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Walmart, Whole Foods, Sam’s Club, and Costco
From Priceonomics
, a survey on where people spend their grocery money and how much cash they drop doing it:
Our curiosity about grocery shopping bills inspired us to analyze data on the the typical amount spent at the most popular stores in the United States. For this analysis, we used data from Perfect Price, a company that maintains a database of billions of credit card transactions. This data allowed us to understand exactly how much people spend when they go to different stores.
What they discovered is that people spend the most at Costco, followed closely by Sam’s Club. This makes sense, I guess: when you go to those places you’re there to shop. Everything is giant-sized and stacked on pallets. People spend, on average, $136 per Costco visit and $81 at Sam’s Club.
But it gets interesting when they start comparing two very different stores, Walmart and Whole Foods:
The distribution of spending at Whole Foods and Walmart — stores that are diametrically opposed in the cultural imagination — are actually quite similar in terms of the distribution of spend. Slightly more people spend less than $25 on a trip to Whole Foods, and slightly more spend between $25-$100 at Walmart, but overall, the distribution of how much people spend on trips to these stores are remarkably alike.
Of course, for the same amount you probably get a lot more in your cart at Walmart than you do at Whole Foods. But this still surprises me a bit. I’d have expected Whole Foods shoppers to spend a lot more than Walmart shoppers per visit. What am I missing?
Published in Culture
I agree that the frequency of trips (less often at Walmart than at Whole Foods) and the nature of the shopping itself (more bulk staples at Walmart than at Whole Foods) explain much of the similarity despite WF’s higher prices. Some part of it must be family size, as well.
I suspect that if the U.S. population comprised only Whole Foods shoppers (shudder), the country’s fertility rate would be below the replacement level; if it comprised only Walmart shoppers, the rate would be above replacement.
In my area, the real freak show is at Trader Joe’s. What a motley crew of shoppers that is!
Ignore these people.
Humans have gut instincts about how much is about right.
Take car safety, for instance. People are willing to accept X amount of risk of death and they drive at about the speed and wildness that equals that risk. Add airbags and seatbelts, etc and people just drive faster and wilder to get back to that risk level.
Similar thing here. People feel ok spending X per month on groceries but they’ll just allocate differently at different stores.
Um, might we be indulging in a bit of prejudice here? I shop at both Target and Whole Foods. I find the people who work at WF for the most part friendly and down to earth (and some can be seen in the alley behind the store catching a quick smoke while on break! [with organic American Spirit cigarettes, no doubt]). Yes, the ‘Third Worldy’ Let’s Save the Planet promotions can get a bit much but they are just as easy to ignore as the trashy tabloids on display at Target.
Of course you would pig out. Look at you!
Me too. They’re right across the street from each other.
(By me too I mean my wife because shopping is women’s work.)
Some of the smaller isolated markets are beginning to catch on. When I moved to Bigfork over 13 years ago, we had one small supermarket of mediocre quality. Today it competes with Wal-Marts and Whole Foods. It always has sales, an organic veggie section, and local produce, a gluten free section, bulk bins for grains and nuts, a beautiful cheese and wine area, etc. Our Costco and WM are about 30 miles away, so not worth the price of gas to get there when so much can be had for the same or smaller price at our local store, which is a Harvest Foods. I’m picky about brands, so occasionally shop Costco, about every 3 or 4 months to stock canned goods for items I use a lot of, as it is difficult for me to get out often to shop. At the local market for just myself I spend about $200 a month, Costco about $200 every 3 or 4 months.
Oh, just having a little fun. BTW, South Park had several great episodes this season about bringing Whole Foods to South Park, once they had proved themselves worthy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1F34XOE-KTA
Yes, of course! I can tell you from personal experience that the fast moving express line at Rob’s local Whole Foods in Venice is almost within reach of the mochi/gelato counter; not far from the $11.95 sushi; and don’t forget to grab the $5.00 bottle of coconut water on your way out to lunch on the patio.
It’s a great Whole Foods, a favorite of libertarian WFM co-CEO John Mackey. The parking lot adjacent patio showcases the bohemian diversity of Venice, while doubling as a kind of unofficial Prius showroom. The sandals of aging, unreconstructed hippies get licked by the French Bulldogs of the Silicon Beach elite. On Thursday culinary artists line up, cutlery in hand, for Gary the Knife Sharpener to the stars, husband of the talented Mrs. Gary of YouTube sitcom fame.
All this, for less than the price of an average visit to Walmart.
My experience is that folks in Whole foods are usually single hipsters or young hipster families without kids shopping merely for props to have in their fridge when guests come over and need to grab a Pabst. “Hey, if you want a brewski, they’re in the fridge between the arugula and bok choy.” Hipsters never cook. They go out to foodie joints and brag about new places constantly with strange new dishes when really they are just too lazy to cook for themselves.
Walmart folks are real families who are looking to buy food for their families to you know, feed themselves.
That survey might be of some use to those trying to analyze stocks, but not much relevance to day-to-day. Looks like most people aren’t really brand loyal to a store (well, maybe WF hipsters), but instead construct an ecology of sources that fit their wants and budgets. Our flavor, in S/W Idaho:
Winco – local employee owned chain. Good prices on basics, my wife hits it twice a week.
Trader Joe’s – a half hour drive, we hit it together once a month for specialties and impulse buys
Albertson’s – local chain with somewhat higher quality but much higher prices than Winco. My wife hits it once a month on seniors’ discount day.
Rosauer’s – a local Whole Foods equivalent. Hit occasionally by both of us for hard to find ingredients or indulgences.
The interesting thing is that we were loyal Costco members when we moved here from CA. But the combination of Winco and Amazon Prime meant we no longer were willing to spend half an hour each way and battle the crowd, so dropped the membership this year.
There is no Whole Foods where I live, but we do have Central Market. I go there for only 3 reasons: pizza, some days I just want to be in line between expensive perfume and hippy odor, and the challenge of not getting run over by hybrid cars is just fun. Ok, I go for the pizza. (And it’s the only place I can get barley flour.)
I once thought to stop there rather than the Walmart that is a 1/4 mile away, but there’s simply no way I’ll ever pay $2.50 for a can of Spaghetti O’s. I’ll express my moral vanity another way.
I would be super interested in how EBT $ are spent and where. I’ll try to find some research (surely that is recorded somewhere).
Evidently I can’t even get within 50 miles of this crap…
Is it just me, or are Central Market workers slightly friendlier and less judgmental than WF employees?
Expensive rabbit food. Arugula is overrated.
The workers are friendly, but I’ve never been into a WF on principle. It’s more the customers I detest at CM.
Costco is my personal favorite, but you have to filter what you buy there carefully. Best idea for a quick dinner to eat at home; the rotisserie chicken, minimum 3 lbs for $4.99. Trust me, you gentlemen will get bonus husband points from the Mrs.
My wife works for a prominent super market chain in southeast Wisconsin and Chicago. We’re not allowed to shop anywhere else. My sister in-law once returned some tupperware in a Meijer bag and got an earful.
Walmart shoppers tend to buy for a family. They are looking for low prices and stocking up. Whole Foods shoppers are getting far less for their money, but they don’t care because they think their better than you. I shop at Aldi (didn’t make the list) a lot. They are cheaper than Walmart, but their produce is much better. I don’t care what the Whole Foods shoppers think of me.
Huh, my experiences with Walmart-vs-Aldi produce have tended toward the opposite. But then, one of the Walmarts I’ve frequented the most often did surprise me with its produce quality (and variety).
(Aldi’s vacuum-packed frozen meat and fish, on the other hand, seems an excellent value – very cheap and much better than buying the same stuff unfrozen at regular grocery stores.)
As long as we’re name-dropping supermarkets, I’m going to mention Wegmans, the best damn supermarket anywhere, ever. Ask anyone who shops there or even works there (often makes the list of best places to work).
Evidently they read Kevin Williamson. They think you can get a U-Haul and change location.
Get the Zweigles hot dogs. They will change your life.
Within 10 blocks, we have a Costco, a Winco, and a Safeway. We shop at all three, for different things. Winco’s in-store bakery makes excellent bagels. We buy all our paper products, paper towels, toilet paper (3 bathrooms), napkins, and kitty litter at Costco. I buy all my gas there too, cheapest in town. I read today that when they roll out the new Visa Costco credit card, the rebate on gas will be 4%! There’s just the two of us, so we tend to shop like the hipsters.
Why would you expect that? I would expect people on average to spend more at Walmart. Walmart has many other departments that are not food related. I can see adding clothing and home products and garden utensils and whatever into you Walmart wagon that are products not available at Whole Foods. [As a side note, we don’t have Whole Food stores around my area. I assume it’s like Shoprite or any other food supermarket.]
Maybe you have an exceptionally good Walmart and I have an exceptionally good Aldi. I’m going to continue scanning both sale papers for the best prices because I like to eat well for less.
Ditto for every comment on Whole Foods. We do most of our shopping at the commissary then replace perishables at the local stores….Bi-Lo for quick trips to a smaller store with all the essentials or Publix for better variety of deli and specialty items. Publix is a great chain but a bigger store with a bigger parking lot to deal with. I mostly avoid Walmart unless I am shopping for food and other items…and am passing by. Went to Whole Foods once. It was fun to look around for unique items. I bought raclette cheese there. We go to Sam’s only once or twice a year since it is 30 minutes away and we don’t need bulk items for the two of us. Gas is the best purchase there for us.