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Expensive supermarkets: the hidden cost of travelling in America
Anyone who does their shopping in the United States for the first time gets a shock at the checkout.
Not only because the prices are higher than expected, but also because the price on the rack is rarely the price you end up paying. After all, sales tax is only added to many products at the checkout.
During this trip we noticed how expensive food has become.
American grocery prices: a little hard to swallow.
Our impression was that groceries in the United States have become considerably more expensive.
Fresh vegetables, fruit, meat and fish in particular often cost one and a half times as much as we are used to in Belgium.
As a result, a shopping cart for two to three days quickly reached eighty dollars and more.
These high prices do not only affect tourists. Americans themselves also complain about it.
In conversations we overheard in hotels, restaurants and on the road, the rising cost of living was constantly discussed.
You hear the same concern on television. Food has become considerably more expensive in recent years and many families feel this every week when they go shopping.
Some notable things about American supermarkets:
1. Not all groceries are taxed. That differs per state.
- California: Bread, vegetables, fruits, milk, and meat are not normally taxed. Ready meals, hot snacks, soft drinks and all kinds of non-food products are.
- Arizona: Again, regular food is usually tax-exempt, although local differences may exist.
- Nevada: basic nutrition is usually exempt from sales tax.
- Utah: an exception. There you also pay tax on groceries, albeit at a reduced rate of about 3%.
This explains why the tax on your receipt sometimes seems high and sometimes barely visible.
2. Walmart is usually the cheapest
During a road trip you will come across all kinds of chains, but in terms of price, these are approximately the categories:
Cheap
- Walmart
- WinCo Foods
- Grocery Outlet
Middle class
- Safeway
- Smith’s
- Kroger
- Albertsons
Expensive
- Whole Foods
- Sprouts
- Natural Grocers
In Moab you have the supermarket with the most beautiful offer we have come across, City Market.
It was a pleasure to shop there, but it was also very busy, unlike all the other supermarkets where we actually saw quite few people during the trip.
Many Americans combine different stores: Walmart for the basic products, another supermarket for meat or fresh vegetables.
3. The choice is absurdly large
Not one type of cereals, but a full aisle. Not three types of cheese or yogurt, but thirty.
Sometimes you spend longer choosing between twenty variants of the same product than you actually do your shopping.
You can only find fine meats sparingly. On the other hand, the racks are full of burgers and sausages. Meat has a different taste than we are used to in Europe. And honestly? I don’t particularly like it.
4. Many supermarkets sell almost everything
You go in for milk and come along:
- a pharmacy;
- an eyewear store;
- an ATM;
- a flower department;
- a clothing department;
- camping equipment;
- fishing equipment;
- garden items.
Walmart, in particular, sometimes looks more like a small village than a grocery store.
A tip for campers:
Walmart also has an extensive range of camping equipment.
Unfortunately, you cannot place an order from Europe to pick it up later in a store, but you can check in advance whether a certain item is in stock in the store you pass on the way.
We bought an Ozark Trail camping stove with the accompanying gas canisters. Not a high-tech miracle, but it did what it was supposed to do without any problems.
We had brought the cooking pan and eating utensils from home.
In addition, we purchased a large ice chest and a small Styrofoam cooler. The latter broke down after just one day. Completely rubbish.
Moreover, such Styrofoam coolers do not seal properly, so they do not keep their contents cool for as long as you would expect.
If you can, invest in a pair of sturdy water bags as well. This way you always have a reserve of water at hand to wash dishes or give you a quick freshen-upon the go.
That may sound trivial, but having water at hand turned out to be surprisingly useful.
You don’t really need much more if you drive through America by car and spend the night in motels/hotels.
Even that camping stove wouldn’t have been necessary, but it’s nice to be able to stop somewhere in a park and make a cup of coffee or heat up a can of soup.
5. Self-checkouts are everywhere
In many stores, there are hardly any classic cash registers. You scan everything yourself, put it in bags and pay without ever speaking to an employee. So it’s best to bring your own bags.
But you can always call a cashier. They also fill the bags.
Our favorite supermarket?
Safeway turned out to be the most convenient choice for us on the road. Available almost everywhere, long opening hours, a wide range and great offers and discounts if you have a membership card.
Tip: be sure to apply for that card before you travel. It really makes a difference.
The only things that seem cheap in America are gasoline (1 Euro per liter) and ice cubes (3 dollars for a bag and free in the motels and hotels). For everything else, you’d better be prepared to dig deeper into your wallet in America these days.
Emma
But enough about the practicality. What really struck us the most during this trip?
One of those impressions had everything to do with the people we met along the way. Discover our next story