[angela2678]

My favorite discount/no-frills grocery store is Bottom Dollar (part of the Bloom/Food Lion chain of stores). Before I started couponing, it was my primary store.

For most items, the Bottom Dollar price is the absolute rock-bottom you'll find in the area. They do accept coupons, but they don't double/triple. So I don't shop there for most name-brand items, because if I have a coupon I'd rather get it doubled/tripled at Shoppers' or Giant. But for 1) generic items (sold under the Food Lion label), 2) brand-name items that rarely have coupons, or 3) items I need immediately because I've run out, Bottom Dollar is unbeatable.

Here are a few examples:

Graham crackers are $1.64/box every day; the generics everywhere else are more than $3.

Lactose-free milk is $2.98/half-gallon every day; everywhere else it's at least $3.38.

Skinless/boneless chicken breasts, sold frozen in a 3-pound bag: $4.98 on sale (and they're very good quality). They're individually flash-frozen, so you don't have to break the pack down into smaller bags or anything--you can just pull out however many you need for the meal. And they're already cleaned/trimmed. For me, it's a lot easier than buying those huge"big buy" packs of fresh ones at other stores).

Toaster pastries $1.87/12-pack every day

Prego pasta sauce $1.98/24-ounce jar every day

Bananas $0.41/pound every day (everyone else is at least $0.58/pound)

Clementines $5.99/crate (everyone else typically $8.99)

Kraft Mac & Cheese $0.50/box on sale (everyone else roughly $1/box)

Mrs. Edwards' frozen whole pies $2.50/each on sale (with the $2 Q, almost free--other stores have them on sale at $5 each)

Lean Cuisine meals $2.47 every day (more than $3 everywhere else)


You will have to bag/box your own groceries, and they don't provide plastic bags (you can purchase them if you need to). They do have huge bins of free boxes, though. For me that's good, because I sell a lot on eBay and need boxes all the time. When I'm packing up my groceries, I purposely choose several small boxes instead of the larger ones; then I "recycle" them by using them for eBay shipments.

You'll get Catalinas, too. When I was still buying a lot of baby food for my youngest, the register would give me coupons like $3/$15 baby purchase.

Now, for the exceptions: I don't buy fresh meat at Bottom Dollar, because I've had some bad experiences (the meat looked fine at the store, but when I opened it there was a terrible odor and it clearly had gone bad). You also have to be careful with the produce, because it sometimes is very close to going bad. Occasionally I've seen produce that is very, very ripe--you just know it will go bad before you can eat it. So check produce carefully before buying.

No, you won't buy everything there. But who out there using coupons only goes to one store?! Overall, it's a great store--absolutely worthy of being added to your repertoire. Hope this info helps!