Calgary Superstore for Super Deals

Calgary Superstore is Convenient

Calgary Superstore is my default choice for stocking the cupboard with groceries. There are lots of other choices competing to be your store of choice for your regular shopping but there are some factors that make each one better than some of the others. Because King Calgary lives near Westhills, the Superstore at Signal Hill is my most convenient location to pick up the majority of my regular purchases or specialty items that I don’t get elsewhere. Afterall, I can’t eat out at the best Calgary restaurants 7 nights a week can I? Here’s my quick opinion on why I shop here.

Calgary Costco is still a great deal for some specific items, especially those that you want to buy in bulk quantities. The Kirkland brand toilet paper for example consistently outranks all other deals on every other brand of toilet paper at all other stores according to the cheap experts at Redflagdeals. They break it down into price per square and price per square inch metrics and calculate all sorts of methods to arrive at the value, which always ends up with the Kirkland wipe being the best value and price around. So suffice to say when King Calgary is on the throne, the King wipes his royal ass with Kirkland tp. LOL. I hate to gamble on no-name TP, I will save taking that chance for the Deerfoot Casino.

There are a few other stores that have specific things that they are known for or rewards programs that can be gamed. Literally every grocery chain has some sort of loyalty rewards or points program in place or some sort of credit card partnership to replicate one. These points programs, other than the ones that are straight cashback rewards, all are fairly useless unless you understand how to maximize their returns and minimize any unnecessary or unrewarded spending, which is what the stores count on happening.

A couple of scenarios to demonstrate what I mean are like this. Shoppers Drug Mart, which is always more expensive for almost everything, has Optimum rewards points which when collected on bonus points days and deals add up quickly (about 30% rewards), which when combined with redeeming them on bonus redemption days (up to 50% bonus), compounds into a new 45% discount or something close. If you use this bonus to purchase items which are on sale or are competitively prices you come out ahead. For example, I regularly buy PC brand Sirloin Meatballs for about $9/kg there this way.

In Calgary, the big players in the grocery business are Superstore, Safeway, Sobeys, Save on Foods, No Frills, Costco, Walmart, and Co-op. Despite there being so many, several of them have the same ownership, thus the same brands of products and usually price matching policies or shared advertising and pricing. Perhaps like me, your favorite Calgary store will be dictated by location more than any other factor.

My Calgary shopping habits looks like this: Once every week or two to Costco to stock up on items I buy in bulk (pickles, rice, chicken breasts, almost milk, frozen fruit) and an unintentional couple hundred dollars of whatever random unique deals they have that week, plus fill up with fuel at the Costco Gas bar. About once a week to Shoppers Drug Mart to earn bonus Optimum points on some reward offer (sirloin meatballs, angus burgers, bacon, cheese). Once a week to Superstore for fruit, bakery and produce, basically things I want to buy fresh and eat that week.

Do you do your Calgary grocery shopping at multiple stores? I estimate that my overall grocery shopping bill is at least 30% less through my planned shopping strategy, not to mention all the impulse items I would end up with if I didn’t shop with a plan. Is it possible to do it all at one store? Is it worthwhile to do it any particular way or what is your strategy? What do you think Calgary? How do you save money?

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