By Kathy Chouteau
It’s no secret that community members have been feeling inflation’s pinch on the rising cost-of-living, with one of the most evident being grocery store shopping.
The good news? A little island of oasis is right under our Richmond noses, according to a recent evaluation by a team of San Francisco Chronicle reporters. Determined to identify the most affordable groceries in the city, the paper reported it sent a team of reporters to 12 different stores to purchase the same nine common grocery items and record the prices.
The grocery items the reporters collected at each store included 12 ounces of strawberry jelly, 1 pound of ground beef, 1 pound of spaghetti pasta, a dozen eggs, 3 avocados, 10 ounces of soy sauce, a loaf of white bread, haklf a gallon of milk and 1 pound of yellow onions.
The end result? “We found that Grocery Outlet Bargain Market was the least expensive, with the total cost coming out to less than half of the total…[of] the most expensive store,” according to the paper.
The collection of grocery items at Grocery Outlet cost of total of $24, as compared to the most expensive store in San Francisco, which was Bi-Rite at $57. In terms of stores in the vicinity of Richmond, Lucky came in second cheapest at $31, while Whole Foods and Andronico’s were $36 each, Trader Joe’s was $38 and Safeway $42.
So while Richmond residents often share their frustrations online about not having ample large grocery stores, at least there’s one nearby that can help alleviate some of the pain of inflation’s pinch.
Grocery Outlet can be found at 12010 San Pablo Ave. in Richmond. Delivery is available via DoorDash, Instacart and Uber Eats. Learn more here.
