British Columbia, Cooking, Finances, Homemaking, Personal, Shopping, Travel 
8 Comments Adopting a New Grocery Chain
One of the things I found very difficult in my cross-country RV journey was figuring out which grocery stores to frequent. Grocery prices out here are a lot higher than they were in Gatineau/Ottawa and every grocery store I visited left me feeling rather ill with sticker shock. I learned very quickly that Safeway, a major chain out west, is the worst price offender and I now avoid it at all costs.
Oliver had two supermarkets, Supervalu which was neither super nor offered any value for the dollar, and Buy-Low, a discount store with decent prices (for a small town), if poor selection. It was in my infrequent trips to Penticton that I discovered Save-on-Foods. Their prices were also very high, but if you join their (free) discount club and shop wisely, you can get very, very good deals. Since I moved to south Surrey, I’ve been alternating between the nearest S-o-F and the Super Walmart, which has a huge grocery section. Walmart is the place to go to get basic groceries, but it’s at Save-on-Foods that I find the little luxury items that make grocery shopping so much fun:
Two of my favourite food groups in one (Guinness cheddar!!!)
On a recent shopping trip, the cashier took a moment to better explain the rewards program to me and let me know that there is a scanner near the door that prints out personalized coupons. The more you use your card and shop at Save-on-Foods, the better the coupon selector becomes at offering you bonuses you will use. Today, I got a handful of coupons for products I buy almost every week and which were on sale, offering me a double discount!
I like that the discount card can be used at other businesses, like Chevron gas.
Some RVers have written in their own blogs that one of the things they dislike about RVing is having to relearn how to grocery shop at every new town, but I find that half the fun of traveling is scoping out the local grocery store for products you don’t have ‘back home.’
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Rae, regarding the sponsors on your site. If those of us who read you on a regular basis click on the sites, do you get any kind of monetary reward? I try to remember to click on one, but I’m not sure that it does you any good. Could you explain, again, how it works. Thanks.
I guess what I’m asking is if I go to a sponsor’s site, but don’t buy anything or give any information, is there a way they can tell that the visitor was linked from your site.
Jacque, clicking on Google ads gives me income with no further action needed on the part of my guest.
For the other sponsors, I get a commission for purchases made through the link from my site.
Thanks for asking!
In Alberta on the first Tuesday of the month Save On Foods also give 15% off your groceries if they are over $50. I’m not sure if this applies in BC. Just thought I’d mention it in case you are ever back in Alberta. They had really great sales today, combined with the 15% was awesome!
I’m going to look into that to see if it applies to BC! Thanks for the tip!
(When I first read your comment, I misunderstood that this applied to those 50+ years old and went ‘How old does she think I am?!’ LOL!!! :D)
[…] but I did get to explore a little bit of Campbell River and find all the important businesses, like Save-on-Foods, the CIBC, Shopper’s Drugmart, Zellers, and Canadian Tire. I also handed out resumés to […]
[…] first instinct was to go to my favourite western chain, Save-On-Foods, but it is definitely pricey compared to other options. Being on a super tight budget, I decided to […]
[…] Safeway since my experience with the chain in BC was that it was much more expensive than Save-on-Foods. But there’s one located right near home and it just made sense to go there. I got the […]