have heard their store brand is made by General Mills, but don't know how true that is.

The sav-a-lot here is in the "bad" part of town--but truthfully, that's where their target customers are. Low-income people trying to save what they can!

I go to our savealot when they have a big sale and stock up. They have things like a giant box of store brand corm flakes for .58cents! But I think the store is dirty and the people in it are creepy. Not everything is a great price, Flour is 30cents more than it is a walmart.

i went to ours for the first time last friday. i can buy just about everything cheaper at the dollar store. they did have whole chickens on sale for .50 a pound so i bought several of those, but i wouldn't do everyday shopping in there.

there are 2 near me. i have been to one but not the other as it is a longer drive. i wasn't overly impressed with the one i went to. the prices weren't much better than walmart. and once you add in the added drive time, it made things worse. if i am out that way, i'll stop in, but i do my normal shopping at super walmart.

I believe this is the same store that was owned by the same company as Winn Dixie ~ I'm not positive ~ we used to have them, but they have all closed :(

this was my first choice in shopping - have fun!

We had a few in the area for years, and last year they opened a really big one. We shop there every week and always like the stuff we get.

Save-a-lot is another of those 'depends on where you are' things, like others have already said.

A few years ago(another town, another time), we frequented a store twice a month that was pretty good, decently kept and the deals were good.

But since then, the two Save-a-lot stores we've found were dirty and the deals just didn't seem to be as good.

One o' those things, I spose.

~~

It's very comparable to Aldi's however I do think I like Aldi's better now... plus Aldi's is almost within walking distance. A couple of people mentioned a few things I don't like about Save-A-Lot. I think the store-packaged meat is way too expensive (I only buy on sale anyway) although their prepackaged breakfast sausage is really good and the lunch meats are a good deal; the produce is ok... just depends on when you go in there; I've had a couple of run-ins with employees about customer service; the stores always look/smell dirty (another reason why I don't buy the store-packaged meats). Other than that, as long as you are aware of current prices elsewhere, you'll be ok. As I've said in another post, just because it's in a 'thrift' grocery doesn't make it a good deal. We have 4 or 5 in our city and have shopped at all, some seem better than others all the way around.

It's very comparable to Aldi's however I do think I like Aldi's better now... plus Aldi's is almost within walking distance. A couple of people mentioned a few things I don't like about Save-A-Lot. I think the store-packaged meat is way too expensive (I only buy on sale anyway) although their prepackaged breakfast sausage is really good and the lunch meats are a good deal; the produce is ok... just depends on when you go in there; I've had a couple of run-ins with employees about customer service; the stores always look/smell dirty (another reason why I don't buy the store-packaged meats). Other than that, as long as you are aware of current prices elsewhere, you'll be ok. As I've said in another post, just because it's in a 'thrift' grocery doesn't make it a good deal. We have 4 or 5 in our city and have shopped at all, some seem better than others all the way around.

Just goes to show how different stores are state to state or county to county. Around me its the complete opposite. Aldis is HORRIBLE. Dirty, stinky and falling apart. As where my Save-A-Lot is cleaner then then the chain grocery store. Produce is high quality, meats are fresh reasonable, customer service is wonderful and very helpful. I guess it depends on the owners and who they choose to hire, to run the store. Hire lazy people, your store is going to reflect that, vis versa.

Ours is in a bad part of town also so I don't go there much. My dh rather me go to aldis. But I do like it. A manager was shot there one time.:(

I haven't been to the one down here yet, but the one in Youngstown and the one in Cleveland that I went to I had no problems with. Some items weren't the best deal, but that's why we all know our best prices right:) I didn't feel that the products were any better or worse than anything else I get anywhere else. I think it's time for me to check out the one down here. It's also in a less than desirable area so I've put it off.

We have a new one in town that just opened recently. I have not been there but DH has a couple of times and he thought that the prices were good and he liked the store.

My husband thinks they are great.Me personally, the only thing I would really buy from there is canned goods.The one we have here doesn't seem very clean and the meat department smells "off". Of course my sense of smell might just be overly sensitive due to being pregnant.The kids say I am like a bloodhound LOL I dunno, I just don't like the place.
We have a Bottom Dollar ( offshoot of Food Lion) here now and it is always very clean .

Take Care,
Susan

We used to have one a couple of towns over and I would make a trip over there every 2-3 weeks and stock up. But unfortunately they closed down and the nearest Aldi's is in Asheville. Which is a little over an hour away. Oh and get this, we only have 2 different stores in our town. Actually we have 5 but Ingles has 3 of them and everytime something wants to come in it seems like something always happens and they pull out. We were suppose to get a super walmart their permits had been issued and all and then a couple of weeks ago the paper ran a story saying it had been put on hold indefinately. So I am very limited on where I can buy grocerys.

there is one about a half hour drive from me. I have only been in that one once, and was not impressed., I stopped to buy milk on my way home. A friend of mine lives near the store and doesnt shop there, she says it isnt very clean, and the prices are not that great. here in my part of massachusetts, a store called Demoula's/Marketbasket has the lowest prices on almost everything.

I too have been in several and my opinion has for the most part varied from store to store. I would have to say I don't go out of my way to make a trip to them though, like I do for Aldis, as I've seen more of thier stores that leave a negative opinion with me than a positive one. There was one close by where I lived several years ago that I frequented pretty routinely, but even there usually avoided the meat and producce.

I too have been in several and my opinion has for the most part varied from store to store. I would have to say I don't go out of my way to make a trip to them though, like I do for Aldis, as I've seen more of thier stores that leave a negative opinion with me than a positive one. There was one close by where I lived several years ago that I frequented pretty routinely, but even there usually avoided the meat and producce.

My husband thinks they are great.Me personally, the only thing I would really buy from there is canned goods.The one we have here doesn't seem very clean and the meat department smells "off". Of course my sense of smell might just be overly sensitive due to being pregnant.The kids say I am like a bloodhound LOL I dunno, I just don't like the place.


Then I must be a bloodhound too...LOL!!!

I have 3 Save-A-Lot stores in my town. The closest one I don't like shopping at all because the store smells like rotten meat. Plus the employees are rude. So I drive a little bit out of my way, but not too far, to shop at another Save-A-Lot. I usually make 1 trip to go to Save-A-Lot and the bread store -- it's my fav because they have a 39 cent table with most of the stuff I would buy anyway like english muffins, bagels, pitas, dinner rolls, wheat bread, donut holes and some treats and I buy 2-4 week's worth and freeze what I won't use right away.
I do most of my shopping at Aldi's because it's 3/4 a mile from home.

We do about 75% of our shopping at Save-A-Lot. The canned foods are less expensive, some fruits, dairy(big savings) and sometimes meats. We buy most of our meats on sale(usually Mondays) at Food Lion.

I believe this is the same store that was owned by the same company as Winn Dixie

Save-A-Lot is it's own company, not owned by anyone.

UKBB

Aldis is HORRIBLE. Dirty, stinky and falling apart. As where my Save-A-Lot is cleaner then then the chain grocery store.

Both Aldi & Save-A-Lot by me are nice stores. I stopped going to Aldi because the check out lines were horrible. At Save-A-Lot it's rare that there is more than 2 people in line ahead of me.

UKBB

I love our save a alot store and have gotten some great deals there. Once in awhile they will have name brands at very reasonable prices. The produce there is fresher looking than our walmart store and the store is cleaner looking!! I am not overly impressed with our walmart.

We used to go to one all the time, then we moved here and Aldis is closer.
We liked everything there pretty much..

I love our Save-A-Lot. The produce is really good and cheap!

Ours is great. The prices are wonderful but I'd stay away from anything refrigerated or frozen. When I plan meals it's usually around what they have.

We are now Save-A-Lot shoppers. At first my DH was reluctant, until we started saving ALOT on groceries. The one in our neighborhood is clean and very nice and never busy..we are in and out in know time. The Aldi's, however, is 1/2 mile away and I am not inpressed. It is so small and cramped.

Almost my entire town could be considered the bad part of town, so that's not a worry here. However, I would never buy the produce...except carrots or onions. Fruits is a DEFINATE no no!
Don't buy the meat either...our other two local grocers have a 5/19.99 deal for buying meats, where it's pretty much a buy 4 get the 5th package free.
I love sav-a-lot for my lazy days...(seven mos pregnant, so I'm starting to have quite a few of them!) most of the convience foods are decent in price.

The staff here is quiet, but not rude. And are more than willing to help when asked.

The place is not spotless (it's a warehouse-type deal) but the floors are always swept, shelves stocked, etc.

I have no complaints about the one in my area.

I love SAL. My hubby use to work on their meat scales and he always told me about how clean the back is and the work area in the meat department. I love almost everything they have at our SAL. You just have to watch prices because sometimes you can get things cheaper at Kroger when they are having a good sale.

Wow, don't listen to these responses!
This is the ONLY store I do all of my shopping! (well exept for a few name brand items)

All the can food is good and MUCH MUCH cheaper. All the fresh meat is good. I buy a Big beef roast every time and they cut it into steaks and roasts for free. I Get the store brand pop for partys and the kids even. I am picky about no name pop too.

The ice cream is good and the bread is like 80 cents a loaf. Geez I could go on and on, just chesk it out, it is soooo much cheaper and you won't even see the tast differance in alot. The produce is better than our local grocery store! REALLY check it out.

I love the Save-A-Lot in Brunswick, and always stop in and shop when I'm over there. It's clean, well stocked with fresh meats and vegetables. I would go there more often, but with the gas prices like they are, I do better driving 10 miles to Darien to shop the Pig and Dollar General than drive 25 miles to Brunswick.

We have one here and we've gone once and never went back. We just didn't like the look of the store, the selection and the staff. The prices were really comparable to Walmarts store brand and we KNOW how that brand stands for taste and everything. I actually prefer to buy my fruits and veggies from Kroger when we have the money.

I like the Save A Lot near me. I mostly get the canned foods, frozen foods, staples or even the dairy products. I buy the meat and fresh veggies/fruit sparingly though. If it looks good I will buy it.